The Prodigal Son: The Lost Son & The Compassionate Father
In Luke 15, we find Jesus telling a variety of parables with a common theme. First, the Lost Sheep, then the Lost Coin, and finally, the Lost or Prodigal Son. Jesus is hitting home a truth about God’s unconditional and passionate love for the lost and the hard hearts of the Pharisees listening. Jesus’ story goes like this:
Luke 15:11-12 | To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.”
Just a few days later, the younger son packs up everything and moves far away. After living in sin, squandering all his money, and hitting rock bottom, the son takes a job feeding pigs. The Bible says-
Luke 15:16a | The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him.
The son finally comes to his senses and decides to plead with his father.
Luke 15:18-19 | I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
But in Jesus’ story, the Father sees the son while he’s still a long way off. In that moment, he’s not worried about how the son sinned against him or the money he’s lost. Instead, he’s filled with love and compassion, or the desire to do what he can to lessen the son’s suffering.
Luke 15:21 | His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
Without missing a beat-
Luke 15:22-24 | “…his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
After Jesus’ other parables about the Lost sheep and the Lost coin, we know the son in this story— the one who is lost— is actually us— the sinner in need of a Savior. The Father in the story is God. We, like the younger son, don’t realize God’s goodness and decide to run our own way. When we are far away in muck of our sin, the enemy tries to convince us that we’re not worthy to go to God. But our Heavenly Father, just like the father of the lost son, is waiting for us to choose Him.
Isaiah 30:18 | So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion.
Another version says, the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Just like the father in this story, the Father is filled with love and compassion when He sees us crushed by sin or separated from Him. So don’t wait. Run straight to the arms of the Father. He is waiting for you to choose Him.
Why did the lost son feel “unworthy” or not good enough to be his father’s son?
How did the son expect his father to react to the son’s sin and bad choices?
What is the father’s reaction to his sinful son?
Why does the father respond this way? How do you think this made the son feel?
How are we like the son in this story?
What does the father’s reaction show us about our Heavenly Father?