(Based on a sermon preached 10-22-2023 at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO; not an exact transcription. Full disclosure: many sermons have been preached on this text and any overlap is accidental and not intentional. I have not knowingly used anyone else’s words in this message without attempting to give credit where due.)
Introduction: The University of Missouri had their homecoming celebration yesterday! Some of our members were there yesterday and, as I understand, there was quite a crowd there, right? (Affirmative response from one of the members!) Now, with this in mind, I felt led to speak about the Prodigal Son and his own homecoming. The text comes from Luke 15, beginning at verse 11:
Text, Luke 15:11-24, KJV: 11 And He said, “A certain man had two sons; 12 and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ And he divided his wealth between them.
13 "And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living 14 Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he was longing to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him.
17 “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’
20 “And he got up and came to his father. 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. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; 23 and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ And they began to be merry.”
1 The home the son had left
Jesus began this story by telling two other parables. The first one He told dealt with a shepherd who lost one of his 100 sheep. This shepherd, as the Lord related, wasn’t content to settle for the 99 he still had; he went as far as he had to in order to find that last, lost sheep. I have to confess that I don’t know much about sheep; in fact, I’ve never been in “touching” distance of a sheep! The closest I ever came was at the State Fair where I’ve seen, heard, and smelled things which I hope to never experience again! This was especially true when I did come close enough to actually touch a sheep—but I never did.
What was funny, to me, at least was that the sheep’s owner was about the age of a high school junior or senior and said, with a bit of a wry smile, that his sheep was a “pet”.
Uh huh. Sure, he was.
“Sheepie” seemed to have other ideas when it came time to walk up a kind of ramp in order to get a wool haircut or fleece job. Nothing doing, so the lad applied his shoulder to the back of the sheep’s hind leg and got “Sheepie” to get up where he (I guess) was supposed to go.
Well, the shepherd found his lost sheep, carried it on his shoulders (as if to say, “You’re staying with me, wolf bait!”) and rejoiced with his friends because he found his lost sheep.
Then, Jesus gave a somewhat briefer parable about a woman who lost a silver coin. According to Strong’s concordance, this coin was a “drachma” which had varying amount of value—but to lose one of ten was bad. She lit a lamp, and swept the floor until she found the coin! She was so happy that she called her friends to rejoice with her after she found the coin.
Now that the Lord had set the stage, He went on to tell one of the most beautiful stories ever, if not one of the most moving. He told how a certain young man decided he was tired of the routine at home and wanted to leave.
And, oh by the way, he wanted his inheritance.
Right now. Before his father had died.
In that culture, true, a son could ask for his share of the inheritance, while the father was living, but according to Dr. John MacArthur’s “Grace to You” radio series and others, this meant the boy was saying to his father, “you are dead to me and I am dead to you”.
And, as the Lord continued, a few days later, the lad left his home and went off on a journey to a distant country. The Lord didn’t specify which country this was—after all, most of the known world was under Roman rule at this time—but it probably didn’t matter to the prodigal son.
He had left his home, he had plenty of money, and he had anywhere to go he wanted to.
What could go wrong, you might ask?
Plenty, and we’ll get a glimpse of this in a moment!
2 The home (!) he wound up in
The late Dr. Walter Staten, founder and president of Tri-State Bible College in South Point, Ohio, once remarked in a college class part of an outline for this story. He related the main points for the story as, “The prodigal son: his badness, his sadness, his gladness” and followed point one with these sub-points: “he left his kin, fell in with bad men, and wound up in the pen”! He might have added more, but I confess to laughing so hard I didn’t remember anything more. These are good points, though, and could be good targets for any preacher wanting to make a sermon out of this text.
Now, the prodigal son himself served as a living object lesson for this story! Sure, he had left his home, and, he might have thought, he was never going back there. He found a new place to live, and, it seems, he found a number of places to party hearty, as the saying goes.
And no doubt, he found a lot of new friends, too—friends, that is, as long as he was doing the buying for the good times! Oliver Greene in his testimony “From Disgrace to Grace” said something along the lines that if a sinner pays for the drinks and smokes and so forth, he’ll have more friends than he knows what to do with, but all too often, when they money goes away, so will the so-called friends.
Somewhere I remember reading or hearing something like this: “Fake friends help you spend money; good friends help you make money; but the best friends help you save money.’ This prodigal son might have done better with the right kind of friends, but, sadly, there’s no record he even went looking for this type of friend. He paid dearly for this decision as we’ll see.
Now, we’re never told how long the party lasted but eventually, as the last coins went away, so did the friends, and so did the lad’s chances. He had spent everything (!), and just as the money was gone, so where his chances. In fact, a severe famine hit that country and it looks like just about everything had dried up. Then Jesus adds a very ironic sentence, “he began to be in need”. That had been true ever since he took that first step away from home, but he didn’t know it!
Eventually he did find a job and, I think, another place to live. The Lord said the lad “attached himself to one of the citizens of that country. What a contrast: the lad had been a son, in every sense of the word but now, he’s basically a slave. Remember, this was during a severe famine and sometimes these famines lasted for years (the seven years of famine in Egypt many years before comes to mind). Who wants to hire anyone, or even give lodging, when there may not be enough food for one’s own family?
And, oh yeah, the lad was now looking for a job. All his money was gone, and whatever friends he may have had were gone (doesn’t this remind you of Samson’s wedding feast when he married the Philistine woman, per Judges 14?), and he didn’t have any job prospects. What was he going to do?
