The Forgotten Prodigal Son

For several Sunday evenings now we have been looking at the very familiar parable of the prodigal son, found in Luke chapter 15, beginning at verse 11. Our Lord is speaking, and he said, 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.

And not many days after that 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. And when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough unto 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, had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. As you read this story, you are confronted with the fact that actually there are three sons involved in the story.

There is the younger son, and there is the older son. He is described in verses 25-32. And there is the eternal son, Jesus Christ, who is telling the story.

It doesn't cost us a great deal to tell a story. I'm not talking about telling a lie. That always costs.

I mean simply telling a story. Mothers and fathers sit down with their younger children and tell them a story. It doesn't cost anything.

These stories have been passed down from generation to generation. It cost Jesus Christ something to tell this story. For when he was telling this story, he was revealing what he had to do to make this story possible.

You see, the greatest truth that we can learn is truth about Jesus Christ. All Bible knowledge focuses on Christ. Beyond the sacred page I seek thee, Lord.

My spirit pants for thee, thou living word. It's tragic that we waste so much time that we could be spending learning more about Christ. I was telling my Sunday school class this morning that when our Lord Jesus returns and we face him, some Christians are going to be ashamed.

Jesus Christ will be a stranger in some respects to some people. My dear friends, thirty seconds after you see Jesus Christ, you will wish you could live your life all over again. So will I. Then why don't we start living that way now? One of the most important things that we can do is to learn more about him.

This parable of the prodigal son teaches us a great deal about the Lord Jesus Christ. It does so in a very interesting fashion. If you'll take the prodigal son and compare him with the Lord Jesus Christ—I did not say contrast, I said compare—you'll learn a great deal about the Savior.

You see, when we contrast, we show how things differ. When we compare, we show how they are alike. Of course, immediately your righteous soul speaks out and says, how could this young man, who was such a picture of wickedness and rebellion, ever teach us anything about the Lord Jesus? Well, if you look deeply enough, you'll find that there are a number of comparisons between the prodigal son and the Lord Jesus that teach us about him, and I think in the end help us to love him more.

For example, both of them were beloved of their father. The younger son came to his father and said, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. Now, this man loved his son.

He loved his son while he was at home. He loved his son after he left home. He loved his son when the boy came back home.

The trouble was, this young man didn't realize how much his father loved him. This young man had to learn the hard way what it meant to be embraced and kissed and forgiven and clothed and fed by the love of his father. I suppose there are young people like that today.

They take their parents for granted and never really realize how much their parents loved them. Both of these were loved by their father. The prodigal son was beloved by his father.

It's too bad he had to learn the hard way. The father loved him so much he even permitted him to go and have his own way. The father could have constrained him.

The father could have bribed him. He didn't. He said, Son, the only way you're really going to learn how much I love you is the hard way.

You could stay here and learn the easy way, but you won't do it. I love you too much to make a robot out of you. I love you too much to wind you up like a little toy.

I'll have to let you have your way, but I want you to know that eventually my love is going to draw you home. That's what drew the boy back home. What did he say? He said, My father takes better care of his hired servants than these people are taking care of me.

You're better off being my father's hired servant than you are being a son out here. You see, he awoke to the fact that his father loved him, and that's what took him back home. Now, pause with me and think about how much God the father loved his son.

Now, when you're witnessing to unsaved people and you want to convince them that God loves them, you turn to the Gospel of John, and that's a good place to turn. Over and over again, the Gospel of John, we're taught about God's love for a lost world, God's love for sinners. Did you ever page through the Gospel of John and learn how much God the father loves his son? You see, we don't think about this.

When we come to Calvary and we see one hanging on the tree in agony and blood, we say, Oh, how much God loves me. But we don't pause to think how much he loves his son. That's why the story of Abraham and Isaac is in the Bible.

Every father can identify with that story in Genesis 22, because there is the heart of a loving father as he places his only son upon the altar. Oh, what a picture of love. Well, turn to John chapter three.

We always read verse 16, God so loved the world. How about verse 35? Jesus says, The father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hand. The prodigal came and said, Father, give me the portion of goods that belongs to me.

Now, according to the old Testament law, if a man had two sons, the older son got two thirds of the inheritance, the younger son got one third. But here's Jesus Christ saying, My father loves me so much he has put all things into my hands. How about John chapter five and verse 20? Jesus says, For the father loveth the son and showeth him all things that he himself doeth.

