Luke 15:11-32, you are always with me. The greatest gift was not the robe or the ring or the feast, the greatest gift was the father’s presence and both sons missed it. Consider this, right now, not theoretically, practically, if God took away the answer to your biggest prayer, the promotion, the healing, the relationship, the breakthrough you have been begging for, would you still want him? If God said, I will not give you what you are asking for, but I will give you more of me, would that be enough or would you walk away? Your answer to that question tells you which son you are.
The younger brother wanted the father’s money, the older brother wanted the father’s rewards and both of them missed the only thing the father actually wanted to give, himself. The tragedy of this parable is not that the sons sinned, it is that the father was standing right there, generous, loving, available and neither son could see him. They could see his wealth, they could see his property, they could see his cattle and his robes and his rings, but they could not see him, can you?
There’s something else hidden in this parable that connects it to the rest of scripture in a way that is almost unbearable in its beauty, the father gave the younger son his share of the estate. In Jewish law, the older son received two-thirds, the younger son received one-third, so when the father divided his property, he was giving away his livelihood, his security, his future and he gave it freely, knowing it would be wasted.
Now, think about what happened when the son came home, the father put his own robe on the son’s shoulders, he put his own ring on the son’s finger, he killed the fattened calf, the animal reserved for the most important occasions, the father was not just restoring the son, he was spending himself on the son, he was pouring out everything he had again on someone who had already wasted everything he had been given the first time.
This is not just a story about human fathers, this is a story about a God who sent his son to a distant country, a world that had taken everything he had given and squandered it and that son took on the filth and the shame and the pigsty of your choices and was killed like the fattened calf, so that you could come home wearing his robe, bearing his ring, sitting at his table.
The younger brother wanted the father’s money, the older brother wanted the father’s rewards and both of them missed the only thing the father actually wanted to give, himself. The tragedy of this parable is not that the sons sinned, it is that the father was standing right there, generous, loving, available and neither son could see him. They could see his wealth, they could see his property, they could see his cattle and his robes and his rings, but they could not see him, can you?
There’s something else hidden in this parable that connects it to the rest of scripture in a way that is almost unbearable in its beauty, the father gave the younger son his share of the estate. In Jewish law, the older son received two-thirds, the younger son received one-third, so when the father divided his property, he was giving away his livelihood, his security, his future and he gave it freely, knowing it would be wasted.
Now, think about what happened when the son came home, the father put his own robe on the son’s shoulders, he put his own ring on the son’s finger, he killed the fattened calf, the animal reserved for the most important occasions, the father was not just restoring the son, he was spending himself on the son, he was pouring out everything he had again on someone who had already wasted everything he had been given the first time.
This is not just a story about human fathers, this is a story about a God who sent his son to a distant country, a world that had taken everything he had given and squandered it and that son took on the filth and the shame and the pigsty of your choices and was killed like the fattened calf, so that you could come home wearing his robe, bearing his ring, sitting at his table.
