The Way of Forgiving Love

MEMORY SELECTION: “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.” —Luke 15:20

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Luke 15:17-32

THE fifteenth chapter of Luke includes three of Jesus’ parables designed to teach forgiveness. These are the Parables of the Lost Sheep (vss. 1-7), the Lost Coin (vss. 8-10), and the Prodigal Son (vss. 11-32). Our memory selection, together with the context of the passage, forms the basis of this week’s lesson.

Having received the portion of his inheritance, the younger son of a rich man gathered his possessions together and set out for a far country. He evidently thought he could conquer the world and needed no one to help him. All he wanted was to spend his money and enjoy life. Indeed, the story tells us that he “wasted his substance with riotous living.” (vs. 13) His actions proved his lack of wisdom.

However, “when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.” (vs. 14) What a lesson must have been his when he discovered that all of his new-found friends, who had, no doubt, helped him spend his money, quickly shunned him. He found himself alone, tired, and hungry, with no one to care for him. He had nothing to show for his misdeeds nor the period of time in which he had lived the so-called good life, and he had lost the meaning or purpose of his life.

No doubt he had little time to think about his father during his absence from home. In the midst of his predicament, however, the younger son remembered his father and his home, as well as all of his former friends. And he said (vss. 18,19), “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.”

He had reflected on his sinful conduct and was now truly repentant. The young man was willing to return to his father’s home, not with the former status of a son, but as a servant. He was no longer worried about money or material possessions but was glad to return to the place where he knew he would be loved and cared for.

What joy surrounds this episode in the story, for even while the son was “yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” (vs. 20) The word compassion, as it is used in this passage, suggests a strong feeling of sympathy, or pity, and the unbreakable bond of love that the father had for his son. And he exclaimed (vs. 24), “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Nothing else mattered, for his son had returned.

The elder brother, however, did not appreciate the situation and became angry because of the merrymaking that accompanied the return of his younger brother. When his father came to him, he reasoned that he had been a faithful son and had served without transgression. He could not understand why his father was so willing to forgive the sinful acts of his brother. “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gayest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: but as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.—vss. 29-32

Although the parable evidently has specific reference to the two classes of Jews (those who responded favorably to the invitation to follow the Master and his teachings and the other class who never accepted the call in the spirit of it), it has a broader significance in that all mankind are sinners and have need of the saving grace of our Lord. There is, therefore, a premium placed on honesty of heart and the recognition of one’s own sins, as well as a readiness to forgive the sins of others.

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