In the Beds of Prostitutes

The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 (Luke 15: 11-32) is a well known and often preached text.  The son went to his father and took his inheritance early, only to spend it frivilously and waste it on his hedonistic exploits.  His brother revealed that he spent his money on prostitutes.  When he went broke he aligned himself with a man that obviously had no respect for him because he made this young man feed swine.  One day the young man had an epiphany that I believe was God telling him that he was wasting his time and that he needed to return home to his father's house.

In reality the parable that Jesus tells here is analogous to fallen humanity.  The father is symbolic of God, the son is symbolic of fallen humanity in desperate need of repentance and the inheritance is analogous to our life.  The human life, the inheritance from God the Father, is often wasted and lived frivolously in the beds of prostitutes, idol gods and in the hog pens of the world.  We spend our time gratifying the flesh, worshipping at the altars of materialism, hatred, deception, spiritual wickedness and the like never realizing that the only place that we are truly safe is in the Father's house.  The only place that we belong is in the Father's house.

Fortunately, some of us hear the call to repentance and do what this young man did: get up, admit our sin and return to the Father.  There is also an unfortunate side to this equation.  Some, because of their refusal to repent, stay in the hog pen or die in the bed of a prostitute!  Many are content to live spiritually destitute lives, going broke in dens of iniquity with zero return for the investment of their inheritance other than momentary pleasure.

The good news of the gospel is this: no matter how long you have laid down with prostitutes, no matter how long you have been in the slop of the hog pen, the Father is waiting for you to come home and the angels will rejoice when you answer His call!  The parable ends when the young man returns home and his father meets him and they run towards one another and greet each other with a hug and a kiss.  God feels the same way about a repentant sinner that is willing to repent and willing to answer his call to salvation!  The bible says that if we come nearer to God, he will come nearer to us.  God sent Jesus to reconcile us and to make us able to come to Him and get out of the hog pens of life.  He sent Jesus to seek and save that which was lost!  The words of Amazing grace ring true: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.  God bless you.