(2) Worldly happiness is unsatisfying. Husks are not food.
(3) Degradation.
2. The period of repentance.
(1) The first fact of religious experience which this parable suggests to us is that common truth--men desert the world when the world deserts them. The renegade came to himself when there were no more husks to eat. He would have remained away if he could have got them, but it is written, “no man gave unto him.” And this is the record of our shame. Invitation is not enough; we must be driven to God. And the famine comes not by chance. God sends the famine into the soul--the hunger, and thirst, and the disappointment--to bring back his erring child again.
(2) There is another truth contained in this section of the parable. After a life of wild sinfulness religion is servitude at first, not freedom. Observe, he went back to duty with the feelings of a slave: “I am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants.” Any one who has lived in the excitement of the world, and then tried to settle down at once to quiet duty, knows how true that is. To borrow a metaphor from Israel’s desert life, it is a tasteless thing to live on manna after you have been feasting upon quails. It is a dull cold drudgery to find pleasure in simple occupation when life has been a succession of strong emotions. Sonship it is not; it is slavery. A son obeys in love, entering heartily into his father’s meaning. A servant obeys mechanically, rising early because he must; doing, it may be, his duty well, but feeling in all its force the irksomeness of the service. Sonship does not come all at once.
3. The reception which a sinner meets with on his return to God. The banquet represents to us two things.
(1) It tells of the father’s gladness on his son’s return. That represents God’s joy on the reformation of a sinner.
(2) It tells of a banquet and a dance given to the long lost son. That represents the sinner’s gladness when he first understood that God was reconciled to him in Christ. There is a strange, almost wild, rapture, a strong gush of love and happiness in those days which are called the days of first conversion. When a man who has sinned much--a profligate--turns to God, and it becomes first clear to his apprehension that there is love instead of spurning for him, there is a luxury of emotion--a banquet of tumultuous blessedness in the moment of first love to God, which stands alone in life, nothing before and nothing after like it. And, brethren, let us observe--This forgiveness is a thing granted while a man is yet afar off.
II. GOD’S EXPOSTULATION WITH A SAINT. The true interpretation seems to be that this elder brother represents a real Christian perplexed with God’s mysterious dealings. We have before us the description of one of those happy persons who have been filled with the Holy Ghost from their mother’s womb, and on the whole (with imperfections of course) remained God’s servant all his life. For this is his own account of himself, which the father does not contradict. “Lo! these many years do I serve thee.” We observe then: The objection made to the reception of a notorious sinner--“Thou never gavest me a kid.” Now, in this we have a fact true to Christian experience. Joy seems to be felt more vividly and more exuberantly by men who have sinned much, than by men who have grown up consistently from childhood with religious education. Rapture belongs to him whose sins, which are forgiven, are many. In the perplexity which this fact occasions, there is a feeling which is partly right and partly wrong. There is a surprise which is natural. There is a resentful jealousy which is to be rebuked. And now mark the father’s answer. It does not account for this strange dealing by God’s sovereignty. It does not cut the knot of the difficulty, instead of untying it, by saying, God has a right to do what He will. He does not urge, God has a right to act on favouritism if He please. But it assigns two reasons. The first reason is, “It was meet, right that we should make merry.” It is meet that God should be glad on the reclamation of a sinner. It is meet that that sinner, looking down into the dreadful chasm over which he had been tottering, should feel a shudder of delight through all his frame on thinking of his escape. And it is meet that religious men should not feel jealous of one another, but freely and generously join in thanking God that others have got happiness, even if they have not. The spirit of religious exclusiveness, which looks down contemptuously instead of tenderly on worldly men, and banishes a man for ever from the circle of its joys because he has sinned notoriously, is a bad spirit. Lastly, the reason given for this dealing is, “Son, thou art always with Me, and all that I have is thine.” By which Christ seems to tell us that the disproportion between man and man is much less than we suppose. The profligate had had one hour of ecstasy--the other had had a whole life of peace. A consistent Christian may not have rapture; but he has that which is much better than rapture: calmness--God’s serene and perpetual presence. And after all, brethren, that is the best. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
A mirror of mercy
1. First, then, in that he is called a young man, there is noted in him want of knowledge and experience as the ground and fountain of all his folly, he knew not as yet what his father was worth unto him. And, therefore, he is not afraid to forsake him. This is to teach us that none forsakes the Lord, but such as do know Him not, and understand not that in so doing they forsake their own mercy. As beasts that know not the value of pearls care not to trample them under their feet, or as young children laugh at the death of their parents, because they know not for the present what they lose thereby, but afterwards remember it with grief; so blinded man without remorse runs away from God, not knowing what he lost by departing from the Lord, for He is light, and they go into utter darkness that go from Him. He is life, and they are but dead who abide not in fellowship with Him. One example of this we have in the elect angels; they are never weary to behold His excellent Majesty; they find ever new matter of joy in His face.
2. Secondly, in this prodigal child is noted here, that natural rebellion which is in all men; that they will not submit themselves to the will of God their Heavenly Father, but will follow their own wills.
3. The third evil noted here in this prodigal is his hypocrisy; he calls him in word father, but in deed did not so account of him; he carried not toward him the heart of a child; this is a part of that poison wherewith Satan hath infected our nature. Is there any comparison between that which thou givest the Lord and that which thou gettest from Him?
4. That he seeks a portion of his father’s goods, but not his father’s favour and blessing, represents to us the earthly minds of naturalists, who prefer the gifts of God to God Himself. (Bishop Cowper.)
The parable of the prodigal
Captain Sir W.E. Parry observes, “There is nothing even in the whole compass of Scripture more calculated to awaken contrition in the hardest heart than the parable of the Prodigal Son. I knew a convict in New South Wales, in whom there appeared no symptoms of repentance in other respects, but who could never hear a sermon or comment on this parable without bursting into an agony of tears, which I witnessed on several occasions. Truly He who spoke it knew what was in man.” It is the prince of parables, a gospel within the gospel, a mirror of man, an artless yet profound little drama of human ruin and recovery. Wonderful, indeed, is its power to touch the sensibilities. “I have wept but once these forty years, said a veteran military officer, and that was when I heard Jesse Bushyhead, the Cherokee preacher, address his countrymen from the parable of the Prodigal Son, the tears flowing faster than he could wipe them away.” (A. G. Thomson, D. D.)
