Luke 15:11-32
You may have heard this story hundreds of times and you may have thought tht the son that ran away was a terrible son. This was only a quarter of the point of Jesus' story, which was told to the religious leaders of his day after they gave out about him spending time with sinners.
There are two brothers, they are both lost. One is lost because he lives a frivolous lifestyle and has no respect for his father or brother. The other is lost because he doesn't love his father either. He just wants to earn his inheritance and thinks that to do that he needs to work and be obedient but his lack of obedience and love and the fact he doesn't believe his father loves him, is seen when he won't party for the return of his brother.
This story shows two of the main responses to God. The first is to run away from Him and do your own thing and live your life your own way. The other is to approach Him with religion and try doing things in order to get things from God. This attitude is about controlling God and making Him give you what you want from Him. It's not about love it's about control.
In this story there is a picture of an older brother who isn't a good one, but we can draw a parallel between that older brother and another one, Jesus. You see in Jesus' day inheritance was divided between two sons with the older son getting two thirds and the younger son getting one third. The bible tells is that the father divided all he had, so the return of the younger son was at the expense of the older son.
That's similar to us when we come back to God, whether we are coming from a controlling religious attitude or a rebellious one. Jesus is not like the older brother in the story though, because Jesus, at His own expense, left Heaven and came to earth. He paid it all, and the reason He paid it all and gave up all He had was because of His love for you! Jesus loves you whether you are lost religiously or whether you are lost rebelliously and He stands open armed to welcome you back and present you holy and blameless to His Father, your Father, God!
He waits open armed today to welcome you back, even if you have already come to Him for the first time before today but have slipped into a thought pattern like the older son and think your works will get you what you want from God or if you have slipped into a lifestyle like the younger son where you are rejecting God's ways and doing your own thing. Jesus, your older brother, is waiting open armed to receive you back and right behind Him is God Himself, waiting as well.
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