The Bread of Life
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Today's Devotional

A Great Joy In Heaven When The Lost Is Found (Luke 15: 11-18)

“A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ 

So he divided to them his livelihood. 

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 

And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 

But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 

I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” (Luke 15: 11-18)

Jesus’ prodigal parable was in response to the self-righteous pharisees and scribes who sought to criticize His behavior of accepting and eating with sinners. 

In this story we see the younger son made an unusual request to receive his inheritance early while his father is still alive. 

He used it foolishly to fulfill his carnal desires. 

He squanders what he received on indulging himself in prostitutes and drinking. 

He did not consider the bad consequences of his decision. 

He lost everything and became poor and have no place to live. 

But one day he came back to his senses and decided to humble himself and go back to his father and apologize and repent. 

His father accepted him back with open arms and throws a party to celebrate. 

This is exactly the story of our redemption. 

This is what Jesus do to all who come back to Him with repentance. 

He accepts them and gives them Himself in the Holy Spirit. 

He gives them His eternal life and His blessings to live a holy and righteous life in Him. 

We see in this story that the Tax collectors and sinners are drawing near to Jesus. 

The Pharisees and the scribes are not celebrating this, but they are grumbling. 

They are upset that the heart of Jesus “receives sinners and eats with them.” 

Jesus responds to there accusations by giving them many parables, one of them the prodigal son parable. 

The prodigal returns, the father celebrates, but the older brother doesn’t. 

The question now is, how many of us would do like the Pharisees and the older brother? 

Most of us who go to church, pay tithes, attend Bible study meetings, and have ministry feel like we are righteous and look upon others as sinners. 

We feel like we have been putting in hard work to please God. 

We have done what we could to live right, to follow God’s commands. 

When people look at us, they think of someone who is righteous, who has their stuff together. 

But the truth is that we are lacking a very important thing that Jesus asked us to do that He Himself was an example to us in doing it, and that is, we do not care about the lost brothers and sisters and never think to go and seek them.

The extravagance of grace is lost in us. 

When the father of the prodigal son saw his son back home, he felt a huge relief, as if years of anguish has been lifted from him for his lost son has been found. 

The older son met his brother with coldness and he cannot rejoice, but rather felt offended. 

We all must know that our heavenly Father rejoices in heaven when the lost are found. 

We also must confess that we all were lost and Jesus Christ came to us to reveal His love for everyone and He redeemed us all. 

After reading this parable each one of us must ask himself and herself, is grace going to make us angry? 

Are we going to forfeit our own grace because we cannot bear this for our brothers and sisters? 

That’s one of the main questions that hangs over this passage. 

Thankfully, Jesus is faithful when we are not. 

We are far too much like Jonah who was angry at God’s grace. 

We are working out in a safe field to somehow prove our dedication to Jesus, while refusing to do that which is truly on Jesus’ heart. 

This parable calls us into the joy of the Father God and His Son, Jesus Christ,  joy over seeing the lost to be found. 

That is the heart of Jesus. We all now must join Jesus in the place where His heart is, and go to seek the lost. 

Amen.

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