LANSING – In Luke 15 we encounter a scene where the Pharisees and scribes complain of Jesus’ association with tax collectors and sinners (15:1–2). Jesus having already encountered this criticism (5:27–32 Matt 9:11; Mark 2:16), uses three parables to serve both as a defense of His ministry to sinners, and as an appeal to the Pharisees and scribes to join the celebration of all who gain entrance into the kingdom of God. While the three parables are connected by a similar theme (the joy of the lost being found), the third one, ‘The Prodigal Son’ usually grabs the bulk of our attention. But why?
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Jesus starts this parable off with the statement, “A man had two sons,” immediately after his introduction and without any real explanation of why, he says, the younger son came to his father requesting his inheritance. A father’s inheritance was something he passed on to his children upon his death. Thus, the younger son’s request for his inheritance could be seen as equivalent to saying to his father, “I wish you were dead!” Since it would seem harsh for a son to wish for his father's death (especially in the case of a father who is loving and very caring to his children), it is probably more than likely that the son intended to communicate his desire to no longer be under His father’s authority.
More astonishing than the son’s request is the father’s response as without hesitation he honors his son’s request. The father figures out what his inheritance would have been if he were dead and then the father gives his sons’ (both) their inheritance (v. 12).
Upon receiving his inheritance, soon after the younger son packed up all his belongings and decided that it was best for him to venture out on his own into a distant country. But why would a good or loving father let his son go, knowing that his son would no longer be in his presence or underneath his protection? Simple, because a loving father loves you enough to let you leave.
When things don’t go well for the youngest son, as they often don’t when we venture away from the presence and protection of a loving father, he returns. Yet, when his son returns the father does not reject his son. In fact, the reaction of the father when his son returns, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him v. 20). At the first sight of his son, without his son having to say a word, the father knows, the world and its pleasures will tear young people apart, and his son has not been exempt.
To relieve him of the world and its cruelty, the father’s compassion is communicated to his son as he not only welcomes him home with compassion, but follows it with a celebration. Why? Because a loving father not only loves you enough to let you leave, but he also loves you enough to let you return.
As we shift our focus from the younger to the elder son, we see him at work, somewhere on the property of his father. As the elder boy is coming in from the field, he hears celebration. Puzzled, he sought information from one of the servants. The servant informs him of his younger brother's return, and the celebration in his honor.
The older brother becomes angry (v. 28) and even refuses to join the party. Not sure why this is a problem, even the father seems perplexed once he learns that his older son is not coming in. So, the father goes out, and pleads with his son to come in and join the celebration. Suddenly, in a moment of overwhelming emotion the older son expresses his objections to his father’s actions, for he feels overlooked, even under appreciated by his father.
Now to the older son’s credit, he did not remove himself from his father’s presence or protection even though he had been given his father’s provision (v. 12). However, he illuminates his own self-righteousness and then further tries to validate his anger by telling his father what he had never done for him, “you never even gave me a young goat…”
But his father with sadness written all over his face, compassion gripping his heart, opens his hands stretching his arms towards his son and says, “all that I have belongs to you.” Thus, the father further demonstrates the same love to his eldest son as he has to his younger. However, the father needs his oldest son to know that he loves them both equally, regardless of their recent decisions for his presence, his protection and/or provisions for them.
Furthermore, the father will not dismantle the party already in progress even if it means losing his oldest son. Why? Because the father has already made his choice, for a loving father chooses both of his sons and what belongs to him belongs to them. But why? Because ultimately a loving father loves you enough to let you reject him or return, but he also loves you enough to let you choose.
This Father’s Day will you choose to accept the love and compassion of a loving Heavenly Father choosing to accept His presence, protection, and provision over your life? Dads, this Father’s Day, will you and I choose to look like the good and loving Father that our God is as we seek to love our children, all of them, unconditionally whether they remain in our presence, protection, and provision? And Fathers, will we be wise and loving enough as good dads, to let our children choose? God Bless you men and Happy Father’s Day!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pastor Coye L. Bouyer is the founding pastor of Kingdom Life Church in Lansing, MI where he has served since March of 2010. Pastor Bouyer firmly believes that he was not only called to Preach the Gospel as part of the process of reconciliation of man to God, but also using any platform as a bridge of reconciliation of man to man, and even more so amongst the brethren. Pastor Bouyer and his lovely wife Keturah (Gen. 25:1) have been married four over 20 years and have four children; Sierra, Seth, Cayla and Coye II.
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