He left home saying “Give me!”. He returns home saying “Make me!”
Luke 15 has been called God’s Lost and Found Department. In Luke 15, Jesus used four illustrations dealing with the lost and with His’ desire to see them saved and restored to fellowship with Him. He talks about the lost sheep (1 sheep out of 100, 1%), the lost coin (1 coin out of 10, 10%), and then Jesus talked about the lost son (1 son from 2, 50%).
We hear so much about the story of the prodigal son, but it is the older brother that I want to reflect on in this post.
Luke 15:11-12 “A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living”. The request of this younger son was for his share of the inheritance.
In our culture it is the ultimate in “rudeness” to ask for your inheritance! In effect, the son was saying to his father “Dad, I wish you were dead and had no more say in my life! I am tired of you and I want to be free from you and your control in my life”. For the father, it was a shocking and selfish request. The son was seriously self-centred. Even the words “Give me” in verse 12 make me cringe! His life is all wrapped up within himself and he cares for no one else, especially not the father.
The father could have refused and kicked the son out, but he doesn’t. The Bible says, “And he divided unto them his living”. The younger son wanted what the father could give him, but he did not want the father!
It was before too long that the son met a harsh reality.
Luke 15:13-16 “And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him”. He crash and burned…..big time!
The son gets just what he wants, but soon finds out that “all that glitters is not gold”!
He blew the inheritance on “riotous living”, a life totally given over to sinfulness and wickedness. When the son left home, he also left behind all his moral restraints. Did he have a good time? Oh yes! There is Pleasure in Sin for a Season! (Hebrews 11:25)
Eventually his money ran out and along with the money, he also lost the friends who had helped him spend it (isn’t that always the way?). The far country, a land of “wine, women and song” had become a land of “weeping, worry and sorrow”.
We hear so much about the story of the prodigal son, but it is the older brother that I want to reflect on in this post.
Luke 15:11-12 “A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living”. The request of this younger son was for his share of the inheritance.
In our culture it is the ultimate in “rudeness” to ask for your inheritance! In effect, the son was saying to his father “Dad, I wish you were dead and had no more say in my life! I am tired of you and I want to be free from you and your control in my life”. For the father, it was a shocking and selfish request. The son was seriously self-centred. Even the words “Give me” in verse 12 make me cringe! His life is all wrapped up within himself and he cares for no one else, especially not the father.
The father could have refused and kicked the son out, but he doesn’t. The Bible says, “And he divided unto them his living”. The younger son wanted what the father could give him, but he did not want the father!
It was before too long that the son met a harsh reality.
Luke 15:13-16 “And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him”. He crash and burned…..big time!
The son gets just what he wants, but soon finds out that “all that glitters is not gold”!
He blew the inheritance on “riotous living”, a life totally given over to sinfulness and wickedness. When the son left home, he also left behind all his moral restraints. Did he have a good time? Oh yes! There is Pleasure in Sin for a Season! (Hebrews 11:25)
Eventually his money ran out and along with the money, he also lost the friends who had helped him spend it (isn’t that always the way?). The far country, a land of “wine, women and song” had become a land of “weeping, worry and sorrow”.
This portion of scripture shows us the consequences of sin. Sin brings separation (he left the father and the provision of the family), sin brings sorrow (he wanted), sin brings shame (eating with the pigs), sin brings suffering (no home, no help and no hope), sin brings sadness (he is alone and lonely).
Luke 15:17-20 “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
“When he came to himself” This boy’s time in the far country had been a time of insanity. He hadn’t been thinking clearly!
He makes up his mind to go home! He is tired of life in the far country. He longs for fellowship with the father. He wants to go where he can be loved, fed and cared for.
He left home saying “Give me!”.
He returns home saying “Make me!”
To be continued……
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