WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday March 17, 2019
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CALLED TO RETURN
(Story of the lost son)
(Luke 15:11-32)
One of the main reasons
GOD gives human beings “grace” is to teach us how to be gracious to others. We
fail GOD when we allow HIS grace towards us to be taken for granted by us, or,
go unnoticed by us, and, as a result, give satan an opportunity to influence us
instead with pride, envy, greed, and narcissism. In fact, this is exactly what
satan did to the older son in Luke’s unique, and now famous account of JESUS’
“parable of the prodigal son”.
Here
in Luke chapter 15, verses 11-32, JESUS uses the story of a man who had two
sons, to illustrate HIS point further (also see verses 1-10) concerning the
importance of retrieving those who are “lost”. The father in the parable of
this biblical family represents “the attitude of GOD towards those who have
wandered away from HIM”, and are now “lost”, or “dead”, in the spiritual sense
(which is separated from GOD).
The younger son represents those in the world who are lost because they
dared to leave the “protective umbrella of GOD” and arrogantly take their lives
into their own hands, because their “pride” (which is the attitude of satan),
tells them that they can do better on their own. Little do they know, that,
whenever we remove ourselves from underneath the umbrella of GOD, we inevitably
will be “rained upon” by satan.
The older son in this parable, even though he believed that he was
totally loyal to his father, is used to show us how we can start out serving
GOD, and, over time, “our motives for service” can turn to selfish ones. Here
we can clearly see in him, several evil elements, including pride, envy, greed,
and narcissism, that, have overtaken him unwittingly, during his years of
service to his father. In fact, he can be likened to the Pharisees in this
passage.
The story begins one day when the younger son, arrogantly assuming that
he even had an inheritance, requested to his father that he might receive his
right now, rather than wait until his father died. The good father in this
parable, who had already prepared a place for his children in the future,
agreed to prematurely advance to the younger son, his planned allocated share
of his wealth (Vs.11-12).
Now feeling certain that he could make it on his own without his father’s
wisdom (and his rules), a few days later the younger son packed his bags and
ventured off to experience the world around him. He thought that he would now
have all the freedom he wanted to do whatever he pleased. However, true
followers of CHRIST know that true freedom can only be found in HIM. The
younger son had mistakenly envied the wrong people in life, and so soon he
would discover that the object of his desires (the world) would profoundly
humble him back into his senses.
And so he moved to the land of the unbelieving Gentiles – “foreigners”,
not in race, but rather, in their unGODly lifestyles. There he would squander
all of his wealth on lascivious living, and as soon as he was broke, as the
lessons of life would have it, along came a famine, which swept over the entire
land (Vs.13-14).
Now suffering from great hunger, and still having too much pride to
return to his father’s house, the young man was able to persuade one of the
local Gentile farmers to hire him to feed his swine, which was something that
was absolutely detestable for a Jewish person to do, because they, through
their upbringing, would normally not be seen anywhere near a pig, let along
working with them. And not only did he work tending to, and feeding the swine,
but, over time, as his hunger began to overcome him, he even began to desire
the food (carob pods) that he was feeding to the pigs (Vs.15-16).
When his living conditions finally began to humble him, he thought to
himself how even his father’s servants had plenty to eat, and in fact, had food
enough to spare, and here he was, so hungry, that the pig’s pods were starting
to look good to him. And so he decided to swallow his pride and go back home to
his father’s house, and ask for forgiveness. All the way home he rehearsed the
words which he would say to his father, “Father, I have sinned against both you
and Heaven, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son, please take me
back into your house, even if just as a hired servant” (Vs.17-19).
As he neared his father’s house, and while still a ways off, his father,
who had been anxiously anticipating his son’s return one day, saw him coming
and was filled with joy. He ran to meet his son and embraced him, and kissed
him. His son then told his father the words that he had rehearsed over and over
on the way home. To his surprise his father greeted him with love and
compassion and ordered his servants to tend to his needs and set up a feast to
celebrate his return (Vs.20-24).
Here we see a vivid picture of GOD’s attitude of grace and forgiveness toward
those who wish to repent and return to him. HE justifies us through the blood
of CHRIST, HIS sacrificed SON, and HE begins to treat us as if we never sinned
at all. The FATHER celebrates the return to life, of any of HIS children who
were “dead” (separated from HIM), due to their pursuit of the people and things
of this world.
The older son, who had been working in the fields, returned home to the
sound of loud music and celebration for his long lost brother’s return. He
became very angry at his father for accepting his younger brother back into the
family, and was very jealous and envious about him being given a party after he
abandoned the family to seek after the pleasures of the world. In fact, he was
so angry that he wouldn’t even go into the house (Vs.25-27).
When his father came out of the house to plead with him to come in and
help celebrate his brother’s return, he rebuked his father saying, “All these years I’ve worked hard for you and
never once refused to do a single thing you told me to do. And in all that time
you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when “this
son of yours” (here he disowns his younger brother) comes back after
squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the finest calf
we have” (Vs.29-30 – NLT)).
Here we see the evil elements of “pride” (he still felt that his father
owed him something for his service), “envy” (toward his brother), “greed”
(because he too had received his inheritance), “selfishness”, and even “narcissism”
(he thought too highly of himself) all come pouring out of the heart of the
older son. Many people feel the same way about GOD, as this young man felt
about his father, they think that through their “good works they put GOD into
their debt”.
The wise and understanding father replied to his older son, “Look my dear son, you and I are very close,
and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your
brother was dead and has come back to life again! He was lost, but now he is
found!” (Vs.31-32 - NLT).
It is never too late for any person, who still has blood running warm
through their veins, to return to the FATHER GOD, WHO, will always have a place
prepared for us. The “right time” to come to the FATHER is always “right now”,
and the “right way” to come is always, “just as you are”. And GOD will always
celebrate with open arms, the return of even those who may be considered by
others to be “the least of HIS children” in society.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
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