It’s one of the best known illustrations given by Jesus. It’s the account of the Prodigal Son. It’s found in Luke 15, and is a part of a series of “losts.” There are the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.
A man had two sons, one of whom wants his inheritance in advance. So, the man divides ALL of his assets and divides them between the two. One son stays home and does what a good son does. The other becomes either rebellious or adventurous and leaves home to “sow his wild oats.” He spent all he had and ended up working for a pig farmer, the last place a Jewish person would have wanted to work, because pigs were considered unclean. He then decides he was better off at home, so he returns to a father who, unexpectedly, treated him like a king, threw a party and caused jealousy in the heart of the “good” son. The father then tells the gospel story (which he had never heard) of how the dead can live.
There are many important points in this parable. There is the greed of the son. There is the rebelliousness of the son. There is the pugnaciousness of the son. There is the extravagance of the son. There is the stupidity of the son. There is the wastefulness of the son. There is the misfortune of the son. There is the uncleanness of the son (he was working in a pig pen, remember?).
Then there is the time the young man came to his senses, recognizing his plight. There is his decision to return home, fully expecting to be rejected and relegated to the lowest position on the farm, a slave.
There is the father’s persistence in watchfulness. There is his reaction to seeing the son approaching home and there is his unexpected welcoming of the dirty, filthy, swine smelling prodigal.
Finally, there is the great celebration over the homecoming of the son. There is the other son’s jealous reaction and the father’s explanation.
Those are all acceptable applications of the account, but they are not the point.
The point of the “story” of the Prodigal Son is salvation.
Sin is ugly. It is uglier than pig slime. It is so ugly that God cannot so much as look upon it. He must turn His back on it (like He did when Jesus was on the cross). Most of us trivialize sin, not realizing how disgustingly vile it is to God. We wallow in it like the son did in the pig pens. We stink of it. We are slimy in God’s eyes because of it. Like the Prodigal Son, we are not worthy of being called sons of God.
There must come a time when we realize the ugliness of our sin and repent of it, as the Prodigal son finally did. Then we must turn to God just as we are, filth and all, asking Him to take us in, undeserving though we are. We must be willing to come to Him as slaves, the lowest of the low.
When we do, something really wonderful happens.
In the parable, the father runs to his son, embraces him, slime and all, throws his finest robe over him and calls for a feast!
In our sinful state, God the Father sent God the Son to us with His arms open wide on the cross. He threw the robe of the shed blood of Jesus over us, covering all of our nasty, rotten sin…just as we are. And that’s how He accepts us, covered with the robe of the righteousness of Christ.
God has allowed us to become a part of His family. He has prepared a place for us. He has called for a feast at a special wedding: the marriage feast of the Lamb.
It has been rightly said that the Son of God became a Son of Man so that the sons of men might become sons of God!
Like the prodigal son, recognize your sin, repent of it and come to the Father through faith in, and only in, the finished work of the Son at the cross of Calvary.
