“And He said, ‘A man had two sons'” (Luke 15:11).
Yeshua’s parable consists of three mutually related and interdependent stories. Remarkably, the value of the loss in each of these stories continues to grow, as does, it would seem, the joy of one who finds the lost. In the first story, a shepherd has one hundred sheep and loses one, which is a loss of 1%. In the second story, a widow has ten coins, which is a loss of 10%. In the final story, a father has two sons. While we might be tempted to calculate the father’s loss here at 1/2 (= 50%), to do so would be to fail to measure the fullness of this incredible father’s heart for both sons!
The father loves both sons equally, but at the end of the parable only the younger son is restored. The father’s joy will not be complete until both sons, younger and older, are sitting together with him at the table! Yes, God loves prodigal sons, those who have wandered far by casting off all moral restraints. But he also loves older brothers who are lost at home in their self-righteous pride. And like the father in the parable, we too must plead with them to enter into the celebration so that our heavenly Father’s joy will be full!
“When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation'” (Luke 19:41-44).
