Luke 15:21-32 - Welcome home!

15:21-24

The son came in humility, confessing his unworthiness and guilt. Contrast this with the “you ought to accept me” attitude of many and our entitlement culture. Now why should the son have an attitude of guilt and contrition? Because he had been foolish and guilty. All of us have also been foolish and guilty, we have nothing in ourselves to commend us to God.

But despite this the father give the son the most lavish of welcomes. Each of the gifts signified acceptance and position. The son was completely restored. He had been born into the father’s household and would have been a full member but for the foolishness of his own choice. Yet when he repents he is completely restored. Likewise, we were created to have dominion over the earth and to live in fellowship with God. Through our own foolishness we “left home”, but if we repent we are completely restored. God does not hate sin because He is capricious or selfish, but because sin is bad for us. We are only truly alive when we live with God and for God.

There are some fools who say that because there is no atoning sacrifice mentioned in this parable then this is grounds for rejecting the substitutionary atonement nature of the cross. Well if you want to build a theology on a foundation of sand go ahead and do so but I am not joining you. Jesus is stressing the main point of the Father’s complete acceptance of the repentant sinner. Note there is nothing anywhere in the gospels to support complete acceptance of an unrepentant sinner.

15:25-32

Meanwhile there is the older brother, the one who had stayed at home, not acting foolishly. He was at first surprised by the sound of partying, and then appalled that his foolish brother has receiving all the attention. He too had a wrong conception of the Father, just as the Pharisees had a wrong conception of God. First, he did not realise how great the father’s love was for him, and then he did not realise how great the father’s love was for the brother. He had a legalistic attitude, and we all need to make sure we avoid having such an attitude. We live in a kingdom of grace. We have far more available to us than we ever imagine, and when sinners come into the kingdom God will give them far more than any worldly  system of justice would say they deserve.