I want to preface this post with a warning that there is little whimsy within. This is a serious topic that has been heavy on my heart for some time. I finally decided to put my pen to paper, technically my fingers to keyboard but you get the gist. I have been thinking about the parable of the Prodigal Son a lot lately. I have shared my thoughts with family and a few friends thinking that in sharing my thoughts I might free my mind to move to a new topic but this story has stuck with me so I am sharing my thoughts with you.

Luke 15 is a collection of lost things. It is, for me, a very visual chapter. Jesus, the master of truth as story, beautifully shows us the desperation of God’s heart for the lost. It is a short chapter which recounts three tales; a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son. We often concentrate on the lost son and ignore the other lost items in this passage but if you look at them in their entirety you see that the unifying thread doesn’t play out the way we expect it to. First, Jesus tells the story of a man who, having 100 sheep, leaves 99 in order to go find the lost sheep. Secondly, he tells the story of a woman who, having lost one of 10 silver coins, searches every nook and cranny of her house until it is found. Both of these stories end with the man and woman calling their friends together to celebrate the recovery of that which was lost. Jesus tells us, at the end of each of these stories, that there is rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents. I have always loved that thought. I remember when I become a found sheep and I was so excited at the thought of, as my dad always put it, partay time in Heaven, on my account. Finally, Jesus tells us the story of a man who had two sons. The younger son came to his father, asked for his inheritance and shortly thereafter took off only to find himself penniless, friendless and envying the posh lifestyle of pigs. He wises up, heads home and, just like the man and woman in the previous two stories, his father calls all his friends to come and celebrate the finding of what was lost.

As I kept reading this chapter over and over I had a realization about these stories and why they felt slightly disconnected to me. I looked at the three lost things and the ones who had lost them and found some very powerful instructions for us. As a public service announcement I’m about to, as my Grandpa Gill would say, “quit preaching and go to meddling” so please be prepared for the possibility of uncomfortable moments ahead. Here we go, let’s dive in and I’ll share my realizations on:

The Parable of the Lost Sheep – The Unknowing Lost

I have the unusual perspective of having worked with sheep in years past and I learned very quickly that sheep are not the sharpest knives in God’s drawer. We read that the sheep were in the wilderness or open country, they were not in a pen or sheepfold. They were free to graze wherever they wanted and a sheep will stumble into danger very quickly. It doesn’t seem at all unlikely that a sheep, in open wilderness, will wander off into the unknown. They are not wise, they are not crafty or devious, but they just don’t pay attention to where their stomachs lead them. It is a shepherds duty to be mindful of where the sheep are. He cares for them because they can’t care for themselves. If a sheep is lost there is a high probability that it will not be long for this world. There is great joy when the defenseless lost one is brought back because the shepherd knows the danger of the wilderness that the sheep cannot begin to comprehend.

The Parable of the Lost Coin – The Overlooked Lost

The lost coin is in a different situation. It is lost in a place of safety. It is lost at home. The coin can’t wander off (although my money does seem to fly out of my pockets with unprecedented speed sometimes). The coin has been lost because someone lost it. There is no evidence of theft or malicious intent, just a lost item. It makes me think of the old adage “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”. There’s no danger facing the coin, it simply has to be looked for. It was misplaced and neglected, probably in the busyness of every day life. Once she realized the coin was missing, the woman thoroughly searched her whole house. With great effort and determination she turned on the light and put some elbow grease into finding it. Anyone who’s ever done a spring cleaning only to discover misplaced or forgotten treasures among the dust bunnies and cobwebs knows the feeling of elation when a lost item has been recovered. You feel giddy, excited and accomplished when you find what you set out to find. When something has been lost its value is so much greater because you have a clearer understanding of what it is really worth to you. And now to the main event…

