The Father finding the Lost: Reflections on Luke 15

By: Mandy
I recently read Tim Keller's "Prodigal God" about the parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15, so some of this thought process might be gleaned from Keller. I have been thinking about the connection between the 3 parables of that chapter, that of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son (or as I would call it the parable of the lost sons).

The similarities are easy to spot. Things are lost, sought after, and then there's a party! First the shepherd leaves his 99 sheep to search for the one that is lost. The woman lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and "seeks diligently until she finds" the coin. Then we have the father of two sons. His younger son asks for his inheritance early, leaves home, and squanders all that his father has given him...he is lost. But here's what caught me off guard after having read this parable and heard it preached so many times: the father does not go after the son. He stays home. That's odd...not at all like the shepherd or the woman with the coin, and isn't a lost son much more valuable and therefore pursuant-worthy than a sheep or money? Isn't God (pictured here as the father) supposed to run after us? Why doesn't the father go to the pig pen and invite his son home?

Well, ok, he does run to embrace his son when he finally returns. He welcomes him home without a guilt trip and lavishes grace and celebration on his younger son. We have to give him credit for that right? But it still doesn't seem to fit very well with the other two parables. Unless, that is, if the younger son isn't the only one who is lost. Maybe the father is seeking to find another son as he stays home.

The elder son sulks in a mood of entitlement and self-righteousness. Although he has lived with his father everyday he is farther from his father than his brother was in the pig pen! As the party goes on and the fattened calf is cooked for the guests, the elder son pouts outside. Here's where the seeking happens: "His father came out and entreated him." The father is celebrating his son who has come home, guests are filling his house, everyone is happy...but he leaves all that to seek after the hardened selfish heart of his oldest son. We don't know the end of the story. Seemingly the older son stays lost, lost in his own bitterness.

God the Father is gracious to us to seek us and lavish grace-filled patience on us. I am very much the older son usually, sulking in my own entitlement. I give in order to be given to. I serve in order to be served. And all the while God patiently pursues me, comes out from celebration to consistently invite me in. Do I really want to stay outside? I hope I respond to God's grace with celebration, joy and gratitude. Praise God for His seeking after my heart!