The Parable Of The Prodigal Son

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What's the application for us?

First, if God is so full of grace that he values and accepts the undeserving sinner then we need to value and accept the undeserving sinner too. No marginalising, excluding, ostracizing or judging those who come back to God.

I’d like to read an excerpt from a book called “What’s so Amazing about Grace?” by Philip Yancey. He wrote this:

‘Not long ago I heard from a pastor friend who was battling with his fifteen-year-old daughter. He knew she was using birth control, and several nights she had not bothered to come home at all. The parents had tried various forms of punishment, to no avail. The daughter lied to them, deceived them, and found a way to turn the tables on them: “It’s your fault for being so strict!”

My friend told me, “I remember standing before the plate-glass window in my living room, staring out into the darkness, waiting for her to come home. I felt such rage. I wanted to be like the father of the Prodigal Son, yet I was furious with my daughter for the way she would manipulate us and twist the knife to hurt us. And of course, she was hurting herself more than anyone. I understood then the passages in the prophets expressing God’s anger. The people knew how to wound him, and God cried out in pain.

“And yet I must tell you, when my daughter came home that night, or rather the next morning, I wanted nothing in the world so much as to take her in my arms, to love her, to tell her I wanted the best for her. I was a helpless, lovesick father.”‘

Did the pastor show a godly attitude? Of course! It’s how the father in the parable acted. It’s God’s character to show grace, and he calls us to do the same.

Second, in the parable, the father did not go after his youngest son. His elder son stayed at home. But the father actually had a third son! He sent him after us. His name is Jesus. Of course, we need to welcome the tax collector and sinner of our day. But I believe Jesus would like us to do even more. He’d like us to be energetic searchers of the lost – as the shepherd and woman were, and as he himself is. It’s especially needed here in Europe. Jaume Llenas, who is a pastor in Spain, commented, ‘Most Europeans have a family history in some form of Christianity but now, like the prodigal son, have turned away.’ The statistics certainly support that. We need to go after those prodigal sons and daughters.

Third point. The prodigal son in the story squandered his inheritance. There's a parallel in our world at the moment. God gave humankind this world to look after, but by and large we’re using its resources in an unsustainable way. We’ve returned to God like the prodigal son. Let’s not continue to squander our inheritance.