The Prodigals
Photo by Mishal Ibrahim on Unsplash
What is God’s response to us when we do the wrong thing? How does God treat the sinner gone astray who returns for grace?
We have all gone wrong in some way. None of us does the right thing all the time. We have all done right things for the wrong reasons. We have done the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. We have all failed even our own standards. We have for sure failed God’s high and holy standards. We are all prodigals.
Jesus told a parable about two sons who had fallen away from their father’s love.
One prodigal son wishes his father was dead by asking for his inheritance from the father and leaving the fathers household.
The older son also disregarded the father by doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons, by not taking care of his younger brother, and by disrespecting his father and not celebrating with him when his brother returned home.
Luke’s Gospel tells of the father’s response to the younger son’s return in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal sons, “The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:22-24, ESV).
God celebrates the return of his wayward children. God responds to his children with love, grace, and compassion when they return to him. God lavishly loves the repentant sinner who comes to him, and God celebrates with great joy over the lost being found.
May we return to God when we go astray, and find that God receives us joyfully and celebrates that ‘we were once lost, and now we are found.’
In Christ alone, Robbie
A Prayer For The Unrepentant: “Merciful God, you desire not the death of sinners, but rather that they should turn to you and live; and through your only Son you have revealed yourself as the God who pardons iniquity. Have mercy on the unrepentant and those who do not believe, especially the prodigal. Awaken in them, by your Word and Holy Spirit, a deep sense of their sinfulness and peril. Take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of your Word. Grant them to know and feel that there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which they must be saved, but only the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so bring them home and number them among your children, that they may be yours for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.” (#64, Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Photo by Mishal Ibrahim on Unsplash