The parable of fatherhood
I. LET US FOLLOW THE SINNER IN HIS REBELLION. In this part of the picture we shall perceive that sin is vicious in principle, ruinous in operation, and ever multiplying its destructive issues.
(1) SIN IS VICIOUS IN PRINCIPLE.
1. What is the unexpressed but fundamental axiom of all sin? A human being exists to pursue his own gratification, without regard to the will of God. That is it.
2. The younger son acts out the rule of life ascribed to him. For observe, the employment of the resources of existence for self-indulgence he claims as a right. “Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.”
3. Now definite plans for self-indulgence follow. His notions of life and felicity are not a theory, but meant to be a practice; and he does his best to be ready for it.
4. Notice, next, the haste of sin. “Not many days after, the younger son gathered all together.” It might have been the most sublime and hallowed enterprise in the world. The rapidity of his movements must not be attributed exclusively to the impetuosity of youth, but to the precipitancy of all sinful passion.
5. Remark, finally, here, the presence of God is “unfriendly to sin.” “And took his journey into a far country.” Banishment from home would have been accounted a great hardship, if it had been enjoined as a duty. The toils and perils of the road would have occasioned no little murmuring, if his hard travail had contemplated any other end than selfenjoyment. He is eager to swallow his indulgences, and equally anxious to be beyond his father’s eye and all the restraints of home. “Let me alone” is the impatient cry of sin to all remonstrance. “A far country” is always the coveted paradise of fools.
II. SIN IS RUINOUS IN OPERATION. “And there wasted his substance in riotous living.”
III. SIN IS EVER MULTIPLYING ITS DESTRUCTIVE ISSUES. There is no standing still in good or evil. The wheels of human progress never rest on their axles.
1. Instead of attaining to happiness, he is overtaken by poverty.
2. Now Providence fights against him. Nature is in the universal league against transgression.
3. He is already feeling the pinch of wrong-doing. “And he began to be in want.” The fruit of evil deeds is revealing its poison. He finds himself in the grasp of premonitory pangs.
4. Observe next, that the old principle is to be worked in new ways. “And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.” You see that he has not become a citizen himself. He is still a stranger. He cannot absolutely settle down out there. No. A man cannot find entire satisfaction in a life of self-enjoyment without God. With nothing but worldly things he cannot attain to rest.
5. He now sinks to a lower level of degradation. A swine-herd!
6. Take notice, further, that the swine-herd is prepared to accept his shame. “And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks which the swine did eat.” Ever since he left his father’s house his inclinations have descended lower and lower. He tried to fill, to satisfy himself with them, but he could not. They merely stayed his hunger. There was a bitterness in their flavour which something in his palate nauseated. The pleasure of eating was gone. The food of a beast cannot satisfy the soul of a man.
7. Last of all, his schemes of felicity and methods of relief are all overturned together. “And no man gave unto him.” It does not mean, that no man gave him swine’s food. The swine-herd had the care of the husks, and ate plenty of them, but he could not enjoy them. “No man gave unto him” what could satisfy and bless a human soul. Man is the highest creature in the world; but if you seek your happiness or your deliverance from misery at his hands, you must end in failure. “Citizens” out in that country, “far” from God, could not surround a prodigal with the good which a father’s love at home can alone supply. “No man gave unto him,” because no man had anything to give.
II. LET US WATCH THE SINNER IN HIS REPENTANCE. There are four elements of repentance here requiring analysis.
1. REFLECTION. “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare!” Sin creates a sort of moral insanity. While spurred by appetite and in the race after indulgence, the mind is actuated by a species of frenzy. “I perish with hunger!” There is the memory of a better past in that exclamation. This same recalling of brighter hours bows the spirit into the dust.
“This is truth the poet sings,
That a sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.”
Bygone years to a sinner, however in his beginning, is a glance up an ascending incline towards sunnier days.
2. RESOLUTION. “I will arise and go to my father.” He no sooner discerns his hapless state, than he determines to leave it. You are to imagine him prostrate, brooding in indecision or despair. But he will lie no longer in inaction. He protests, “I will arise,” and he rises.
3. RECOGNITION OF GUILT. His resolution, while unenfeebled by hesitation, was not formed in insensibility to his evil. He sees most distinctly the relation of sin towards God and towards himself.
(1) The relation of sin towards God. “I have sinned against heaven.” Evil insults the purity and despises the love of God. It destroys His moral order, and spurns the felicity which He offers.
(2) The relation of sin towards himself. “And am no more worthy,” etc. His sense of ill-desert is real and deep.
4. RETURN TO GOD. His was no empty vow.
III. LET US BEHOLD THE SINNER IN HIS RESTORATION.
1. NOTICE GOD’S RECOGNITION OF THE EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF PENITENCE. “When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him.” He had not seen his father, but “his father saw him.” Unconsciously to the son, the love of the father has been drawing him all the way. If he had lost the image of his father from his memory, he would never have attempted to return.
2. OBSERVE GOD’S WELCOME TO THE REPENTING.
(1) The tenderness of God is wonderful, He “had compassion.” Great reason had God to be angry with that sinful creature, with me, with you; but He “had compassion.”
(2) How willing God is to succour! “His father saw him, and had compassion, and ran” to welcome him. “Ran,”--willingness is too feeble an epithet to denote the impulse. There is eagerness in “ran.” God is hasting to save and bless.
(3) Pray do not overlook God’s readiness to accept and pardon just as you are. “Saw,” “had compassion,” “ran,” “and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
3. NOW TURN TO BEHOLD HOW GOD LAVISHES HIS AFFECTION ON THE ACCEPTED PENITENT. The father is not going to treat his son as an “hired servant.” God’s forgiveness must be God-like. God’s love is always greater in experience than in our most sanguine wishes and brightest hopes.