Well, he did find a job but . . probably not one the folks back home would appreciate. Remember, this is a story about a Jewish man who had left home, and family, and it would seem he left his faith or religion behind, also.
He got a job feeding pigs.
Pigs were unclean animals according to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 11:7 and Deuteronomy 14:8), forbidden to be used as food by the Jews. That didn’t mean the Gentiles, non-Jewish people, had that same restriction but for a Jewish male to feed pigs was a disaster, no matter how anybody spells it.
Oh, and to make matters worse, nobody—not even the boss—offered this prodigal son anything to eat. The lad got so hungry (and no wonder) that he was tempted to eat the “pods” that the swine were eating. A few of the commentators observe that there is a type of root or pod that pigs seem to like but, to me, that makes it worse—did the prodigal have to find these pods or roots? And then, did he have to prepare them in some way so that the pigs could eat them?
And did we mention, there is no mention of where the lad was living! There’s nothing in the text to say where he lived or if he even had any shelter! Did he live (shudder) near or with the pigs? I’ll tell you what, it’s not hard to guess when you’re close to a hog farm! You can tell by the smell what’s coming up. In fact, I was driving up a certain road (note: location withheld) some years back and the smell was--, oh, I could smell the pig farm more than a couple of miles away.
Now imagine living in or near that kind of environment. Working in it would be bad enough, but living, sleeping, trying to find something to eat—that would be unbearable. Yet, he persisted in doing this, and living like this, for at least a while.
But just as the money had come and gone, eventually his reason returned to him and he realized just how low he had really sunk. Would he, though, do anything about this?
3 The home he returned to
Yes, he would and yes, he did! Jesus continued in this story how that this lad “came to his senses”, meaning he hadn’t quite been doing this, at least for a while, and then said, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough, but I’m starving to death down here!” In fact, Dr. Robertson’s notes suggest the father’s table were “surrounded by loaves” of bread (see https://godrules.net/library/robert/robertluk15.htm ), and I remember reading another commentary that suggested the father’s tables were “swimming” with food! And the son was long gone: he had lived and worked with pigs in a foreign land, and was literally seeking something to eat but nobody gave him anything.
This realization may have taken a while, but it took root, and the lad decided “I’m going back home! Even if I can’t be the son anymore, I can still be a hired hand and have enough to eat and a place to sleep—and I won’t smell like pigs (implied)!” He left, and began his long journey back home, in order to go back to his father’s house.
You know, I’ve sometimes wondered what this lad was thinking as he took a step at a time that journey back to his home. He might have remembered the good times, maybe the not so good times. He may well have remembered that final incident or “last straw” that made him decide it was time to leave and leave for good, cutting himself off from his entire family. Maybe he even remembered the look of pain on his father’s face as he turned away and walked off. Who knows, it could have been all of these. He had a lot to think about as he kept going home.
This prodigal son didn’t stop, except to eat (what could he have found?), I suppose, and to sleep wherever he could. He then came within sight of his father, and to his surprise, he noticed something he might never have expected.
His father came running towards him! The lad was “a long way off”, but distance and time had not yet blurred the father’s memory of his youngest son. I’ve read somewhere that a parent can rather quickly find his or her child out of many faces—the connection is real! Running, by the way, was something almost frowned upon in that culture but for this father, it didn’t matter—his lost son, worth more than sheep and much more than coins was on his way back home!
And when the father got there, he didn’t criticize or try to make the lad feel worse (would any parent do that?) but rather embraced him and repeatedly kissed him (a mark of welcome in that culture, also see Robertson’s notes as above). This probably went on for a while, as the father no doubt had plenty of love to give his son who had left, and was back; who had died but now was once again alive!
This didn’t stop the lad from at least trying to give his speech. He started by saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight (truer words were never spoken!); I am no longer worthy to be called your son . . .” but the words seem to stop here, as the father had heard enough from his no-longer-wandering boy!
The father was not about to let this lad, this son of his, say another word. Note that he didn’t come alone, as he told the “slaves” to bring the best robe, a ring, and a pair of shoes for his long lost son. The lad was probably wearing rags, and probably smelled like pigs, and no doubt was barefoot—otherwise, why would the father ask for a pair of shoes for him?
He didn’t stop with clothing, either. The father also ordered someone (the slaves, probably) to bring in the fattened calf, kill it, and make a feast! Henry and Hazel Slaughter, many years ago, recorded a song about this and had “My son is coming home!” as the refrain.
Now, think about all this: the son had declared himself dead to his father and likewise the father to him; he had demanded his inheritance (and got it!) long before his father had died; and he wasted every penny in a distant land playing the host (and playing the fool, too). He went from being a son to a slave, basically; from having plenty to choose from to having plenty to search for; he used to have reasonably nice accommodations at home but had nothing except a 24-7 stint feeding and watching pigs. For a Jewish person, that had to be absolutely horrible.
The lad finally came to his senses (step 1), decided to return home (step 2) and was willing to lose his place as a son just to be with his father again. As we saw, that last step didn’t happen, and this homecoming, returning to the home he had left behind, had to be one of the best experiences ever for this lad.
You and I have wandered, and sometimes just plain walked away, from our Heavenly Father’s best for us. No need to rehash any of that now, we know what we’ve done, and we can rejoice that our Father wants us back! Yesterday was M U’s homecoming, and thousands of people came back to campus for whatever reason. Today can be our homecoming, when you and I make things right between us and our Father in Heaven!
If you haven’t done so, why not do this today?
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Version of the Bible (NASV).
