I Want You Back
In Luke 15, we witness Jesus doing something He did often—He taught using a parable. A parable is a common illustration used to give insight about the kingdom of God. Jesus loved using these to teach.
Matthew 13:34 says, “Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables, and he did not tell them anything without a parable.”
At the end of Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a man with two sons. One of his sons came to the father one day, asking for his eventual inheritance now. Surprisingly, the father gave the son his portion of the wealth.
The son then went off to sow his wild oats, and for a while, things went well. But when a famine hit the land where he was living, he was forced to work feeding pigs. One day, the son realized that the hired hands at his dad’s place were doing better than he was, so he gathered the courage to return home.
This story isn’t just about a son and a father; it’s about you and me. It’s important that you know, no matter how far you’ve run from God, no matter where you are or have been, God's message to us is this: “I want you back!”
In this story, I see an example of us. We’ve all run at some point. Each of us has chased the world. We chase pleasure, influence, identity, wealth, acceptance, comfort, importance, and more, but we, too, will find those things unsatisfying.
When asked which of his Super Bowl wins was his favorite, all-time great quarterback Tom Brady answered, “The next one.” This is the pattern of the world—that no matter what we achieve, we will not find fulfillment in ourselves.
On our own, we are lost!
There’s good news: we have a Father who still welcomes us home. I love that before the son even returns, the father is already waiting. So it is with God. Even when we stray, He isn’t hoping to catch us sinning so He can punish us. Instead, He lovingly waits for us to return, ready to restore us.
The father did see the son returning, though, and that’s when the waiting stopped. He sprinted to his son. In a patriarchal society, where the father of a family was considered a figure of honor, Jesus sharing this detail would have shocked His audience. Fathers were not known to express themselves so much as to run—but this dad did.
So it is with our Father. He runs to us! God gets excited to see us come home! This father would have had every right to have his rebellious son killed, according to Jewish law, but instead of anger, we see joy.
Finally, we see the father restore his son. This young man is given a place in the family and returned to his proper position. Grace is given, and hope is found.
This is the Gospel! Jesus came to invite us back home to the Father. The way was made through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Even now, as you’re reading this—whether you’re one of our parents or students, or maybe you don’t even know how you wound up on a random church website—I want to invite you to return to God!
Understand this: no one is perfect. We’ve all sinned. The penalty for our sin is death, but Jesus lived, died, was buried, and rose again to set you free. Trust God now and find redemption, hope, freedom, and a home in Jesus' name!