4. LISTEN TO GOD’S EXHORTATION TO HIS UNIVERSE TO SHARE HIS JOY. “Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry.” “Merry” is an old Saxon word. Its meaning has somewhat narrowed and lowered in our later tongue. “Be merry,” here, in the original is “rejoice.” A feast betokens gladness among all nations. The occasion is great, and great is to be the exultation. “Let us eat and rejoice.” The father does not ask his household to be glad and he himself remain only a spectator of the universal delight. It is, “Let us eat and rejoice.” It is God’s own joy that He would have His creatures share and proclaim. (Bishop Alexander.)
The prodigal son
I. AN EXHIBITION OF THE CONDITION AND THE CONDUCT OF MAN IN HIS NATURAL AND SINFUL STATE.
1. Absence of gratitude, or any sense of obligation to his father.
2. Impatience of his father’s government.
3. Breaking away from his father’s control.
4. Squandering his father’s property contrary to his father’s intention.
5. But his schemes all failed to make him happy.
II. WHEN MEN BEGIN TO FEEL THEIR WANT, THEY TAKE ERRONEOUS COURSES TO DELIVER THEMSELVES. One flies to his worldly companions; another to scepticism; another to business; another to pleasure; another to some external reformation; another determines to read his Bible a little more, and to pray a little more--not meaning by prayer his heart really coming back to God, but the utterance of some words and going more frequently on his knees. That is not prayer. Prayer is the child coming back to his Father; prayer is the heart meeting God; prayer is the heart delighting in God, pouring out its desires into the bosom of infinite Love, and feeling that God is there. You must get back to God through the mediation, the merit, and the sacrifice of the Lord our Righteousness and our Redeemer. All other refuges will fail: all other processes will fail: you may have convictions, and then you may do this, that, or the other that I have described; still you are in want. Husks, husks, husks are all you have received by staying away from your Father’s house.
III. THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE AND SUBMISSION--the way to get home to our Father. The young man is said to have come to himself: that means that he was beside himself before. Hence you find that the Word of God denominates sinners “fools”: and because they are practically so foolish, they would rather remain undisturbed in their sins for a few days, than go through the bitterness of repentance and the self-denial of religion now, that they may wear an eternal crown, and live in immortal peace. There is another proof of the derangement of the human heart. It is the feeling which men have, that they can be happy away from God, and that they know more about the secret of happiness than the God who made them. So repentance is turning to our right mind. Repentance is beginning to look at things aright--beginning to reason, and feel, and purpose, and act aright. The young man determines to come home, to confess his sin without any palliation. The willingness to humble ourselves, that is coming home. Look for a moment at this young man, and see how difficult it was for him to come home, and how impossible it would have been, if he had not humbled his pride. In the first place he had to go back in his rags. “There is not a child in the village but will see me; and they will say, That is the young man who went out in such splendid style; and they will point the finger at me and mock me”: and yet says be, “I will arise and go.”
IV. GOD’S RECEPTION OF THE RETURNING SINNER. (E. N. Kirk.)
The efficacy and joy of repentance
I. THE PARABLE. It can stand the two tests which Byron declared to be decisive upon the merit of literary creations. It pleases immediately, and it pleases permanently. The rose needs no essay to prove that it is a rose. This is fragrant with the breath of Christ, and coloured with the summer of His touch.
1. The prodigal’s sin.
(1) In its origin it is selfishness.
(2) In its progress it is dissipation.
(3) In its result, sin is famine and degradation: in action, the life of the stye, which is sensuality; in thought, the system of the stye, which is materialism. One of the citizens of that country sends him “into the fields to feed swine.”
(4) But the essence of his sin is the miserable determination to remove as far as possible from his father’s presence.
2. The prodigal’s repentance. “He came to Himself.” He had been outside his true self before. When a man finds himself, he finds God.
3. The reception of the lost son. For every step the sinner takes towards God, God takes ten towards him. We will not dwell upon the particulars of that great reception. Enough to mention “the first stole”; the ring of honour; the shoes forbidden to slaves; the sacrificial feast; the father’s voice passing into the chant of a wondrous liturgy; and seen and heard across the darkening fields by the elder brother as he unwillingly faces homeward the long line of festal light, the symphony of instruments, and the choirs of dancers.
II. CHARACTERISTICS OF REPENTANCE.
1. Its efficacy. Not in the nature of things; not inherent in it. The sinner is in an awful land, where every rock is literally a “rock of ages”; where the facts which some men call spiritual are bound by a fatal succession quite as much as the facts which all men call material; where God is frozen into an icicle, and no tender touch of miracle can come from His law-stiffened fingers; where two and two always make four, and your sin always finds you out. To remove this impotence and inefficacy of repentance, Jesus lived and died. Repentance is His indulgence, flung down from the balcony by our great High Priest. Repentance is His gift; the efficacy of repentance is His secret.
2. Its joy.
(1) There are two considerations which have always been urged by masters of the spiritual life.
(a) To judge the inner life only by the joy of which it is conscious is a sort of spiritual epicureanism. “The tears of penitents are the wine of angels”; but they were not intended to intoxicate those who shed them.
(b) Past sin, even when its guilt is pardoned, has penal consequences upon the inner life. It continues in the memory with its poisoned springs and in the imagination with its perilous susceptibilities.
(2) Yet they know not the mind of God to whom penitence is only bitter. There are
“Tears that sweeter far
Than the world’s mad laughter are.”
There is a triumphant, a victorious delight, which leads the will along the narrow way, and will not be gainsaid. It is a mutilated Miserere which omits the verse “Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the hones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.” By one of those apparent contradictions which lies at the root of the Christian life, a perpetual yearning after pardon is consistent with a perpetual serenity of hope. God would mould His penitents that they may combine sorrow with joy; that they may hear at once a sigh in the depths of their souls, and a music far away. There must be in the renewed nature something of the iron that has been moulded in His furnace, and something of the rose which has been expanded in His sunshine. The life of Frederick the Great, by a writer of transcendent genius, contains incidentally a record of the death of an English general defeated in Canada. Twice only did the unhappy officer rouse himself out of the mortal stupor into which he fell from a broken heart. Once he sighed heavily--“Who would have thought it?” Many days after he said with more animation--“Another time we will do better.” And then “ the cataracts of soft, sweet sleep” rushed down upon the weary man. Do not these two sentences give us this view of the twofold aspect of repentance?--the first, the humiliation of the beaten soldier as he comes to himself;the second, his hope through Christ as he catches the music of the march of victory. (Bishop Wm. Alexander.)
