Luke 15:11-32
The Parable of the Lost Son
11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.
13 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and went to his father.
"But 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.
21 "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
22 "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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Luke 7:36-48
The Parable of Two Debtors
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[c] and the other fifty.42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Acts 17:24-28
God is Near Us
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
I once thought after reading the Parable about the Lost Son, that it was a nice parable, with a nice lesson...I completely missed all the things that Jesus was teaching...Many of us have been lost...Many of us today, do not even know that we are lost...We can get easily lost in life...We can be so caught up in our lives, we lose track of God and Jesus...And when we think we are living, we can get lost, lost in life...We drift away from Them...Or maybe we have not found God yet, although He is not far from any of us...But some day we may question life and ask why, we may find that something is missing in our lives, or ask a question about life's meaning, or maybe ask ourselves is that all there is...Then we may return to Him...
What I missed in this story was how it relates to our youth...When we are young we feel sometimes like we must sow oats...We must do and experience things on our own way, away from our father and families...We feel a need to get out of home and grow up...It is like we need to have some youthful digressions for us to feel older and grown up...Maybe I missed the story being about drifting away from our religious beliefs and drifting from our Father...It is like, I missed what was said about the one who was lost, maybe he was the outcast of the family, yet although being an outcast, the Father is always near and always awaiting his and our return...Maybe we put God aside for awhile in our lives...Or maybe I missed the story of our needing to try and look at other faiths, and our Father allows these things in our lives, as we leave Him...After all, we often find Him, where we left Him, as the lost son finds out...Maybe I missed that when Jesus told this two thousand years ago, that this story would always be as pertinent, when He told it, as it is today...Maybe sometimes it takes a suffering or humbling event to get us back to the Father...Or maybe I missed that in each of our personal lives, we have this day to day struggle with things like our faith, and we doubt at times and leave it, and then come to our senses and our faith is stronger...Or maybe I missed that the older son would become the one who is lost, after his younger brother gets found...Or maybe throughout our lives, we may try to put God off for a later time...Or maybe I better understand Jesus and His relationship with money, and the lost son's use of His Father's money is not even an after thought of His...Or maybe I missed that it is a story about most of us...
This story is the Great Story of Forgiveness...The lost son after running out of his Father's money, comes to his senses, and learns an important lesson about God and about family...The lost son thinks: After all Father has food to spare, and I am now broke and starving...So the lost son says, "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 men."...
But what I think I missed the most was what happened to the Father, when He saw the son from a long way off...But while his son 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....Our God and Father did not even give the son a chance to tell Him what happened to him...The son did not run toward the Father...We are not told that the son is filled with compassion...We are not told that the son throws his arms around his Father...We are not told that the son kisses his Father...And our Father wants to celebrate His son's homecoming...The son is restored to being His son again, and in a great, loving and compassionate way...No, Jesus tells us that is His Father that has done these things, not to the son who left on his own decisions...We learn so much about forgiveness of our Father...It is only One who forgive infinitely, that can LOVE infinitely...