The Father Who Runs (Luke 15:11-32)
Category : Blogpost
If the unforgiving servant shows us the necessity of forgiveness, the prodigal son shows us the heart behind it. A younger son demands his inheritance early, essentially telling his father, I wish you were dead. He wastes everything in wild living, hits rock bottom, and finally decides to go home and beg to be a hired servant.
But while he is still a long way off, his father sees him and runs. He throws his arms around him, kisses him, and orders the best robe, a ring, sandals, and a feast. The son barely gets his repentance speech out before the father interrupts with celebration.
Then the older brother arrives. He’s angry. He has served faithfully for years and never got a party. He refuses to go in. The father goes out to him too: the same running, the same pleading. Everything I have is yours, he says. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.
Two sons, both lost. The younger one knows he’s a mess; the older one thinks he’s righteous. Both need the father’s forgiveness. The father offers it freely to both. The parable ends without telling us whether the older brother finally went inside. That’s deliberate. The question is left open for us.
This is the heart of Jesus teaching on forgiveness: it’s not grudging, not calculated, not keeping score. It’s a father running down the road. It’s a feast thrown for someone who deserves nothing. And it challenges anyone who thinks they’ve earned God’s favor by being the good one.
Stay tuned!