You see, if the younger son had come to his father and said, Father, give me my inheritance and father, show me how to use it, show me what I should do with it, that would have been a different story. But he didn't. He said, Give me what belongs to me.

And he took off and spent it the way he wanted to. Jesus says, My father loves me and he has put all things into my hands. And more than that, he shows me all the things that he's doing.

And so I can take what he gives me and use it the way he wants me to use it. How about John chapter 15? Here is a remarkable statement. John chapter 15, verse nine, As the father hath loved me, says Jesus, so have I loved you.

Now, that's a remarkable statement. Young lovers have a difficult time expressing to each other how much they love each other. Our songwriters are making a fortune figuring out new ways for people to say, I love you.

Jesus Christ is saying here that he loves us as much as the father loves him. Now, the prodigal son could not share any love. The tragedy was he loved only himself.

But Jesus Christ is saying, My father loves me. He's put all things into my hands. My father loves me.

He shows me what he's doing and the love that he has shown toward me, I'm showing toward you. I can understand why God, the father would love God, the son. God, the son is perfect.

I can't understand how God, the son could love me as much as God, the father loves him. That just staggers me. How about John chapter 17? Verse 23, Jesus Christ is praying to his father and he says that the world may know that thou has sent me and that thou has loved them as thou has loved me.

Now, there it is again. The Lord Jesus loves me as the father loves him and the father loves me as he has loved the Lord Jesus. Now, the love that the prodigal son had was very selfish.

He wanted what he wanted and he went out and bought his friends and bought his popularity. And when he ran out of money, he ran out of friends and his popularity rating dropped considerably. In fact, he wasn't even liked very much by the pigs.

But Jesus Christ is saying, I love you as the father loves me and the father loves you as he has loved me. Our whole experience is an experience of love. Both of these sons were loved, greatly beloved of their father.

Now, this makes Calvary much more meaningful to me when I come to the cross of Jesus Christ and realize the love that's there is not a selfish love. The father loves me as he loved his son. The son loves me as the father loved him.

Both were beloved of their fathers. There's a second comparison between the prodigal son and the eternal son of God, and it's this. Both of them left home.

Now, I know the prodigal's motives were wrong. He left home for the same reason many people leave home when they're young. He wanted freedom.

He didn't know what it was, but he wanted freedom. He ended up in bondage. He wanted enjoyment.

He ended up in sorrow, emptiness. He wanted to live, and he ended up dying. He wanted to find himself, and he ended up losing himself.

Many kids have done this. It's the going thing today. But our Lord Jesus Christ, when he left home, left home with a different motive altogether.

He left home that he might go to the far country and bring people back with him. Now, consider with me two amazing facts. Number one, the home that Jesus left was far greater than the home that the prodigal left.

I don't know much about this man's home. I get the impression they were rather well-to-do people. They had hired servants.

They could afford to kill a fatted calf. Many Jews couldn't do that. They didn't have that kind of wealth.

His older son worked out in the field. They were able to call in an orchestra and have music and celebration. As you read this story, you sort of get the impression that this boy left a pretty good home.

They weren't living in some shack somewhere. They had things pretty well. But I want you to know that when Jesus left his home to come to this earth, he left a far greater home.

It always amazes me to consider that Jesus Christ was willing to come to this earth. He came unto his own. His own received him not.

The hymn writer puts it out of the ivory palaces into this world of woe. Only his great eternal love made my Savior go. I would suggest a second astounding fact.

Not only did the Lord Jesus, when he left home, leave a greater home behind, but when Jesus came into the far country, he went into a much more difficult situation. The prodigal son got exactly what he deserved. When we look at this story, we say that's exactly what you deserve.

You're reaping what you've sown. You've made your bed lie in it, stewing your own grease. That's exactly what you ought to have.

We can say that because it's not happening to us. It's happening to somebody else. Ever stop to think how far away was the far country that Jesus came to? Watch this now.

He not only came from heaven to earth, but he came from heaven to earth to the depths of hell. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, it was as though he visited the very pit of hell because on his body was placed the sin of all the world. Now, don't ask me to explain it.

I can't. The most brilliant theologian in history can't explain it. We have theories.

We have explanations. We don't really understand it. They stretched out his hands and nailed him to a cross.