The pearl of parables
I. WE SHALL NEED TO GROUP TOGETHER AT THE OUTSET THE PARTICULARS WHICH SHOW THIS YOUNG MAN’S ALIENATED CONDITION AT THE MOMENT WHEN THE STORY GIVES HIM INTRODUCTION. (see Luk_15:11-12).
1. He was estranged from all love for his father. His affections had been soured and turned before he made this abrupt demand. He addressed his father as to a division of his estate in a cool, technical way.
2. He was away from his home (see Luk_15:13). His father’s residence which he had left is pictured in the parable, with the family life in it, by two or three strokes of a master hand. Even the servants had enough and to spare. Feasts were not unknown. Music and dancing were part of the entertainment. But it is plain that the old father meant to be master there; and that was precisely the condition of life this impulsive youth resolved to escape.
3. He had fallen into poverty (see Luk_15:14). Removed from influences which had hitherto kept him in check, he began the career of a profligate and debauchee. A little time spent in this voluptuous folly sufficed to run through his fortune.
4. At last he sank to the lowest, and became a servant. He went and offered himself to a master. The citizen of that country put him at the very worst business he had for any menial to do.
5. At this moment the young man was actually hungering in the presence of his beasts (see Luk_15:16). So far from having the right to despise the lowly creatures of his charge, the prodigal began the rather to envy them. The picture must be turned now to show just how it illustrates the condition of a sinner alienated from his Father in heaven. His own pride of heart lies at the bottom of his departure; he wants to be master of himself. Gathering together all his resources of time, talent, energy--all his powers of mind and body--he rushes away into the world of dissipation and lust. Now he goes to the devil directly and hires himself out, and Satan accepts him at his own valuation, and puts him among the swine.
II. LET US NOW SEEK FOR THE PARTICULARS WHICH DISPLAY THIS PRODIGAL’S ENTIRE CHANGE IN PURPOSE AND FEELING BY WHICH HE WAS AT LAST LED BACK TO HIS HOME IN PENITENCE AND PEACE. (see Luk_15:17).
1. First of all, he began to think “I thought upon my ways and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.” The expression here is as singular as it is strong--“When he came to himself.” A sort of madness was in his heart. He seeswhere he is, and what he is, and what he has so long been doing.
2. Then he began to remember. That is Scripture counsel for us in these later times--“Remember from whence thou art fallen.” The prodigal recollected the kindness of his home in the days gone by.
3. Then he began to regret. His grief over the wickedness of his career is shown by the softness and gentleness of his forms of meditation. We discover no demonstrations of spite.
4. Then he began to hate. Abruptly, but for ever, he throws up his engagement with his cruel master. He renounces absolutely all the associations of his life in this far country.
5. Then he began to resolve (see Luk_15:18-19). So critical is this as a point in his experience, that we must analyze it step by step to the end.
(1) He resolved he would arise. If he was actually bent on making a change, he must be up on the instant and out of this. Nothing could be gained by delay.
(2) He resolved he would go to his father. To whom else could he go? Drudgery was here, freedom was yonder. Shame was here, honour was yonder. Slavery was here, duty was yonder. Starving was here plenty and to spare were yonder.
(3) He resolved to speak to his father. Observe, in this little speech he says over and over again to himself there is not one word about food or raiment, or future fortune. He is going to get the awful past right before he begins on anything else. He decides that he will confess before he begins to plead; what he wants is pardon.
(4) He resolved to be obedient to his father. Unworthy of sonship, he will ask for a servant’s place. Indeed, now he has come to see that the lowest position in his father’s house is higher than the highest he ever discovered in all these reckless, wicked days since he left it. Here, again, we must pause to turn the story, so as to see in all plainness how it illustrates the process of mind and behaviour through which a contrite sinner returns to his Father in heaven in the hour of his resolve. These steps are all homeward steps.
III. There remains for our study now only one more grouping of particulars which show THIS PRODIGAL’S RECEPTION WHEN AT THE LAST HE ARRIVED IN HIS OWN COUNTRY, AND CAME TO HIS FATHER’S HOUSE.
1. He carried out his purpose of arising and going to his father (see Luk_15:20). It would have done no good just to resolve and then sit still there among the swine.
2. He carried out his purpose of confessing his sin to his father (see Luk_15:21). Perhaps he had been fainting with hunger; but hope would tell him of comfort by and by. Perhaps he would meet a train of travellers, who would laugh at his sorry look and condition; but he would think of help coming before long. Perhaps his heart wholly sank at the moment when from the last hill he saw his home; but he would be sure to fall back on his sure faith in his father’s affection.
3. He carried out his purpose of full obedience of his father. To be sure, not a word was said about his being a servant any more. He was a sou now, and all the old honour had come with the robe and the ring. But the unspoken resolve still remained in his heart (see Heb_5:8). (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)
The prodigal son
I. THE SON’S FORTUNE, AND HIS WAY OF SPENDING IT. What, then, was his fortune? Man is gifted with health, by which he is able to enjoy life--strength, to provide for its necessities--faculties (such as common sense, reason, the understanding), to guide him to God as his true happiness--affections, to endear him to others, and others to him. Appetites of various and valuable sorts. The appetite of eating and drinking, which affords legitimate pleasure and real advantage when moderately indulged; the appetite for seeing, which opens a door to much useful discovery and delight, which enables us to admire on every hand the infinite wisdom, power, and goodness of our Creator and our God; the appetite for hearing, by which Divine knowledge gets admittance into the soul, by which the agreeable converse of our friends, and the delightful strains of heavenly melody, may be enjoyed and indulged in. These, and many others are precious items in the portion which God bountifully bestows upon His children. They should be enjoyed at His discretion, according to His command, and for His glory. Not so, however, the sinner. Like the prodigal, he gathers his riches, and takes his journey into a far country--that is to say, he wanders far from God and heaven. The prodigal becomes a worldling; he carries his portion into the unregenerate world, and there wastes his substance in riotous living. His gifts are debauched and misused; they are all made the servants of sin. Hunger eaters to gluttony; thirst to drunkenness; the eye administers to lust; it reads wicked looks, delights in wanton shows, in pomp, and vanity, and folly. The ear drinks in blasphemy, irreligion, and indecency. The heart is made the residence of evil affections; the head and understanding, of wicked, ungodly, infidel principles. The summer of life is spent in bringing to maturity the seeds of evil which were scattered in its spring--the autumn, in the neglect of what is good, and in the ingathering of what is bad, the poisoned fruits of a debauched manhood. The winter of life comes on, and in its train sharp disease, racking pains--a bloated, enfeebled, disordered carcase--a foolish head, an unregenerate heart, a guilty conscience. There is now no more capacity for enjoying pleasure; the sight is gone, the hearing lost, the appetite vanished, the strength decayed, the health squandered, the affections debased, the faculties degraded--the whole substance wasted in riotous living.
