Luke 15

This is a post I put on a different sight a couple of months ago that I decided to go ahead and post here. Enjoy!

Jesus tells three parables:

The Parable of the Shepherd and the lost sheep

The Parable of a woman and her lost coin

The Parable of the lost son (The Prodigal Son)

Luke begins this chapter by setting the scene. We are told that both Pharisees (teachers of the law) and those whom the Pharisees consider “sinners” are gathered to hear Jesus teach. Luke tells us that the Pharisees muttered about Jesus’ tendency to hang around and show constant attention to such people. Hearing their talk, Jesus proceeds to tell 3 parables.

All three parables have a similar structure and theme: all are meant to show God’s amazing and unlimited grace. Furthermore these parables paint a picture of God that we might not have seen before, or at least not quite in this light.

All three parables share stories of someone finding someone or something whether sheep, coin, or son. All seek to convey joy at the finding. What we might not expect though is that these parables intend to show the joy of the finder and do not focus quite so clearly on the found.

Obviously one meaning of these parables is the obvious rejoicing that comes when a person is saved by coming to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior; that only through his death and resurrection can they inherit eternal life and that they must put their faith in him. The first two parables almost identically convey the rejoicing of all in heaven. The third parable is where the finding becomes much more personal and all the more amazing.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son casts the father as God and the prodigal son as each and every sinner who comes to Christ. Several striking things happen in this parable. First of all, the son demands his inheritance from his father, which as I recently learned, in Jesus’ culture was the equivalent of saying “I wish you were dead.” Next comes the familiar part where the son leaves and squanders that inheritance which he wasn’t supposed to have received yet in the first place. The love of the father is clearly present in the beginning or else he wouldn’t have ever granted the son his wish in the first place.

The new view of God that I have gained from this chapter comes after. The son, with all his wealth gone, realizes that in his current state even his father’s servants eat better than he does. So he decides to return and ask his father for forgiveness and to allow him to become like one of his servants.

Luke tells us that the father saw the son “while he was still a long way off” which clearly means that he was watching and waiting for his son to return. Hoping seemingly against all hope that he might catch the first glimpse of him and when he actually does see him he “[is] filled with compassion.”
Next we are told that he “ran to his son” which as I have recently learned would be highly unusual for a man in the obviously dignified position as that held by this father. In our world we might expect for a father whose son has just squandered his entire inheritance to punish or possibly even disown him. But this is God we’re talking about and he doesn’t abide by our rules or expectations, instead even while the son is pleading for forgiveness the father is busy ordering for a banquet to be prepared, “fattened calf” and all, and that his son be clothed in the best robe.

What these parables show me is a picture of a God who is heartsick, waiting on the edge of his toes to catch a glimpse of our return to him. This is the Grace of God: searching for his one lost sheep until he finds it, seeking for one rogue coin, gazing at the horizon until that one son reappears, never giving up. By this we know that know matter what we do we can always come back to that heartsick father with his arms open wide.

Grace means that there is nothing we can DO to make God love us more.
Grace means that there is nothing we can DO to make God love us less.

Because of this we as believers should always strive to imitate our loving father, showing his grace to all the world through everything we do.