Which Prodigal Are You?

1. Read Luke 15:11-12. What did the younger son request of his father?

What did the father do in response to the son?

The young son in this parable was very bold and obviously selfish. According to Middle Eastern culture of the time, the son coming to the living father and asking for his inheritance before the father’s death was like saying, “Drop dead Dad.”  His actions were brazen and went against the honor of the father-son relationship. The community would be outraged.

Similarly, the father’s reaction to the son was contrary to the traditional response expected. This was to take his left hand and backhand the son across the face, disowning and banishing him from his presence. Rather than exploding with anger, the father divides his money. The literal interpretation means he “divided his life” between the two sons. He allowed the younger son to divide the family and leave to do his own thing. The local community would look down on the father’s response to the son and could even cause him harm. He lost credibility in among his peers.

The father had two choices in his response to the son:
* He could choose to protect himself by rejecting his son and banish him.

* He could choose the way of suffering by letting his son go and take half of his fortune, and in this case his heart.

God responds to His children with great compassion and mercy. Though He could respond to us in anger when we sin against Him, He shows love. Like the prodigal’s father, God allows us the freedom to make our own choices.

2. Read Luke 15:13-16. Describe what the son did after he got his inheritance from his father?

What unexpected occurrence also affected him and the country was   living in?

Where and how did he end up?

The prodigal son left the will of his father and the protection he gave. He no longer lived under his direction but took out on his own. Without much thought of the consequences, he squandered all his money on “wild living.” A famine hit and knocked the young man into extreme poverty. He didn’t see it coming and wasn’t prepared for it. Alone and hungry, without protection and provisions, he looked for work and finally hired himself out to feed pigs. In Jewish Law, pigs were ceremonially “unclean” and never to be eaten or touched. (See Leviticus 11) Here the young man found himself living in the most degrading and filthy environment.

3. Read Luke 15:-19. Look at the King James Version below and underline “came to himself.”

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”

The only other time this phrase, “came to himself” is found in Acts 12 where Peter is miraculously freed from prison by God’s angels. The whole time Peter thought he was dreaming until the angle left him in the street. Verse 11 says, ‘Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord has sent His angel to rescue me...”’ This phrase literally means “to come to reality.” Peter finally realized all he was experiencing was real.

This same phrase happens here Luke 15. The young man finally realized his surroundings and situation in life were real. His life had come to living with pigs and wanting their leftovers. He woke up and accepted how he was living and what he left behind when he demanded his way and left his father.

4. When have you ever experienced reality’s cold slap in the face? Explain.

The prodigal son is not yet at a place of repentance. He is only in a place of desperation and thinks he has figured out how to remedy the situation. Servants of his father were treated well and he wanted to at least be able to have a life like theirs. By working he could pay off his debt to his father all the while being fed and clothed. So with determination in his steps he heads on home.

“In the Middle East, it was considered humiliating for men over age forty to run. As the father ran, he would have had to lift his robe—another humiliation. As the father drew closer, the son would see not anger—but joy. And when the father reached him, the father kissed him over and over on the neck.” ~ Dr. Ken Bailey

5. Read Luke 15:20. Describe what happens in this verse.

To have seen the young man in the distance, the father would have had to be looking for him. Being a parent myself I can just imagine the father going to the end of his driveway everyday looking for his son to return. His heart longed to see his boy again. When the father sees him, his heart is filled with compassion and he runs to greet him. He had every right to turn away from him and never accept him home. Instead he threw his arms around him and kissed him. It wasn’t about the money, it was about the condition of the father’s heart towards the son and the son’s heart toward him.

God’s heart towards you and me is one of great compassion. He is right in his part of our relationship with Him. It’s our heart and it’s condition that is in question. The son had finally turned toward home but was still relying on his own abilities and not his father’s love. He thought he could earn back the money he lost as a worker for him.

The Middle Eastern custom of the time was to punish sons for ever bringing shame to their father. The father knew his son had done this. He knew what the community required him to do. So, he ran out to meet him and threw himself on his child, protecting him from harm. He protected him with his love and his physical body from the punishment he knew the community would want to give the boy.