II. HIS DESTITUTION AND REPENTANCE. “And when he had spent all there began to be a mighty famine in that land.” So it is with sinners. They derive their pleasure from sensual enjoyments--the indulgences of the flesh; but, when they spend their strength, there is an end of these indulgences. The eye refuses to see, the ear to hear, the members to stir, in obedience to the miserable slave of sin. “And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.” It is among the miseries of sinners that the appetite for wicked indulgence increases as the capacity for gratifying it decays. The longer the heart has been exercised in iniquity, the deeper will be the corruption with which it is tainted. “And no man gave unto him.” Be assured, sinner, this is a true picture of the world. While you can treat them--while you have anything that they can devour, they will praise andflatter you; but, when your substance is gone, you will find it true that no man will give unto you--none of your sinful companions. They have their own devouring lusts, their filthy lusts, to gratify. Do you think that they will deny themselves for your necessities? “And when he came to himself”--mark the expression, as though he had been in a fit of madness. It isthus the sinner is here spoken of; yea, and elsewhere the Holy Ghost says, “Madness is in their hearts while they live.” “I will arise,” etc. Here, then, were no excuses, no palliations--no saying others were in fault, I was led astray, I have not been as bad as some--no promises of great things for the future--no saying, I will devote myself to thy service, I will fight thy battles, I will do wonders for thy cause; but a simple declaration of guilt and wretchedness: “I have sinned, I am unworthy; I do not deserve the character of thy son; make me as one of thy servants; regard me as one of them.” He resolves to plead, not his merit, but his misery, and he puts his resolve into execution. For--
III. “HE AROSE AND CAME TO HIS FATHER.” “He arose and came”: it is important that you should mark this--he did not rest content with mere resolutions of repentance. He did not say, “I will arise and return,” and all the while stay where he was, desiring still to feed on husks. This too many do. “And while he was yet a great way off,” etc. Oh, the melting tenderness of our God and Saviour! He watches the very first movements towards repentance. (T. D. Gregg, M. A.)
The reformed prodigal
I. LET US INQUIRE WHO THE YOUNGER SON IS INTENDED TO REPRESENT. The parable is addressed to the scribes and Pharisees; but there was nothing in their character which resembled what is ascribed to the younger son, or that could admit a comparison with him. But, as we are told, it was delivered in the presence of publicans and sinners, who had assembled in crowds to hear Jesus, it cannot be doubted that it was that class who are portrayed by the younger son. The publicans and sinners are never represented in the Gospels as influenced by the religious opinions which prevailed among the Jews, but rather as led by their feelings; just as the younger son is exhibited in the parable. They are, however, drawn as more easily instructed, and more susceptible of repentance and reformation.
II. LET US NEXT POINT OUT WHAT USEFUL INSTRUCTION WE MAY DERIVE FROM THE CONDUCT OF THE YOUNGER BROTHER.
1. We see that extravagance and licentiousness are usually followed by want. Whoever, then, practices these vices, cannot plead ignorance of their natural and unavoidable consequences. Nor do evil effects belong to these vices alone; for every other vice has its peculiar evil consequences which accompany its train, as uniformly as a shadow goes along with a moving substance when the sun shines. Thus, even truth from the mouth of a known liar is usually received with incredulity, and always with suspicion. Pride is incessantly exposed to imaginary affronts and real mortifications, which cause to the unhappy victim many agonizing moments. The vain man is miserable when he is doomed to negligence and contempt, instead of receiving the coveted and expected praise. The gratification of revenge, in reality, consists of the pains of the rack.
2. As the evil consequences of sin are thus so evident to all, we ought to be convinced that this knowledge was intended to lead us to amendment. Such, indeed, is represented as the effect produced on the young man in the parable. His sufferings occasioned not only that repentance which consists in strong feelings, but that reformation which consists in a change of conduct. This is exhibited as genuine and sincere; it was speedy, nor was it partial but universal.
III. OUR ATTENTION IS NEXT CALLED TO THE ELDER BROTHER. We have concluded that the younger brother was designed to represent the publicans and sinners. Nor can we have any doubt that, under the similitude of the elder brother, the scribes and Pharisees are intended. It is true the character given of the elder brother is good--that he had served his father many years, and never transgressed his commands. But we must not overlook the circumstance that this favourable character is given by himself, while his conduct exhibits an opposite picture, bearing a close resemblance to the scribes and Pharisees; for they deemed themselves not only faultless but meritorious, as they are represented by the Pharisee in the parable, who thanked God for his superiority to others, and plumed himself because he fasted twice in the week, and gave tithes of all his possessions. Like the great body of the Pharisees, the elder brother is selfish and indifferent about others. He is angry at the fond reception given to his penitent brother, envious of the marks of favour conferred on him, and mortified at the supposed preference to himself by his noble-minded father. Had he possessed any natural affection he would have cordially testified his delight at the return of his long-lost brother. Had he felt as he ought to have done, he would have learned that his own happiness was highly enhanced; for there is no joy so elevated and refined as that which a good man feels at the return of a son, or a brother, or a friend, to God and duty.
IV. Lastly, THE CONDUCT OF THE FATHER IN THE PARABLE IS EVIDENTLY INTENDED TO REPRESENT THE GOODNESS OF OUR ALMIGHTY FATHER. (J. Thomson, D. D.)
