Messy Grace by Caleb Kaltenbach

Author:Caleb Kaltenbach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2015-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

Love That Never Stops

When I started going to the new church, one of the first sermons I heard was on the parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11–32). Here, Jesus was preaching to a mixed crowd. His listeners included Pharisees, other religious leaders, “sinners,” and people who were on the fringes of society.

Jesus told a story about a father who is wealthy and has two sons. His oldest son is prideful and does everything his father wants. The younger son is independent and always thinking of himself.

When the younger son is old enough, he asks his father for his inheritance. Back in that day, it would be like telling your father to drop dead because you just want his money.

If that didn’t shock Jesus’s original listeners, then the next part of the story would. The father actually does what the younger son wants! More than likely he gives the firstborn two-thirds of the inheritance and the younger son one-third.

The younger son leaves and goes to a distant country. In other words, he goes to party. He takes his inheritance (which is a lot of money) and blows it in a place like Vegas. He has a lot of fun, a lot of girlfriends, and a lot of other friends.

When the money runs out, all of a sudden his friends are nowhere to be found. Also, he can’t find any work because he is in a foreign country. So he does the lowest thing imaginable: he sells himself out to a pig farmer. Working with pigs was not a good thing in the minds of Jewish people back in Jesus’s day. They considered these animals to be unclean.

The younger son hits rock bottom when he ends up wanting to eat the same food that the pigs are eating. In this moment he knows he needs a change in his life.

He comes up with an incredible idea, saying to himself, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:17–19). At least he would eat better and he would be in a familiar place.

He starts the journey home, probably practicing his speech over and over again. After a long walk, he sees his dad’s house in the distance. Something then happens that he wasn’t expecting:

While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

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