With one hand, he reached all the way back to Adam, the first sinner. With the other hand, he reached all the way down to the end of time to the last sinner. And somehow between those two hands, he was able to take upon himself that gigantic burden of sin.

Talk about going to a far country. The prodigal son went to a far country and suffered for his own sins. Jesus came into a far country and suffered for sins that were not his own.

Both of them were beloved of their father. Both of them left home. There's a third comparison.

Both of them were lavish in their spending. That's where the word prodigal comes from. The Latin Vulgate version of the New Testament has a little note in the margin with the Latin word prodigal, which really means lavish or wasteful.

It comes from that verse that says he wasted his substance with riotous living. To be prodigal doesn't mean to leave home. Many people have left home and never been prodigal.

To be prodigal means to be wasteful, to be extravagant, to waste what you have. It means to be lavish in your spending. It can be used in a good sense or a bad sense.

For example, God the Father is very prodigal. Did you ever visit some area in this world where there were just thousands and thousands of flowers and very few people to look at them? Do you know that right now up in the crevices of some of our highest mountains are little flowers growing that nobody's ever going to see? On a clear night in Chicago, which occasionally happens, you can look up and you can just see all those stars and then you get dizzy by considering the fact that beyond them are trillions more and beyond them are zillions more. Galaxy upon galaxy.

Is all of this really necessary? God the Father in creation was so prodigal. He just spent so lavishly. He's decorated this world with beauty.

He's decorated the heavens with glory. Well, God the Son was prodigal. He wasn't prodigal with money because he didn't have any.

Peter had to go catch a fish to pay their taxes. Jesus said the foxes have their dens and the birds have their nests, but I have no place to lay my head. He wasn't carrying any Conrad Hilton or motel credit cards.

He just was poor. And yet he was prodigal. I mean by that he was lavish in the way he spent of himself.

Consider, for example, the lowest sinner could come to him and he'd receive that sinner and forgive. You didn't have to have a ticket or an appointment. The weakest, most poverty stricken, most socially rejected sick person could come to him and be healed.

A leper could come. Jesus after a synagogue service went to Peter's house and Peter's mother-in-law was sick and Jesus raised her up from her sickness and the word got around the town that Jesus was there healing people and everybody waited for the Sabbath day to end because these good Orthodox Jews would not want to be healed on the Sabbath day. And as soon as it was sundown and Sabbath was over, they came to the door of Peter's house.

The whole town met at the door, says Mark, and Jesus spent those next hours just magnificently, extravagantly healing people, most of whom never said thank you. He met 10 lepers one day and he said, go show yourself to the priests and they turned and were healed. And out of the 10, one came back and said, thank you.

You see, my Lord was very lavish in his spending, especially when he went to the cross. When he went to the cross, he gave the ultimate in spending. Now it doesn't cost me a great deal to hand somebody some money for a place to sleep or a bit of food to eat or some clothing to wear.

But if you go to someone and say, look, I'll give my life for you, that's the ultimate. You can't do much more than that. Greater love has no man than this that a man laid down his life for his friends.

And Jesus laid down his life for his enemies. And he gave that final gift of the spending of himself. You see, the prodigal son was wasteful in sin.

Jesus was extravagant in grace. Both of them were lavish in their spending. Now, the prodigal made himself poor, which leads us to our next point.

Both of them became poor. For, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ says 2nd Corinthians 8, 9, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Now there's nothing difficult about that verse.

He was rich. He became poor. We were poor.

He made us rich. The prodigal son started off rich. Father, give me.

Father gave it to him. The Greek word here, verse 13, he gathered all together literally means he turned his goods into money. He took all of his inheritance and turned it into money, pocketed the money and went off and wasted the money.

He started off rich and became poor. When he got back home again, he became rich. Put a ring on his finger, put shoes on his feet.

Let's have a party. The Lord Jesus Christ started out rich. We could just spend the rest of this week discussing how rich he was before he came to this earth.

The riches of his glory, the riches of his power, the riches of his wisdom. He was rich. He became poor.

He did not become poor to try to build himself a reputation as the prodigal son did. He did not become poor to try to gather around him a group of cheerleaders saying, oh, what a wonderful person, as did the prodigal son. No, the Lord Jesus became poor.

Because he knew we were poor. He came where I was poor and he made himself poor for my sake. I'm not talking simply about poverty of material things.