The prodigal son
1. This young man was laying his life-plans, and his first idea was to get away from his father.
2. Freedom from restraint leads to recklessness.
3. Recklessness leads to want.
4. Want leads to recollection.
5. Recollection leads to repentance.
6. Repentance leads to reformation.
7. Reformation leads to restoration.
8. Restoration leads to rejoicing.
9. Rejoicing over the returning prodigal is well; but the conduct and character of the elder brother are immeasurably better. (T. Kelly.)
The parable of the prodigal son
I. SELF-WILL LEADS TO PRODIGALITY.
II. PRODIGALITY LEADS TO WANT.
III. WANT AWAKENS MEMORY.
IV. AWAKENED MEMORY LEADS TO REPENTANCE AND RETURN. (Geo. Gerrard.)
The prodigal
Let us regard it as giving a picture of man--
I. IN THE DIGNITY OF HIS ORIGIN. This young man was the son of a father who could bestow on him a large fortune, and surround his life with comfort and splendour. He was born to dignity. The destitution and misery to which he had reduced himself was not his natural heritage. “We are also His offspring.”
II. IN HIS DESIRE FOR INDEPENDENCE. All sins may be regarded as the unfolding of this single sin of selfishness. Hence the necessity that we should enter the Kingdom of God, where He asserts and maintains His dominion over us.
III. IN THE LIBERTY ALLOWED HIM, WITH THE RISK OF ITS ABUSE. When a man feels that the service of God is not perfect freedom, that he can better himself in some condition of his own seeking, God allows him to make the trial. The foolish experiment discovers at length to him that he is not really free by throwing off his former yoke. He has but exchanged it for a far heavier one.
1. We learn from this that the apostasy of the heart begins before the apostasy of the life.
2. Man abuses the liberty allowed him, and abandons himself to the dreadful possibilities of sin. Liberty is indeed a noble endowment, yet it is terrible to have the power to ruin ourselves. We can gain nothing by contending with our Maker.
IV. IN THE MANNER OF HIS SPIRITUAL RECOVERY. This recovery is possible. Such is the glad sound of the gospel. Let us trace the steps by which the prodigal gained the favour he had forfeited.
1. He was made to feel his utmost need.
2. His reformation commenced in thought.
3. He was sensible of the honour he had rejected.
4. He resolves to cast himself upon the mercy of his father.
5. He frames the design of his confession. Sin is acknowledged in its root--“before Thee.”
6. Still remaining as a son, he desired to be reckoned a servant.
V. IN THE MERCIFUL KINDNESS WITH WHICH HEAVEN FORGIVES THE EVIL OF HIS LIFE. God draws nigh unto those who draw nigh unto Him. When the face is turned towards God, the long journey is relieved by the arrival of mercy before we have trodden every weary step.
1. The penitent is raised to a position of honour.
2. There was sympathy awakened for him in the father’s household.
3. The joy was suited to the time--“it was meet.” But this intensity of joy could not, in the nature of things, long continue. He, too, must shortly settle down to the sober tasks of duty. The excitement of a great crisis must not be the permanent condition of the soul, or her energies would be consumed at too high a rate; and, instead of the glow of health, there would be the burning of a fever. Excessive joy must subside into the patience of faith, and the labour of love. (The Lay Preacher.)
The parable of the prodigal son
I. THE PRODIGAL SON LEAVES HIS FATHER’S HOUSE.
1. Why did he leave?
(1) Youth is the time of imaginations. The prodigal son promised to himself a joyful life outside of his father’s house.
(2) Youth is desirous of sensual pleasures.
(3) Youth desires to be independent, and will not obey.
2. How did he leave?
(1) The ungrateful demand.
(2) The going astray.
II. THE PRODIGAL SON IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY.
1. He wastes his substance.
2. He begins to be in want. Poverty is the condition of the soul that seeks happiness in the world. By losing his God, the sinner loses everything.
3. His degradation. He who would not perform the daily work in the house of his father, is now obliged to labour as a hired servant.
4. He envies the brute beasts.
III. HIS RETURN AND RECEPTION.
1. The causes of his return.
(1) It was caused by his misery. The famine calls him back whom satiety had led away. God visits with grace him whom He visits with affliction.
(2) Forsaken by all the world, he returned to himself. The first condition of conversion is knowledge of one’s self, and the knowledge of the condition of our soul.
(3) He saw the misery of his condition.
2. The steps he takes in order to return.
(1) He makes a firm resolution, not deferring his return to a later time, nor being deterred by difficulties.
(2) He still remembers the kindness of his father.
(3) He acknowledges the enormity of his sin.
3. His reception. (Repertorium Oratoris Sacri.)
The prodigal son
Look at the prodigal son--
I. IN HIS ORIGINAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF HONOUR AND HAPPINESS. Upright. Innocent. Happy. God his Father. Eden his home. The earth his domain. Angels his companions. All that Divine wisdom and love could provide, he possessed. An ample portion was his inheritance.
II. IN THE ARROGANCE OF HIS PRESUMPTUOUS CLAIM. What did he really want.? Where could he be more dignified or happy? But he seeks to have his portion to himself. He desires to do with it as he pleases. He seeks to throw off parental restraints and control.
III. IN HIS DISSIPATED WANDERINGS.
1. This wandering is very gradual and insidious.
2. Increasingly rapid.
3. Awfully dangerous.
IV. IN HIS WRETCHEDNESS AND MISERY. Profligacy is followed by want; extravagance by misery.
V. IN HIS UNALLEVIATED DISTRESS. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The prodigal’s return
I. REASON RESUMES HER DOMINION.
II. THE RESOLUTION HE ADOPTS.
1. He determines on an immediate return to his forsaken home.
2. He resolves freely to confess his sins.
3. He resolves to be content with any place in his father’s dwelling.
III. THE COURSE WHICH HE PROMPTLY CARRIES OUT.
1. Immediately; without delay.
2. And he perseveres in his homeward course. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The sequel
I. THE HAPPY MEETING.
II. THE HEARTY RECEPTION.
III. THE DISTINGUISHED BANQUET.
IV. THE COLD-HEARTED ENVY OF THE ELDER BROTHER. Lessons:
1. How generous and pure is the benevolence of the gospel. It is of God, and from Him, and resembles His tender and infinite love.
