Luke 15
This week we took a short break from our study of the Sermon on the Mount to look closely at Luke 15. In the chapter Jesus was confronted with a complaint from the scribes and the Pharisees as to why He ate with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus answered their complaint with three parables, each one a story of someone that had lost something of increasing value and how they searched for that lost valuable, setting everything else aside until the lost item was found. The third parable, often referred to as the Parable of the prodigal or lost son, is where we spent most of our time but this time, rather than studying to find ourselves we tried to stay true to Jesus’ context and study what He was teaching us about why He ate with sinners, what He was trying to reveal to us about our Father. My prayer is that we will take this Scripture and read it as we should read all Scripture, to see the heart and character of God. The Bible is not our guidebook, it is not our road map for life, it is not even really God’s love letter to us. While it may contain some aspects of all of those things it is first and foremost the revelation of God, the Scripture, from the first word of the Law given to Moses to the last word of the revelation given to John is an intimate portrait of God, not merely His name or His majesty but His character, His heart, His longsuffering nature and His everlasting love. May this parable from Luke 15 teach us that no matter how far we have strayed or how long we have refused to enter in the nature of God is that He is a Father that runs to those that have shamed themselves and defamed Him and He goes out to embrace those that have been so disappointed with Him that they have hardened their hearts. No one has ever found their way to the Father by themselves but everyone has been chased by the running Father.