Come Home, the Father Runs to Meet You

Introduction

Have you ever truly felt at home somewhere? Comfortable, at rest, exactly where you belong? Silas opens his sermon on Luke 15 with that blunt question, and his answer is clear: no. However hard we work to build the home we long for, we always come up short. We're never quite satisfied with our apartment: it needs higher ceilings, a better view. When you live alone, comfort quickly turns into a prison of loneliness. When you live with others, it becomes hard work. Our families are often the place where the sharpest friction happens. And even our bodies, these homes for our souls here on earth, keep reminding us of our fragility: sickness, fatigue, age catching up with us.

If we can't find that feeling of home on this earth, the Bible teaches us there is a reason for this restlessness. In the beginning, Adam and Eve gave in to Satan's temptation that they would be like God if they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3). Ever since, all of humanity keeps making the same choice: to move away from God, to do what pleases us whenever it pleases us. That is the heart of sin. We build our lives on our own plans, our own strength, our own values, and it doesn't work. Our restlessness lingers, poisoning our relationship with ourselves and with others.

And yet God keeps seeking us out. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables to show how much he delights in saving us. The most famous of the three, the parable of the prodigal son, extends a direct invitation: come home. The Father is there, arms wide open, ready to welcome you. Silas gives us three reasons why this invitation is impossible to resist.

Sermon Outline

1. His kindness draws you (Luke 15:11-19)

• It all starts with the striking illustration of sin that gave the parable its name. The younger son makes a series of decisions that could charitably be called unwise. He asks for his inheritance, which in the Jewish culture of the time was as good as wishing his father dead (Luke 15:12).
• Then he sets off for a distant country. Far from his father, far from the Hebrew people, far from the temple in Jerusalem, the center of Jewish religious life. He squanders his fortune living in reckless excess, until he has to hire himself out to a citizen of that country to feed pigs, a blatant violation of God's law.
• Every one of these decisions is a symptom of sin. He despises his father, he throws away his dignity as a son, he chases the freedom to follow his wildest passions, far from the Father. We recognize this same sin weighing down all of humanity, and we recognize its consequences too.
• He sought freedom: he became a servant. He sought abundance: now he dreams of eating the pigs' food, which is especially humiliating for a Jew. He sought independence: all he found was loneliness, with no one caring enough about him to notice he needed to eat. It's a hole he dug for himself.
• And in the middle of this chaos, the memory of his father's kindness comes back to him. Silas offers a vivid image: it's a bit like the winter season we're about to enter, with its gray, cold weeks. And in the middle of those weeks, we remember the warmth of the sun on our face, the colors of a sunset. It's beautiful. That's the same kind of tenderness with which the memory of his father's kindness returns to the prodigal son.
• That memory convicts him of his selfishness. It stands in stark contrast to the ruin his sin has led him into. And that kindness changes the course of his life by producing true repentance. In verse 18: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants."
• True repentance means, first, recognizing our sin against God and against others. Second, it means recognizing our need to depend on God: the prodigal son admits he depends on his father. And third, it means recognizing that we have nothing to bring to God that could justify us. The son doesn't show up with excuses or a repayment plan. He comes empty-handed.
• At the start of chapter 15 (v.1), we read that "the tax collectors and sinners were all coming close to him to hear him." The tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman occupiers. The sinners, more broadly, were people who didn't keep the Jewish law. They would surely have recognized themselves in the prodigal son, in his sin as well as his repentance. If they came to hear Jesus, it was because they had already walked that road of repentance in their hearts.
• Maybe you, too, hear the Father's kindness calling you this morning. This is a remarkable example of true repentance to inspire you. The right response to the Father's voice looks just like this: recognize, admit, come without excuse.

2. His mercy restores you (Luke 15:20-24)

• The younger son holds to his resolve. He gets up, he returns to his father. And Jesus gives us here perhaps one of the most famous, most beautiful, and most moving reunion scenes ever written.
• First, the father is watching for the return of the son who had been gone so long. He is still waiting for him. Then he is moved with compassion when he sees him: not angry, moved with compassion (Luke 15:20).
• Next, the father runs to meet him. For an older man in that culture, running was especially humiliating: to run, he had to lift his robe, expose his legs, and risk tripping over his own clothing. And yet the father does it, just to see his son as quickly as possible.
• When he reaches him, he takes him in his arms and kisses him, even though the son surely smelled, having just come from being with the pigs.
• Finally, the father cuts off his son's words of repentance before he can even finish, to declare his restoration on the spot. "Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate." (Luke 15:22-23)
• What mercy. What a stunning restoration. God wants to pour out his grace on those who truly repent and give them back their dignity, the dignity we had thrown away as his children.
• The high point of the scene comes in verse 24, in the father's words: "for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found."
• That sentence says a great deal about how serious sin is. This is no small matter. Wallowing in sin, far from the Father, is death. And the Father's grace that restores his son's dignity is just as powerful as resurrection. That same power of God to restore will also be shown in Jesus himself, who tells this parable not long before his own death and his own resurrection.
• For the tax collectors and sinners listening to Jesus, this sentence must have brought them to tears and to a smile at the same time. It was the assurance that God would welcome them with as much joy as this prodigal son. And if we come to God with true repentance, we know God restores us and makes us his children again.

