THE PRODIGAL SON
TEXT: LUKE 15:11-32
INTRODUCTION
Mary was a well known girl in her high school. She was one of the prettiest girls and one of the most talented. She was involved in everything, from church to drama to basketball. She was captain of the J.V. cheerleader team and was voted most likely to succeed. She received a full scholarship to go to MTSU for her academic standing. Her first year there was a great success. She was popular because of her great looks and well liked by the teachers for her brilliant mind. Unlike many college students she attended church regularly for every service and was active in the Christian Student center.
The second year was a little more difficult. She meet a great girl by the name of Sue. Sue and Mary spent a lot of time together studying and socializing. Through Sue, Mary met Adam who was a great guy. He was also on scholarship for the swim team. Adam and Mary began to date and formed a strong relation in the coming months. Adam was not a Christian but had no problems going to church with her every week.
But Adam had a little party bug in him. He started taking her to some of the local parties but Mary would abstain from any actions that she considered sinful. Then slow she began to except certain actions. Mary slowly started to become like the world. Then one day her parents received a call that no parent ever wants. Mary was pregnant.
She felt awful. She could not even believe that she had fallen so far from her morals and ethics. She begged her parents to let her come home because she needed some comfort and to get away from Adam who was a negative influence on her. He parents let her come home to her old room and begin to support her through this time.
A few months passed and everyone in her church knew the story. Mary was back to church and went forward. She was showing and a few ladies in the congregation wanted to throw her a baby shower. This caused a huge controversy in the church. There were two sides to the debate.
One side was totally against the idea. This child that was coming was the result of sin. How could the church support this? How could the church have a shower for a mother to be out of wedlock. They stated that if they did this other girls might be tempted to get pregnant. There was no way these ladies felt that the church should help this girl through this time. Sin is sin they said.
On the other hand the ladies that wanted to have the shower had their point of view. They said she repented of her sin and we should accept her back into the church. The action was sinful but the baby is not sin. How dare we make the child pay for the sin of the mother” This girl needs all the help she can get and are we going to turn a blind eye to her. We need to let this girl know that we still love her and are here for her during this stressful time in her life. We are the church, we have to help.
Finally, this debate turned into a full fledged warfare in the congregation. Everyone had their opinions on what the church should do. There was becoming an open division in the church concerning this matter. So the elders had to step in to decide what the congregation was going to do. Was the shower on or off?
THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL SON
The elders did not know what to do. They met for hours without any idea of what the Biblical answer would be. Finally, one of the elders said “we have to look at the parable of the prodigal son.” “This will give us the answers.” But each elder looked at the parable from a different perspective. One looked at it through the eyes of the son. Another looked at the story through the eyes of the brother. And finally another looked at it through the eyes of the father.
The mindset of the son.
He was young and confident. He was really to lunch out on his own and take the world. He had to find himself. So he went to his father to ask him for his inheritance. The father gave it to him. The son knew he would because it was his for the taking. He needed to explore the world on his own and discover things for himself.
The son was enjoying live and living it up. He was spending his money on drugs and women. He was buying items he did not need. The son did not know what he was doing, he was not mature enough to know the consequences of his actions. He was still naïve about the ways of the world.
Finally the son realized that he was broke and did not have a penny to his name. He was to proud to go back to his family for help. He got himself into this situation and he was going to rely on himself to get out of it.
This is like the alcoholic. Most alcoholics feel that they can control their drinking problem. That they do not really have a problem with alcohol. They are the masters of the drink but really the drink is the master of them. They can overcome their drinking problem on their own. But this never works. People have to have help with overcoming alcoholism. When people admit that they have no control over the addiction can they start on the road to recovery?
So he went to work for a farmer that had pigs. To the son this was the worst job that any Jewish man could have. Swine were untouchable to Jews. He was validating the law of God as well as disgracing himself. It got so bad that he was even eating the food that the pigs ate.
Many times the road to God begins in a ditch. People have to hit rock bottom before they turn to God to rescue them. When the world caves in around them then they look to God to save them from the trouble they got themselves into. Everyone has a different bottom that they hit before searching for God.
The son felt like he would be better off at home as a servant to his father then a worker in the pig pit. So he planned his return and what he would say to his father. But he received a reaction that he could never have dreamed about. His father embraced him as a son and threw a huge party to celebrate his return. The son was ecstatic. Could not believe that his father would accept him back with open arms and still love him in the face of all the sins that he committed. He never knew how truly loving his father was. That his father killed the fattened calf in honor of his lost son that has returned.
