Luke 15:1-3; 11-32

We all are very familiar with the story on the Parable of the Lost Son. The father is seen here as a kind, loving, compassionate and forgiving man who has great love for his two children.

His younger son after he had gotten his share of the inheritance, left home and squandered away all the money he had. Upon realizing his foolishness, he began to miss the warmth of love in his father’s house; the younger son then decided to head home and seek the father’s forgiveness and to seek a job on his father’s land.

We were told that when the father first saw the son from afar, he was filled with compassion for the boy and he ran out and embraced him; and he even instructed the servants to bring out the fattened calf as the return of his son called for feasting and celebration. He did not look at the son’s wrongdoings and sins, nor condemn him for squandering all his inheritance or cast him away. It is easy to identify with the feelings and actions of the father because of his great love for the son, plus he saw the true repentance coming from the son and he knew that this son, once lost, is now found; this great love for the son overshadows and embraces all the wrongdoings, past, present and future.

This is exactly how God our Heavenly Father will treat us when we sin or turn away from him but are willing to seek his reconciliation and forgiveness. Because of His great love for us, He will erase all our wrongdoings and welcome us back into his sheepfold… He’ll make us new again!! This is well resonated in St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 5:16-19)… anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ… not counting men’s sins against them.

On the other hand, I believe the older son’s reactions to the father’s treatment of the younger brother resonate with many of us too. We are inclined to feel that the father is unfair in his treatment of the two children, especially in the words of the older son “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders; and yet the father had given him nothing to reward him or to acknowledge his hard work and obedience.

Oftentimes, even as Christians, we tend to have similar thoughts as the older son. We often think that God favours the “stray” ones and gives little acknowledgement to those who obediently stayed by God’s side or strived to live in holiness. However, like the older son, we fail to see that when we stayed by His side we lived under the shadow of his blessings throughout; we are not in want or in need of anything; whereas those who have; or have gone astray, they often live in fear, anguish, discomfort, humiliation, deprivation, low self-esteem, etc. oftentimes they long to start all over again on a new page, have a new beginning and become a new person; we therefore need to show acceptance, compassion, kindness and love and embrace those who sincerely choose to walk in repentance going forward.

Shared by Belinda Syn