3. His love calls you (Luke 15:25-32)

• There is a dramatic shift in mood. While the rest of the parable unfolds right in the middle of the action, here we're standing at the edge of the celebration. The older brother comes in from the fields, hears the music, asks what's going on, all while staying at a distance (v.25-27). And we already sense that he is far from his father, both physically and in his heart.
• That's confirmed by his anger, which bursts out in verses 29-30. It's a very human reaction, one our own very human hearts can understand on some level. At first glance it can even seem unfair. But this reaction shows just how proud this older brother's heart really is.
• He isn't so different from his younger brother. First, he too contributes to the division in his family, through his anger, his distance, and his contempt toward his brother. In verse 30, he calls him "this son of yours" (refusing to claim him as family), and he dehumanizes him by saying he "has devoured your living."
• Next, we can see that he seems to view his father as someone he owes an accounting to. It's a very transactional relationship. He doesn't see his father as his father: he sees him more like a wallet, just as his brother did at the start of the parable. That's why he asks for a young goat (v.29).
• There's a crucial difference between the older brother and his younger brother: the older one never repents. He doesn't even see that he needs to. "Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours," he says (v.29). But is he really doing his father's will by making him come out to invite him to the celebration?
• These works for the father are good in themselves. But they were simply what was expected of a respectful, faithful son toward his parents. Silas offers an image: it's a bit like a husband trying to take credit with his wife for having stayed faithful. That's a good thing, but it's also exactly what's expected, given the commitment of marriage.
• Unlike the younger son, this older brother comes to his father with hands full of demands. He needs to repent just as his brother did. He needs to let go of the idea that his effort and good works could justify him. But his heart is hard. He seems blind to the miracle of his father's grace.
• Maybe that's why the father's answer is so full of tenderness, meant to help him see what he's missing. And maybe that's also why the father repeats the very same words he said to the younger son, in verse 32: "But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found."
• But this time, the words fall on empty air. That's how the parable ends. We don't get, as in verse 4, the line "they began to celebrate." We don't know. The older brother's response is left hanging. Will he see the miracle of his father's grace and repent? Or will he stay locked in his pride?
• Looking back at verse 2 of this same chapter 15, Jesus is also speaking to the Pharisees, who looked down on the tax collectors and sinners listening to him. The Pharisees would have realized that the character of the older brother was aimed straight at them. Jesus calls them to understand that their efforts to keep the law are not enough to make them righteous before God. Even if they refuse to see it, they are every bit as much sinners as the sinners they despise.
• The invitation to come home is issued right there, left hanging, just like the parable itself. If this is an invitation you haven't yet accepted, what's holding you back? Do you think you don't need grace? Jesus says you do. Do you think your sin is too great to be forgiven? Jesus says it isn't. The Father's arms are wide open. Come in and see how good he is.

Key Takeaways

• Our longing for a true home can only be satisfied in God. As long as we keep building on our own plans, we will keep coming up short.
• True repentance has three parts: recognizing our sin against God and others, admitting our need to depend on God, and accepting that we have nothing to bring that could justify us.
• The Father runs to meet you. He doesn't wait at a distance by the door. He runs, he embraces you while you still smell of where you've been, and he even cuts off your excuses to declare your restoration.
• The older brother is the one who stays home but never repents. His works don't justify him. He needs grace just as much as the brother who went far away.
• The parable is left open for the older brother. It's up to you, today, to answer the invitation.

Personal Application

• Where are you with your longing for a true home? Are you trying to fill it with plans, relationships, and places, or are you handing it over to the Father?
• Can you say out loud today, like the younger son: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight"? No repayment plan, no prepared excuse.
• Do you see more of yourself in the younger son (gone far away, in a season of excess or personal chaos) or in the older son (stayed home, but proud and resentful)? Both of them need to come home.
• Is there someone in your life you consider, like the older brother did, "too far gone" for God's grace to reach? How might this sermon change the way you see them?
• If you've already come into the Father's house, how do you welcome new brothers and sisters? With the same joy God welcomed you with?

Scripture References

• Luke 15:11-32 · the parable of the prodigal son and the older brother
• Luke 15:1-2 · the tax collectors and sinners who come to hear Jesus, the Pharisees who grumble
• Luke 15:17-19 · "But when he came to himself, he said..."
• Luke 15:20 · the father moved with compassion, running
• Luke 15:22-24 · the robe, the ring, the sandals, the fattened calf: restoration
• Luke 15:32 · "this your brother was dead, and is alive again"
• Genesis 3 · Adam and Eve tempted by the serpent
• Luke 14 · the Pharisees who think they deserve the seat of honor, the crowds who follow Jesus without giving up what they own

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it actually mean to "come home" when we're talking about God?

Coming home means returning to the Father after building your life on your own plans, your own strength, your own values. It means recognizing that your restlessness, your longing for a true home, can only be satisfied in God. The prodigal son comes to himself (Luke 15:17), recognizes his sin against God and against his father, admits he has nothing to offer that could justify him, and sets out toward his father. That is true repentance: not a repayment plan, not a list of good resolutions, but a heart that admits and returns empty-handed.

Why does the father run toward his son in the parable?

In first-century Jewish culture, an older man running in public was humiliating: he had to lift his robe, expose his legs, and risk stumbling. And yet the father runs. He doesn't stay at the door waiting. He doesn't demand an explanation. He doesn't put off the reunion. He runs, he embraces a son who still reeks of the pigsty, and he even cuts off his son's words of repentance to declare his restoration by giving him a robe, a ring, and sandals. That's the picture Jesus gives us of the Father: not a distant judge waiting for your excuses, but a father who humbles himself in his rush to reach you.

Who is the older brother today?

The older brother is the one who stays home but never repents. He believes he has earned his place by his own effort, he sees his father as a wallet, and he dehumanizes his brother. Jesus is speaking here to the Pharisees of his day (Luke 15:2) and to anyone who thinks their good works are enough before God. The parable ends with an open question: will he come in to the celebration? Silas leaves the answer to each of us: maybe the older brother, today, is you, the faithful Christian who needs, just as much as the brother who went far away, grace alone to stand before the Father.