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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
The principle of mercy being preferred before sacrifice is an overarching principle that is intended to influence all that we think, do, or say. It is extremely sad that many of the folks who seem to pay the least homage to mercy are the same people who uphold the Bible and claim to be lovers of God. Mercy is akin to compassion, pity and love. It arises from the heart of God and has been manifested to His Creation every minute of every hour that the world has stood! God’s mercy is inexhaustible though there will come a time when the window of mercy closes for the human race and all accounts will become due and payable except those that have been co-signed by Jesus Christ. We continue our thoughts about mercy as we turn our attention to one of the better known parables in the Bible, The Prodigal Son.
The Prodigal is one of the longest, if not the longest, parable of Jesus. In Luke 15, it consumes the last 22 verses of the chapter. In its context, it was obviously intended to demonstrate the extent to which God goes to bring sinners to Himself and the joy that results from such occasions. The other two parables in this chapter are styled the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin. You are encouraged to read the entirety of Luke 15 to feel the full impact of our Lord’s tremendous heart of compassion. One commentator referred to this parable as “…the boundless mercy of God” and yet another says it tells of “…God’s refusal to limit the measure of His grace.”
Being limited by space, we will give a high level overview of the Parable of the Prodigal Son and then proceed to note some salient points from the story. The parable begins, “A certain man had two sons…” The man was of significant substance and his two sons stood to inherit their respective portions of their father’s estate when he died. However, the younger of the two sons was impatient and petitioned to receive his portion before his father’s demise. The father granted the wish but soon the boy determined that he would be better off to take his fortune and live elsewhere. In the process of time, the younger son lost his entire fortune through foolish spending and a lavish lifestyle. The entire parable turns on the fact that the broken and hungry son determined that he would return to his father even if it was only to work as one of his hired servants. This decision sets the stage for the remainder of the story.
It is obvious that the father longed to see the boy though there is no evidence that he knew anything of his condition or the lifestyle that took his fortune. Then perhaps unexpectedly the father’s greatest desire was fulfilled. “But when he [the prodigal] was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” (Luke 15.20-24).
We do not know how many times the boy’s father had looked longingly down the road before this fateful day. However, it is easy to imagine that he peered in this direction every day and perhaps many times a day. We don’t know anything about the father’s eyesight, but we do know that he was able to recognize his lost son even when he was “a great way off.” We do not know what he knew of his son’s riotous lifestyle but we DO KNOW that when he saw him, he “…ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” We DO KNOW the motive behind the father’s actions; he had compassion for the lost boy and nothing else mattered at this moment. “This my son was dead and is alive again!” Mercy realized! (continued)
Questions:
1. What reason did the son have to believe that he might find a place in his father's house? (Luke 15.17-19). What must he have known of his father's character that allowed him to reach this conclusion?
2. Describe the obvious emotion of the father when he saw his son a long way off.
3. What evidence, if any, did the father have that his son had repented before he ran to meet him?
4. What is the relationship between compassion and mercy? Where compassion exists can mercy be absent?
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