A core value at Grace Anglican is: “We engage God’s mission to others.”  

To embrace this, we must: 

1. Have personal experience of God’s grace.
2. See clearly God’s heart for lost people.  

The Parable of the Prodigal Son plumbs the depths of God’s love for lost people. Our own struggle with sin should produce empathy for others. However, this parable portrays two kinds of lostness: license and legalism.

In the parable’s context, religious leaders are grumbling about sinners coming to Jesus. The usual title is misleading. It’s about two lost sons, not just one. The younger is lost morally. The older is lost in legalistic religion. Both want out of a real relationship with their father. The rule breaker pursues pleasures and ‘freedom.’ The rule keeper is entitled, trying to make his father owe him. Both are types of people being lost. Thankfully, Luke 19:10 teaches:

Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

In the honor/shame culture of the Middle East, the younger son mistreats his father in asking for the inheritance, but so does the older son in refusing to celebrate. They deserve to be disowned and shunned. But the father shows lavish love and grace. The parable oddly ends inconclusively. Does the older son come into the party? Will the younger revert to wayward living?  

It’s resolved in real time. The Jewish leaders are the ‘older son’ and the notorious sinners are the ‘younger son.’ Since the older didn’t serve the Heavenly Father’s heart in bringing in the lost, his one true son, Jesus, had to come to seek and save the lost. Jesus’ sacrifice redeems both kinds of sinners.

Taking It Home: 

Which “type” of lostness is more likely for you? Pray for empathy for the other kind.