I'm talking about poverty of spiritual things. My Lord Jesus Christ entered into. Now don't lose this.

My Lord Jesus Christ entered into the tragic waste of sin. Let me go one step further. What are the wages of sin? Death.

And he suffered those wages. Now the prodigal son spent everything, was left broke. Ah, but he was able to go back home again.

The Lord Jesus Christ spent everything he had. He gave everything that he had. Not that he just might go home again, but that he might take somebody with him.

I've often wondered what happened to the friends of the prodigal son? What about those girlfriends he used to have? What about those friends that used to carouse with him? What kind of a crowd did he leave behind? Our Lord Jesus, when he went to the cross, became poor. Not that he might make other people poor, but that he might make us rich. Which leads us to our fifth comparison.

Both were beloved of their father. Both left home. Both were lavish in their spending and both became poor and both became servants.

Now the prodigal son never intended to be a servant. He intended to be a ruler. And he had his money in his pockets and he headed off for the far country and said, I'm going to be big man on campus or whatever they said back in that day.

I'm going to be Joe College or whatever they said back in that day. I'm going to be the VIP or whatever they called it back in that day. And he was.

Boy, when he hit town, something really hit. He was interviewed on the TV programs and he was interviewed on the radio programs and he was important until his money ran out. When his money ran out, that was the end.

He became a servant. Actually, he was a servant before he left. He was a servant of things.

Things had gotten a hold of his life. Somebody has well said that money is a marvelous servant, but a terrible master. And money had become his master.

Popularity and reputation and entertainment and enjoyment and thrills and pleasures had become his master. And so he became a slave to things. He became a slave to people.

He had to have these people around him. He'd pay any price to be important. He became a slave to people and he became a slave to pigs.

There's a little bit of sarcasm in this story. Jesus is saying the pigs were in better shape than he because they at least had someone taking care of them. Nobody took care of him.

They at least had something to eat. He had nothing to eat. You know what our Lord is saying here? Now, if this shocks you, I'm sorry, but it's scriptural.

Jesus is saying here that a man out of the will of God is lower than an animal. You know why? We were created higher than the animals. These pigs were at least fulfilling their purpose in life by being pigs.

He wasn't fulfilling his purpose in life. He was meant to be a son and he became a servant. The Lord Jesus Christ became a servant.

One of the most beautiful passages anywhere in the Old Testament is there in Isaiah, where the prophet Isaiah talks about Jesus Christ, the servant. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he says. Chapter 53 of Isaiah, you have God's righteous servant going to the cross.

Jesus came as a servant. He said to his disciples, the Gentiles like to lord it over each other. If you have a position among the Gentiles, you lord it over people and show how important you are and you throw your weight around.

He said it won't be this way among you. If you want to be great, become the servant. I am among you as one who serves.

Can we ever forget that picture in the upper room where Jesus laid aside his outer garments, put on a towel, got down on his hands and knees and washed his disciples' feet? A servant and his ultimate act of service was on the cross. Philippians chapter 2. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Many people have been obedient unto death, but Paul says even the death of the cross.

The people that Paul was writing to never could be crucified. A Roman citizen could not be crucified. A Roman citizen wouldn't even talk about crucifixion.

Paul says he became a servant. He became obedient, obedient unto death, obedient unto the death of the cross. Both of them became servants.

We move on quickly to a sixth comparison. Both of them were forsaken. When the prodigal son was home, he had people taking care of him.

His father cared for him. The servants cared for him. I doubt that his elder brother did, but perhaps at some point he did.

But at least the father did. His father cared for him. The father told the servants, Take care of my son.

But you know, when the younger son left home and got involved in sin, he was forsaken. I wish we could somehow convince people that sin leads to loneliness and isolation. I watch it here in the city of Chicago.

I meet people who are lonely. I don't mean solitude. I enjoy solitude.

There are some times when I just get away and go sit on a park bench and just think and pray and meditate. You're all alone. The phone's not ringing.

I enjoy solitude, but nobody enjoys loneliness. When you're lonely, you can be in the middle of a big crowd and still not feel it. You're lonely down inside.

Sin always leads to loneliness. Sin leads to being forsaken. This fellow had purchased friends.

When his purchase price was gone, his friends were gone. He had purchased thrills. When his purchase price was gone, the thrills were gone.