The mind set of the brother.
But the other elder did not see this story the same way. He saw it through the eyes of the older brother. The brother was working all day for the father in the fields and then he comes home and hears this party going on that he was not even told about. They were celebrating and he was working. The brother has every right to get upset. He has worked and served the father for his whole life and the father never even gave him a goat to kill so he could party with his friends.
Now this brother that wasted his life away and wasted his father’s money is being rewarded for his sinful lifestyle. What type of example is the father giving by condoning this behavior? The son should be punished for his actions, not rewarded. Why should we honor the one who has done evil instead of honor the one who has always lived a righteous life? This seems totally unfair to the older brother. People need to know where the limits are.
Think about it. If a teenage is caught smoking drugs, the parents are not to reward him for stopping. He is to be punished for his actions. Say he stole from his parents money to buy drugs and was smoking them every weekend with his friends. Then the parents found out the truth about his actions. He was telling them that he was going out and playing video games with a friend on the nights he was smoking pot. The parents are not to reward him. To give him a present so that he could celebrate with his friends that he was catch smoking pot. This would be ridiculous.
The mindset of the father.
Finally, the last elder chimed into the discussion. This elder saw the story through the eyes of the father. The father had no choice. The son knew that the money was his for the asking so when he asked the father had to give it to him. The father had his heart broken. He knew the son did not have the maturity to handle on that money. He knew that he would only found trouble in that new place he was going. But he had to let him go for him to develop into his own man.
My father faced the same decision. I wanted to go to the preaching training school in Texas. My mother told me that there was no way that I was allow to go. She was completely against the idea. While my father thought it was a dumb idea but he knew I had to find my own pathway in life. In order for me to become a man I had to go on this journey. I had to make it on my own. He convinced mother that they had to let me go so I come develop and mature.
The father felt the same way. He had to let the boy go even if it would lend to trouble. The boy had to become his own man. There comes a point in every father’s life where he has to let his children make their own choices, even if he knows they are poor decisions. You can not shelter children for their whole lives. They have to choose if they will follow the Lord or not.
The father was in agony for all that time that the son was gone. He could have received reports on his behavior since this was in the first century. It had to break his heart to know how far his son fell into sin. He loved his son and only wanted the best for him. He wanted to protect his son and care for him but he had to sit back and hope and pray for the best.
So many parents have been in the shoes of the father of the prodigal son. Their children are unfaithful to the Lord but they have tried to talk with them about coming back but they have been rejected for so long that they have given up discussing it. So they sit back every night and pray that they will return to the Lord. Their hearts are breaking over their lost children.
Imagine how happy the father was where he saw his son approaching in the distance. His heart must have jumped for joy, but there had to be some doubt, he probably looked everyday for his sons return and many days passed and still no son. But this day it was different. He saw his son slowly make his way home. The father had no choice but to greet him with a kiss.
This reminds me of a scene in “Gone With The Wind.” Ashley went off to war and was captured. He was in a Yankee prison camp. The war ended and Ashley never returned home. Finally, one day Melanie was working on the front porch and see saw a man coming. This was a common occurrence for men to come to the home for food on their way back home. Then she realized that this stranger was her beloved Ashley. She ran out to greet him.
The son started pleading with the father to take him back but he did not want to hear it. Instead he started making plans for a party to celebrate the return of his son. He was so overjoyed that he killed the fattened calf.
Then he had to deal with his difficult son. He was upset. How could he be upset the father thought. Is he not happy that his brother is home. So the father told him that this was a time of rejoicing and not a time for punishment. That which was lost is now found. He told his son that you have always had my love but this is an occasion for being merry and rejoicing.
Luke 15:11-32 reads “And He said, "A certain man had two sons; 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. "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. "Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be in need. "And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. "And he was longing to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. "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! ’I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men."’ "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. "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.’ "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; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 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. "Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. "And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things might be. "And he said to him, ’Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ "But he became angry, and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began entreating him. "But he answered and said to his father, ’Look! For so many years I have been serving you, and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a kid, that I might be merry with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with harlots, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ "And he said to him, ’My child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. ’But we had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’"
Finally, after studying this text and looking at the Bible, the elders talked about this issue some more. They did not want this to split the congregation. There was no way to appease each group. What were they going to do? They talk and talk for an hour. After an hour they finally one of the elders concluded with this statement. I guess sometimes, a father has no other choice but love.
