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The compassion of the father
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.—Luke 15:201
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In this parable God is depicted as a father—but what an unusual father! Both sons publicly insult the father, and in both cases the father, in grace, humiliates himself and seeks reconciliation with his children. Though we are sinners, God, in gracious love, invites us to return to him. His ways are not our ways.—John Sanders
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“When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him.” It was not with icy eyes that the father looked on his returning son. Love leaped into them, and as he beheld him, he “had compassion on him”; that is, he felt for him. There was no anger in his heart toward his son; he had nothing but pity for his poor boy, who had gotten into such a pitiable condition. It was true that it was all his own fault, but that did not come before his father’s mind. It was the state that he was in, his poverty, his degradation, that pale face of his so wan with hunger that touched his father to the quick. And God has compassion on the woes and miseries of men. They may have brought their troubles on themselves, and they have indeed done so; but nevertheless God has compassion upon them. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.”—Charles H. Spurgeon
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When I look at the story of the prodigal son, as an Easterner, both of these stories meant a lot to me. … When you have wronged your father, and when you have treated him as if he were dead, which is the implication of “give me my inheritance,” and then he goes and squanders it, then he comes to himself and makes his U-turn home, in an Eastern context, the father never would have left the home to meet him outside. He would have waited until the son came in flat on his face, begging forgiveness. But the grace of the father, to run to meet the son who is on his way back home, is so counterintuitive to the Eastern mindset. And there he was received and forgiven and robed and ringed and all of that.—Ravi Zacharias
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This is the portrayal of God, whose goodness, love, forgiveness, care, joy and compassion have no limits at all. Jesus presents God’s generosity by using all the imagery that his culture provides, while constantly transforming it.—Henri Nouwen
The repentance of the son
And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”—Luke 15:212
Was there ever such a short-story character sketch as this one of the prodigal son! No realism of details, no elaboration of his sins, and yet the immortal picture is burned forever into our imagination. The debacle of his life is as clear and vivid as words can portray the ruin. Yet the phrase which arrests us most as we read the compact narrative of his undoing is not the one which tells about ‘‘riotous living,” or the reckless squandering of his patrimony, or his hunger for swine husks, or his unshod feet and the loss of his tunic; it is rather the one which says that when he was at the bottom of his fortune “he came to himself.” He had not been himself then, before. He was not finding himself in the life of riotous indulgence. That did not turn out after all to be the life for which he was meant. He missed himself more than he missed his lost shoes and tunic.
That raises a nice question which is worth an answer: When is a person his real self? When can he properly say, “At last I have found myself; I am what I want to be”? Christ has revealed to us the fact that we always have higher and diviner possibilities in us. He, the Overcomer, and not Adam, is the true type, the normal person, giving us at last the pattern of life which is life indeed. Which is the real self, then? Surely this is our higher possible self, this one which we discover in our best moments.—Rufus M. Jones
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In prison and facing death, Dostoyevsky discovered the parable of the prodigal son. In that story of homecoming, God was resurrected in his mind. The parable of the prodigal son transformed Dostoyevsky’s mind, soul, and body. Having the parable read to him was the last request on his deathbed, and it was the story that touched every story that brilliant author ever wrote. He was sublimely aware that the story of this homecoming is our own. In fact, his awareness would reach another soul who eventually saw the beauty of the prodigal son worked out in his own life. Describing his own quite reluctant conversion, C. S. Lewis exclaimed, “Who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape? The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”—Jill Carattini
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We’ve all been prodigals at some time or another. We’ve all at some time strayed far away from the Father’s house, if not in body, at least in spirit, and we’ve all had to eat husks and find them unsatisfying and then return to our Father, who, seeing us afar off has run to greet us, with arms outstretched. He has already been looking for us. He is expecting us to learn our lessons and come back. He waits for us in love until we find that nothing else satisfies and we turn toward Him, and then He can reach out and heal us with His wonderful touch. Like that little chorus:
He touched me, oh, He touched me,
And, oh, the joy that floods my soul.
Something happened and now I know,
He touched me and made me whole.
God will not be frustrated. His plan is not going to fail. As in the case of the prodigal son, if you’ll even start going God’s way and turn toward Him, He’ll be out there waiting for you and will receive you with open arms of love and a new garment of righteousness, a beautiful new golden ring of reward that you don’t even deserve, and a feast of thanksgiving and celebration.
Remember, there’s always hope. “He knoweth the way that you take, and when He has tried you, you shall come forth as gold.”3 The way may be hard at times, but His Word says, “The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.”4—M. Fontaine
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The parable of the prodigal son was written about anyone who has strayed from My side. When I see you walking up the road toward Me, I immediately come running to meet you. I wrap My arms around you and throw My cloak about you, and call My servants to prepare a feast, because My daughter, My son, those who were lost, have found their way back into My arms.
The prodigal son left the Father’s house and spent his time and inheritance doing those things he wanted to do, thinking that they would make him happy. When the prodigal son ran out of money, he was forced into poverty. This in a way was a prison for him; it seemed like there was no way out. In his despair, thinking there was no way out, he began to wallow in the mire and become one with the swine. Until finally he came to his senses and began to wonder, “What have I done?”
The prodigal son thought that he had gone too far astray to be accepted again by his father. But remember that you can never be too bad for Me. Your place in My house is still there for you! I’m waiting with open arms to receive you back into My home. Remember, no matter how you feel, I still love you.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
Published on Anchor November 2014. Read by Debra Lee.
Footnotes:
1 ESV.
2 ESV.
3 Job 23:10.
4 1 Peter 5:10.
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