Everything he lived on was a substitute. You see, when he left home, he left the real thing. You'll excuse the term.

His father had sincere love for him. His father had sincere care for him. His father would have loved to have showered blessings upon him, but the boy wouldn't let him.

And little by little, this boy moved into loneliness and isolation, and he was forsaken. He admits it. How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare? I'm perishing with hunger.

No man cared for him. Did you notice that? No man gave unto him. The Lord Jesus Christ was forsaken.

It's interesting as you read the Gospel of John to see how popular he is at the beginning. He's invited to a wedding feast. He's invited to be with the people.

Five thousand people follow him, and he feeds them, and they say, let's make him king. And then the numbers start to diminish until you get to chapter 13 of the Gospel of John, and you have Jesus and twelve. Then Judas goes out, and you have Jesus and eleven.

They go to the garden, and you have Jesus and three. They arrest Jesus. The disciples forsake him and flee, and it's Jesus and two, Peter and John.

Peter denies him and goes out to weep. John goes away. It's Jesus and the Father.

Remember, Jesus said to his disciples, all of you are going to leave me, but the Father won't leave me. But there on the cross, what did Jesus cry out? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, he knew what it was to be forsaken. Now hear me.

God has never forsaken you. I've had people come up to me with bitterness and say, why has God forsaken me? And I've said, sir, ma'am, God hasn't forsaken you. If God forsook you for one second, do you know what happened to you? You'd die.

In him we live and move and have our being. God has never forsaken anybody except his Son. And like the prodigal, the Lord Jesus Christ was forsaken.

Which leads us to our final comparison. Both were welcomed home again. Now, it's not hard for us to understand why the prodigal would be welcomed home.

Technically, he could have been killed. According to the Old Testament law, if a man had a rebellious, wasteful son, he could kill him. He could call the elders of the city together and say, my son is a rebel, and they'd pick up stones and stone him.

But the Father didn't do that. The whole point of this story is that God welcomes sinners who repent and who will come home again. And so prodigal came home and he was welcomed.

In fact, everything he was looking for out in the far country, he found at home. What did he want out there in the far country? Well, he wanted to have enjoyment, parties. He found one at home.

He wanted music. He found it at home. He wanted clothes.

Put a robe on him. Put shoes in his feet. He wanted jewelry.

Put a ring on his finger. He wanted to eat. Kill the fatted calf.

Everything he was looking for out in the world of sin, he found back home again when he repented. I wonder what it was like when the Lord Jesus Christ was welcomed back to glory. Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious.

See the man of sorrows now. Oh, I tell you, what must it have been like when our Lord Jesus Christ ascended back to heaven? It must have been a thrilling thing. All of the angelic hosts were gathered together to sing his praises, welcoming the son back home again.

He came back home not because he'd run out of money. He'd come back home because his work was done. You see, the prodigal son wanted to come home to work.

Make me a servant. Jesus Christ came home because his work was done. No longer a servant, a sovereign.

For on the cross, he said, it is finished. In the garden, he said, Father, I have finished the work that you gave me to do. Now give me the glory that I had with you before the world was.

When the prodigal son came home, they put a ring on his finger, a picture of sonship. Oh, but when Jesus came back, there was no need to affirm his sonship. He was the son of God from all eternity.

When the prodigal son came home, they put a robe on him. But when Jesus came back home, robed in glory, robed in light. And you see, if Jesus Christ had not gone home again, nobody could ever go home.

But because he went home, you can go home. That's why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me.

And because the Lord Jesus Christ went back home, it says to me, there is a way of salvation. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And I can say to anybody here tonight, if you'll come through Jesus Christ, you'll come to the Father and you'll be welcomed.

This then is the prodigal son. As I look at this story and consider these comparisons, and there are many more, I say to myself, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. A wonderful Savior to me.

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. I have to say, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. What about you? Have you come to know Jesus as your Savior? And if you do know him, do you really appreciate what he did for you? Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus Christ was willing to do all of this and more for us.

I pray for any here who don't know the Savior that, Lord, they'll trust him. They'll come to trust him, believe on him, and receive everlasting life. Thank you that we have this living way, this true way to heaven.

Oh, I pray that there will be those here now who will believe and be saved. And Father, help those of us who are believers to love the Lord Jesus more. For it's in his name that we pray. Amen.