2. How hateful is an envious self-righteous spirit. It is the sprit of the evil one, and therefore from beneath.
3. Happy they who have repented of sin, and who have been received into the Saviour’s family of love. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The prodigal son
I. THE PRODIGAL’S DEPARTURE. He disliked all parental restraint. He broke the principle involved in the “first commandment with promise.” In his father’s house vice was out of place. He made the world his servant, little thinking how soon he should be under its most cruel tyranny. He was sadly deceived. We must never forget that all wasting of our gifts is a sin. Man is made for a noble purpose; his duties touch eternity, and are given for use in time. Shall we, for even a moment, dare assume that it is no concern of ours how we employ our powers?
II. THE PRODIGAL’S DESPAIR. His situation is portrayed by the one graphic description of Christ: “There arose a mighty famine in that land.” We are pointed to the darkest word in human history, precursor of the pestilence and death. It tells of the stony bed where the brook once ran. It tells of the fruitless trees, with branches prematurely stripped of their foliage.” It tells of the grass of summer all burned away. His property was all wasted, and despair was settling down upon his soul. His life was a failure in such a land; his “riotous living” was beginning its curse. No want of the human heart, good or bad, is ever satisfied here. Even the disciple’s anticipation is of a time when he shall awake in Christ’s likeness. Just so, the nobler desires turned earthward are more insatiate still. Epicure was never satisfied. The sustenance of vicious desires only awakens new ones. The drunkard drinks deeper week by week, his thirst deepened with every draught of the mocking cup. The miser’s lust burns fiercer as the gold in his chest becomes heavier.
III. THE PRODIGAL’S RESOLUTION. We are told of an English soldier, wounded and faint, left by the retreating army to die. Helpless and motionless he lay, expecting his death, screened from the burning sun by an overhanging cliff. While his strength was ebbing fast there alighted just before his face a greedy, ravenous bird, waiting for the end to come. Thoughts of himself becoming the prey of that loathsome bird gave him a now energy, and he slowly arose and at last was saved. In almost a like helpless state the prodigal “came to himself.” Two thoughts convinced him of his insane course--the abjectness of his misery, perishing with hunger; and the remembrance of the joys in the father’s house. It was thus the dissolute John Newton became himself again. But for a like critical resolve John Bunyan would ever have remained the same worthless profligate as in his youth. A moral coward may face the cannon’s mouth, but only a hero will turn from his sin. There is a splendour in such a moral conflict. Caesar’s political fats depended upon his passing the Rubicon; and yet the same resolution is demanded in the ease of every sinner.
IV. THE PRODIGAL’S WELCOME. Words are powerless in declaring the richness of such a reception. The prodigal loved his father because his father had first loved him. Day after day the hired servants had asked in vain, When will his love grow less? But it never ceased. (D. O. Mears.)
The prodigal son
I. THE SPIRIT OF THE SON AT THE BEGINNING. His underlying aim is to look out for himself. He wanted his father’s goods, but not his presence. This is the germ of sin--an independent, proud, unloving spirit toward God.
II. THE DEPARTURE. Not many days after he found that he could be independent, he started off on his journey. He who does not pray and obey God, rapidly withdraws from Him. God is not in his thoughts, and therefore he soon ceases to appreciate the character which God loves. The true generosity, which is love to men for their good, is lost. He loves men for what they are worth to please himself. Reverence is lost. The courage of gentleness is lost. Abhorrence of wickedness is lost. He sees wit in the rejection of Divine authority, courage in anger, manliness in vice.
III. THE LIFE OF UNHALLOWED PLEASURE. He chose the company that fitted his spirit. He sought others for what he could get out of them; they sought him for what they could get out of him. He had plenty of company as long as he had substance to waste on them. What he spent on them was wasted. What they gave him was wasted. The whole traffic was utter loss on both sides. They had not only outward possessions, but a wealth of intellect, affection, beauty, genius. They wasted it all. This the seeker for self and not God always does. He uses his talents to cover up his real aims and passions. Art has been made the handmaid of Sin. Music is called in to adorn the hideous nakedness of vice.
IV. THE COLLAPSE. The famine began when he had used up all he had. When all is gone, Nature herself turns against the prodigal. The world is a desert to a sinner who has run through the gifts of God, and he is absolutely certain to run them through in a little while. Alas for him when his own treasures are squandered, and the famine smites the far country! His one friend he has east off to win the admiration of the friends he had chosen; and they have cast him off as soon as his goods are gone.
V. THE NEW BUSINESS. No extreme of degradation could be greater than this to the mind of the Jew. He became the servant of a foreigner, whom the Jew despised. He tended swine, which were hateful to the Jew. He was hungry for the food which the swine fed on, and couldn’t get it. Yet even this degradation was his own choice.
VI. THE AWAKENING. “He came to himself.” Awakening to his wretchedness, he remembers one friend. Oh, if God were not a friend, the prodigal would sink into despair and hell when he comes to himself. He sees now where he is, that he has brought himself into this poverty. Many call God cruel after they have wasted the abundance of gifts from him. They have received all they ask for, have made no acknowledgment, have wasted all, and then, finding themselves wretched, they say that God has done it. But not so this prodigal. He said, “I have sinned.”
VII. THE RESOLVE. He is awakened to a hope of pardon and gracious reception. But this does not hinder the full confession of his sin. He accepts the deepest humiliation. He seeks now not to maintain his pride, but to confess the truth.
VIII. THE RETURN. He acted at once. Honest repentance always does. Resolves postponed are lies. Men befool themselves with them. He did not wait to cleanse himself and get a more becoming dress. He was not earning enough to keep himself alive, far less could he save enough to better his appearance. Besides, there was nothing in the far country which money could buy that would make him in the least degree presentable at home. The gay and costly attire which he wore when he was spending his living with harlots was as repulsive to his father as his rags. He was not to become better in order that he might go to his father, but he was to go to his father in order that he might be made better. Yet he went back, not to claim anything. His father had given him once all he had asked for, and he had taken it as if it had belonged to him, had wasted it, and ruined himself by it. He went back to make confession.
