Luke 13-15

Ask and ye shall receive, apparently; a couple weeks after missing out on parables and instead getting a hard teaching on divorce, this time around, I get possibly the most famous parable in the Bible. This is good, not least because I can steal crib borrow from a bunch of good writers that I know I've read on this topic at some point. (Apologies for the lack of proper citations, but I recommend Tullian Tchividjian, Jon Acuff, and the guys at the Mockingbird blog on this subject.)

Anyway, I think it's useful to back up and look at the first two parables in chapter 16: the lost sheep and the lost coin. These don't make any bold theological points; rather, they just tell us something about the attributes of God: God personally seeks out the lost, and rejoices when they are found. This has nothing to do with any merit; rather, God seeks us, finds us, and rejoices over us solely because we are his.

On to the parable of the Prodigal Son, and I think it's interesting to note: When asked, most of us tend to assume that we're like the younger son. We're aware that we are guilty of trading the glory of God for the false allure of sin, and so we enjoy the idea that God not only accepts us but welcomes us when we repent. Most of us who have been in the church for a long time, though, tend to miss how much we can be like the older son. When we see someone repent, we (probably silently) utter the Great Minnesotan Lament: "How would it be if everyone acted that way?" We miss the joy of welcoming home the younger brother, but we also miss the reward that is given us: "All that is mine is yours."

In other words, I guess: Rejoice if you are lost and then found, just like God rejoices over you. And rejoice if you never had to be found, because God gladly shares your inheritance with you. You'll hit both states many times a day so there will be plenty of time for both.