A Lesson on Grace from a Lost Son
Chances are really good that you don’t understand grace. No human being can fully understand that God could love them without any condition. It goes against how we operate. If we’re going to love someone they have to fall under a certain set of requirements. God offers his love freely to all people. This love is fully expressed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Trust in Jesus, God will take you just as you are.
In Luke 15 Jesus tells a story about a rich father who had two sons. One day the younger son decides he is sick of living at home and demands the father give him his estate money or the money he would have gotten when the father died. Basically telling the father, “You’re dead to me!” What does the father do? He divides up the estate money and gives half to the younger son and half to the older.
The younger son takes his money moves as far away as he can. He finds himself in a big city with more ways to spend his money than you can think of. Suddenly everyone wants to be around him and everyone needs a favor. Life seems pretty good for a time. Money, sex, power, freedom, living the life of a major player. This is how men are supposed to live! Not taking care of some family business.
Then one day the fun stops. The young son wakes up to find that everything is gone. The money, the women, the power, vanished. All he has left is a lousy reputation with nothing to back it up. He thinks, “No problem, I’ll just go get a job.” Nobody is hiring. The economy has hit rock bottom. The guys he used to party with won’t give him the time of day. Who wants to work with a loser like this?
As the young son wanders the streets, his stomach growling, he remembers an old farmer that he bumped into who lives on the edge of town. So he makes his way and persuades the famer to let him work taking care of the pigs. Pigs! Those dumb animals roll around in their own filth! But the young son didn’t have a choice. This is all life had to offer him. He was so desperate and hungry that even the pigs food looked good to eat.
The young son carried the buckets of slop to the pigs under the scorching son cursing himself along the way. “How did I get into this mess?” “What was I thinking?” “I’d have been better off just staying at home.” Then it dawned on him, maybe his father would take him back as a hired worker. Of course! The father was demanding at times but he was kind to strangers and it was the least he could do, right?
The younger son comes up with this great speech to get himself back into the business “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” That ought do to it, it sounds miserable enough.
Dragging himself back down the dusty road he’d walk so many times as a kid, the young son made his way home. He smelled of nasty pig slop and felt like the scum of the earth. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son…”
Before the young son could say anything else the father said to the servants, “Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.” So the party began.
In other words the father welcomed his son back into the family without any question and decided to grill up one giant steak. The ring is important because it shows the younger son has the authority he had traded earlier for pig slop. What do we call the father’s reaction to his son? Grace.
People do the same thing with God. He has gifted us in so many ways and yet we turn to him in our sin and say, “Forget you, I’m going to do things my way.” And in the end that never really works. So we turn to the world around us for help and no matter how hard we try we’ll keep trading out blessings for slop. God allows us to wander away because he knows that this world will never satisfy and when we realize what we’ve done we’ll come back.
The problem is that when we come back we try to earn God’s favor. We promise we’ll be good and we’ll join the church and help people and do whatever we can for him. The rich young ruler decided that if he couldn’t be a son that’d be a hired worker instead. But God doesn’t work that way. When we have truly realized our need for him, God takes us right back. In fact, God runs to meet us! The lost young son didn’t get to finish his fancy script for the father. The father gives him a place in the kingdom and throws a party.
It’s true, because of sin we are not worthy to be called children of God. However, a place in God’s kingdom is a free gift of God when we trust in Jesus as our savior from sin. Jesus took the penalty for our sin on the cross and God sees believers like he sees Jesus. We get the credit that only Jesus deserves. This is called grace. Stop trying to please God with some fancy script because you want him to love you. Realize that because of Jesus God does love you and your life can now be about loving God back. You are only worthy because Jesus is worthy.