IX. THE MEETING. He was yet a great way off when the father saw him. Love is quicker than youth, loftier than pride, mightier than Satan. The love of God is compassion. It suffers with the penitent. It would even spare the recital of the sad history. (A. E. Dunning.)
The prodigal son
Six touching scenes.
I. A SINFUL LIFE.
1. A young man chafing under the restraints of home. This chafing arose--
(1)From a false view of true liberty.
(2) From a false view of true happiness.
(3) From a false view of self-guidance.
2. A young man demanding his portion of the inheritance. This demand arose--
(1) From a desire to be independent of his father.
(2) From a desire to lay out his life and means according to his own plan.
3. The young man receiving “the portion which befell him.”
(1) The father recognized his son’s free agency.
(2) The father saw that his son’s heart was already estranged from him.
(3) The father felt that the bitter experiences of life alone, if anything, would undeceive his self-deluded and wilful son.
II. THE DEPARTURE FROM HOME.
1. The departure was not long delayed.
2. The young man took all he could claim.
III. HIS MODE OF LIFE WHEN ONCE RELEASED FROM THE RESTRAINTS OF HOME.
1. His life riotous.
2. His substance wasted.
IV. THE RESULT OF HIS SELF-ELECTED LIFE.
1. Famine.
2. Want.
3. Degrading service.
4. Hunger.
V. THE REACTION.
1. Situation realized.
2. Reflection commenced.
3. Decision resolved on.
4. A plea constructed.
5. Decision executed.
VI. THE FATHER’S LOVE.
1. Love’s long range of vision.
2. Love’s tenderness.
3. Love’s generosity.
4. Love’s joy.
Lessons:
1. The infinite contrast--man’s selfishness and God’s love.
2. The infinite folly--man breaking away from God.
3. The infinite grace--God embracing, forgiving, and honouring the returning prodigal. (D. G. Hughes, M. A.)
The prodigal son
I. THE PRODIGAL’S SIN.
1. Discontent.
2. Departure.
3. Wilful waste.
II. HIS DESTITUTION.
1. Extreme poverty.
2. Deep degradation.
3. Woful want.
III. HIS REPENTANCE.
1. Awakening.
2. Penitence.
3. Resolution.
IV. HIS RESTORATION.
1. Return.
2. Confession.
3. Welcome. Applications:
1. Too many imitate the prodigal in his sin, but not in his repentance.
2. The Father is ever ready to meet and receive, with a kiss of affection, the returning prodigal.
3. God is exalted to have mercy. There is grace for the chief of sinners. Whosoever will, may return. Come home, prodigal! (L. O. Thompson.)
The prodigal
I. WILFUL.
II. WANDERING.
III. WASTEFUL.
IV. WANTING.
V. WRETCHED.
VI. WALKING HOME AGAIN.
VII. WELCOME. (J. Sanderson, D. D.)
The prodigal’s wandering, return, and reception
I. A SINNER’S AVERSION AND ALIENATION FROM GOD.
1. A sinful state is a state of departure from God.
2. An extravagant or spendthrift.
3. A wretched or destitute state.
4. A servile and slavish state.
5. A state of perpetual dissatisfaction.
6. A state of deadness or death.
II. THE SINNER’S RETURN TO GOD, AND THE MANNER THEREOF. The first demonstration of his return is--
1. Consideration of his father’s kindness.
2. By comparison, he saw his misery.
3. The view he got of the superiority of his father’s house.
4. Determination.
5. Confession.
6. Self-condemnation.
7. Humble submission.
8. Filial confidence.
9. His obedience.
III. THE SINNER’S APPREHENSIVE RECEPTION.
1. The father’s affection to his returning child.
2. Eyes of mercy: he saw him as from a mountain.
3. Bowels of mercy: he feels compassion.
4. Feet of mercy: “he ran,” while his son “came” only.
5. Arms of mercy: “he fell on his neck.”
6. Lips of mercy: “he kissed him.”
The provision presented.
1. He came in rags. “He put the best robe upon him, a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet” (see also Isa_61:10).
2. He came hungry. “Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry” (see also Joh_6:54).
3. Great joy. “Let us be merry” (see Luk_15:10); “Let them also that love thy name, be joyful in Thee (Psa_5:11).
4. The conduct of the elder brother (25-30) serves as a reproof to the Pharisees, who were displeased at the conversion of the Gentiles. (T.B. Baker.)
Parable of the prodigal son
I. Sinners regard God no farther than to gain from Him whatever they can.
II. Sinners waste the blessings which they receive from His hands, and reduce themselves to absolute want.
III. Afflictions are very often the first means of bringing them to a sense of their condition.
IV. When they first acquire this sense they usually betake themselves to false measures for relief.
V. This situation of a sinner is eminently unhappy.
VI. The repentance of the gospel is the resumption of a right mind. Among the things which the sinner realizes, when he first comes to himself, are the following.
1. His own miserable condition.
2. That in the house of his heavenly Father there is an abundance of good.
3. A hope that this good may be his. I shall now proceed in the consideration of the progress of a sinner towards his final acceptance with God as it is exhibited in the text. With this design, I observe--
I. True repentance is a voluntary exercise of the mind.
II. True repentance is a filial temper, disposing us to regard God as our parent, and ourselves as His children.
III. True repentance is followed, of course, by a confession of sin.
IV. A real penitent feels that all his sins are committed against God.
V. A real penitent is, of course, humble.
VI. A real penitent brings nothing to God, but his want, shame, and sorrow.
VII. A true penitent executes his resolutions of obedience.
VIII. God is entirely disposed to receive the sincere penitent.
IX. The richest provision is made for the enjoyment of the sincere penitent.
X. There is a peculiar joy in heaven over the repentance of returning sinners. (T. Dwight, D. D.)
Bitterness of prodigal sin
I. THE PRODIGAL’S SIN. Dissatisfaction. Alienation. Estrangement.
II. THE PRODIGAL’S MISERY. Sooner or later every sinner must be taught that to be estranged from God is to be estranged from happiness.
III. THE PRODIGAL’S REPENTANCE AND RETURN.
1. Sanity returns.
2. Comparison of the present with the past.
3. Resolution to return. His condition has conquered his pride.