“As the son comes closer to his home, he would likely experience fear and shame. He (had) wished his father dead; left family and community; and now he has lost everything. He expects to face his father’s and brother’s rejection and anger. Further, the community would reject and banish him—as was the custom. Any Jew who lost his money among foreigners would face the Kezazah (literally “the cutting off.”) The Kezazah would be performed by breaking a clay pot at the feet of the prodigal as visual symbol that the community rejected him forever.” ~ Dr. Ken Bailey

6. Read Luke 15:21. What did the son say to his father? Read Psalm 51:4. What similarities are there with Luke 15:21?

Psalm 51:4 was written years before by King David. David has committed adultery and murder and was repentant before God. Perhaps Jesus quoted this in His parable to bring His point home to the Pharisees who were among a crowd of tax collectors and sinners. They would have readily recognized this passage of Scripture.

7. Read Luke 15:22-24. What is the Father’s response? What does he do?

“Experiencing the father’s visible, costly love for him, his contrived speech melts away. All that is left is feeling that he is is not worthy to be the father’s son. The grace is too overwhelming. Then the father restores the son—showering him with the best robe, providing shoes for his feet (slaves were bare-footed: sons wore shoes), placing a ring on his finger (a signet ring would give him the power to transact business).

The imagery here is that of the son returning with dirty rags on his back and a contrived speech. Yet it was the father’s costly, unexpected outpouring of visible love that turns the son’s heart toward him—perhaps for the first time. The son’s work (repentance) is simply accepting being found by the father.” ~ Dr. Ken Bailey

Can you see it? The father doesn’t care what his son has done. He cares that he has come home and has now repented. Our Father in heaven is reflected in this story. He stands at the end of his driveway scanning the horizon for his child to come home. When we come home, when we repent, He runs to us, hugs our neck and pours out his gift of life unlike anything we could ever ask or imagine. We are dead without Him. He gives us eternal life when we ask Him.

In the parable, the young man knew he had done wrong and was ready to receive whatever came from the father’s hand. He knew he deserved the punishment he was due. His heart changed from thinking he could earn back what he owed to being humbled by the act of compassion and grace on the part of His father.

All of us should be able relate to the prodigal son. We have all sinned against our heavenly father and deserve the penalty that comes with it. We deserve death. (See Romans 3:23 and 6:23)

8. How we define repentance defines how we interact with God and with others. How do you define repentance?

The Parable takes a sharp turn from all out rejoicing to shock, disappointment and anger of the older brother. We leave the music and laughter of the celebration to peek in on a hard and wounded heart.

9. Read Luke 15:25-27. Where had the older son been before he heard the music and dancing? 
      
      Who did he ask about the party? What did the servant tell him and what was
      the older brother’s response? 

      What was his father’s explanation? 

The older brother seems to have been a dutiful son while the younger brother squander his inheritance. We can see from his anger he had some other issues brewing within his heart. He was resentful and bitter not only towards his brother but also towards his father. The older son probably harbored all his feelings for a long time and they’d finally come to the surface.

10. Read Luke 15:28-30. What was the response the older son gave to his father’s explanation?
      What was the father’s response?

The older boy had depended on the father noticing what he had done for him over the years. It was all about what he did for the father and not on what the father provided for his sons.

11. Read Micah 6:8. What does this verse tell us is required of God’s children? How can a person have bitterness and anger in their hearts and continue to be humble and walk in obedience to God? 

When the older son finally faces his father, he does so from an adversarial position. He spews his anger he had harbored for so long and the father responds with the same kind of love he had just shown the younger son.

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

12. What was the older son’s response to the last thing his father said?

There was no response. In the parable, Jesus leaves us with no resolution to the older son’s attitude. Perhaps He wanted those in the crowd, particularly the Pharisees, to understand it was they who represent the older son in the story. The younger son represented the “tax collectors” and “sinners.” It causes me to reflect on my own heart issue. Am I repentant of my anger and bitterness; my sin and disobedience? I am both sons at times. What about you?

The father was defending His joy over his younger son’s return. He wanted the older son to reunite with and celebrate in the repentant younger son return home. The boy was lost and now was found. God defends His joy over and over and over in His Word. He delights in restored relationships with Himself. He grieves over those who can’t or won’t grasp the grace and mercy He extends through His Son Jesus.

13.  Are you willing to accept God’s grace and mercy? Are you willing to listen to the Father as He draws you into his joy? Take this moment to listen. Open your heart to Him and receive the delight He so freely gives.

God desires His children to enter His presence, His joy, His delight. All we have to do is accept the invitation to repentance and celebration. He wants to envelop us with His love.