Friday 17th March
Read Luke 15:17-20
“‘When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.” 20 So he got up and went to his father.
‘But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him.” (NIVUK)
Part of the beauty of Luke’s narrative and the placing together of these three parables is the way in which the mystery of the younger son ‘coming to his senses’ is explained by the second parable and the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit in drawing people back to God. How does one who is so selfish that he wishes his father dead find his thoughts turning back to that father when he is in his darkest hour?
However the younger son’s thoughts, even amidst this ‘repentance’, are loaded with caution for us. The younger son’s intention is to return to his father as a ‘hired servant’ (v17, 19). His instinct, even at this low point, is to work his way back into his father’s good graces – or in modern parlance – to earn his salvation. How great a risk, even now, is that instinct in our hearts?
But we immediately see how flawed that instinct is. Whilst he was still a long way off, his father gathered his robes, humiliating himself, and ran to his son ‘filled with compassion for him’. Is that not the greatest antidote in the world for those among us tempted to work our way back into God’s good graces? His grace and compassion overwhelms our instincts in a simply amazing way!