The Parable of the Lost Son – The Willful Lost

Oftentimes, when we talk about this story we concentrate on the prodigal and his journey to restoration but I found myself concentrating on the Father (just a little note…when I was sharing my thoughts with family and friends I discovered that my friend, Jason, was studying the same verses and he wrote a wonderful post about the Older Brother on his blog thechristiansage.blogspot.com, you should check it out). What stood out to me was the stark difference in the behavior of the Father in this story compared with the behavior of the man and woman in the previous parables. In the sheep parable it says that man goes after the lost sheep UNTIL HE FINDS IT. In the coin parable it says that woman seeks diligently UNTIL SHE FINDS IT. When his younger son comes to him and asks for his inheritance the Father hands it over. He knows his son, he knows what’s going to happen but he gives him his inheritance and, then in complete reversal of the preceding stories, HE LETS HIM GO. He doesn’t take off on horseback searching highways and byways, cities and towns. He lets him go! You see he understands something about this lost item that we seem to have forgotten in the church today. This wasn’t a lost sheep in open pasture, following his natural bent, or a coin in safety that had been misplaced or overlooked. This was a fully formed son who had been trained to recognize the value of his Father’s land, taught about the riches of his inheritance. He had been raised in the Father’s house, given every tool he would ever need to be part of the Father’s vision for the house. This was a son who willfully, intentionally left the safety of his Father’s house and the Father LET HIM GO! We know from the story that the son came to the end of himself and realized that, even if it was just as a servant, he would be better off in his Father’s house than where his own passion and desires had taken him. We also know that when he returned the Father, didn’t just throw a celebration, like the man and woman in the stories before, he saw him from far away and took off running to gather his son into his arms again. We have heralded this act of redemptive love in books, songs and more messages than one could probably listen to in a lifetime. (Here’s where the meddling intensifies) We have worked so hard to behave like and identify with this Father who loves without recrimination, who embraces his filthy, impoverished son with rapturous joy and blamelessness that we have totally missed the behavior of the Father up to this point. The Father let his son go and didn’t just let him go but let him go with no expectation of ever seeing his son again. We can see evidence of this in the last verse of the chapter where he says to his older son “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead…” How many people do you know who are desperately trying to hold on to a lost son, a willful, intentional lost son, by any means necessary? How many of us are turning a blind eye to sin in order to keep the prodigal from leaving? How many of us have skipped ahead to the end of the story and embraced the prodigal with no recrimination and great celebration without ever releasing them to pursue their own lust and come to the end of themselves? It makes me think of 1 Corinthians 5. Paul is dealing with the church about a man who is willfully lost to sin and Paul gives a bold instruction to them. He tells them to deliver the man to Satan…WHAT?! He essentially tells the church to give the man over to follow his own sinful lusts, not because Paul was a sadist but for a much higher purpose…so that the lost man’s spirit may be saved. Paul continues to remind the church that there were people that they weren’t to associate with, the sexually immoral, the greedy and swindlers, the idolaters, drunkards and so on, but he wasn’t talking about those out in the wilderness. Paul was talking about the willful lost in the Father’s own house. He didn’t give instruction to make them feel safe and welcome. He didn’t give instruction to validate their feelings and let them know that they were loved just as they were. Paul’s instruction was that the church was not to associate with these willful lost, not even to eat with them; in fact he ends this part of his letter with the statement “purge the evil person from among you”.The Father, like Paul, knew something important and valuable that we have forgotten. He knew that until his son recognized the value of the Father’s house he would never be able to truly be part of the Father’s house. He would be on the inside looking out and never be able to appreciate the sheer goodness of his Father’s house. Paul wasn’t suggesting that the willful lost be cut off in an effort to be cruel. Paul was looking beyond the here and now. He clearly states that the purposes of this releasing is for the saving of the spirit.The Father released his son, with full expectation that he would die before he saw him again. He knew that until his son had reached the bottom of his barrel there would never be a need for his redemptive, restoring love. When we are unable to release our sons we are making a very simple, incredibly dangerous statement. We are saying that we do not trust God. That’s it. We have allowed sin to stay, not just stay but be comfortable, in the camp because we do not trust God to care for the lost. The shepherd who searched until he found, the woman who diligently worked until she found, the Father who released with no expectation and received with restoring love…we trust our own powers to keep over His mighty, gentle hand. We allow fear and intimidation to deceive us into thinking that we can somehow love these willful lost into restoration. That’s not what the parable tells us. The willful lost must be released to God’s care because His infinite care is the only thing that will call the willful lost home. How many times have we delayed the Prodigal’s return because we never let him go? How many times have we run ahead and cleaned up the pigsty so that the willful lost won’t know the sting of their choices? How many times have we allowed a little sin to infiltrate our mindsets, values and morals for the sake of preserving a willful lost soul and not realized it until it was too late? If you have a prodigal, a willful lost, one who has been raised in the Father’s house LET THEM GO! Let them go with no expectation of return. Trust God to do what He does best, lead them by His loving hand to the place where they recognize the value of His house. Break the chains of fear and intimidation that you have allowed to bind you and release the prodigal. You cannot restore what has never been truly and sincerely lost. A willfully lost soul can’t see the need for restoration until they come to the end of their own will and find God’s will instead. I am sure that the Father of the lost son spent many hours praying, crying and hurting but I am also sure that in that moment of return all those tears were returned as joy. You see the Father trusted God. We get this beautiful hint when we read that he saw his son from afar off. He had no expectation of his son’s return but he hoped and so he watched for him. No one had to tell the Father that his son was coming, there was no unexpected knock at the door. He was watching and waiting and when he saw that precious humbled heart making his weary way home the Father ran. He ran to offer restoration before it was ever asked of him, he ran to offer love and compassion because his son was finally ready to receive it. Stop holding on to what you have no right to! Give your prodigal to God for the saving of their spirit and buy a good pair of running shoes because you have a glorious sprint to train for.