Luke 15:11 - Meaning and Application

We have here the parable of the prodigal son. It teaches the same lesson as the parables before it, namely, how pleasing it is to God when sinners, especially great sinners, turn back to him, and how ready he is to receive them when they repent. But the details of this parable show the riches of the gospel more fully than the others. It has been, and will be as long as the world stands, a great help to poor sinners, guiding and encouraging them to repent and return to God.

Here the parable presents God as a common Father to all mankind, to the whole family of Adam. We are all his children, we all have one Father, and one God created us (Malachi 2:10). From him we received our being, in him we still live, and from him we receive our daily support. He is our Father because he gives us our place, our upbringing, and our inheritance, and he will include us in his covenant or leave us out, according to whether we are dutiful children or not. Jesus was also showing those proud Pharisees that the publicans and sinners they despised were their brothers, sharing the same human nature, and therefore they should have been glad when kindness was shown to them. God is not the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles (Romans 3:29). He is Lord over all, and rich in mercy to all who call on him.

It also shows the children of men as differing in character, though all are related to God as their common Father. He had two sons. One was steady, serious, and restrained, sober himself, though not very pleasant toward others. Such a person would likely keep to the upbringing he had received and not be easily led away from it. The other was lively, restless, impatient of control, always roaming, and eager to try his own way. If he fell into bad company, he would likely become a reckless man, despite a good upbringing. This younger son stands for the publicans and sinners whom Christ was trying to bring to repentance, and also the Gentiles to whom the apostles would later be sent to preach repentance. The older son stands for the Jews in general, and especially the Pharisees, whom Christ was seeking to bring to accept the grace of God offered to sinners.

The younger son is the prodigal, and his character and condition are meant to show the state of every one of us by nature, and especially some people in particular. We should notice his wasteful life, his wandering, and the misery he brought on himself. First, we are told what he asked of his father (Luke 15:12). He said, with enough pride and bluntness, “Father, give me the share of the property that belongs to me.” He might have spoken more politely, but instead he made a demanding request. It is a bad sign, and the start of worse, when people think of God’s gifts as something owed to them. He wanted his whole share at once, not a trial amount to see how he would handle it. He wanted everything now in his own hands, and cared nothing for what might come later. That is the great foolishness of sinners, and what destroys them, they are content with their portion in this life only. They fix their eyes on what can be seen and what lasts for a short time, and they crave present pleasure, with no concern for future joy.

Why did he want his share in his own hands? Not so that he could work with it and increase it. He had no thought of that. Rather, he was tired of his father’s rule, tired of the good order and discipline of his father’s house, and he wanted what he called freedom. But this was really the worst kind of slavery, because freedom to sin is slavery. Many young people who have been raised in religious homes grow impatient with the restraint of that upbringing. They do not think they are truly their own masters until they have broken God’s restraints and cast off his cords, only to bind themselves with the cords of their own desires. This is where sinners first turn away from God, they will not stay under the rule of God, and they want to be their own guide.

He also wanted to get out from under his father’s eye, because that check on him was always a bother to him. A dislike of God, and a wish to deny that he sees all things, lies at the root of human wickedness. He was also distrustful of his father’s management. He wanted his own share because he thought his father would hold back some of it for the future and limit his present spending, and he did not like that. Above all, he was proud and overconfident. He thought that if he had his share in his own hands, he could handle it better than his father could and make a better life for himself. More young people are ruined by pride than by any other sin. Our first parents ruined themselves and all their children by foolish ambition, wanting to be independent and beholden to no one, not even God. That same spirit lies behind sinners keeping on in sin, they want to be their own people.

Then we see how kind his father was to him: he divided his property between them. He calculated what he had to give and gave the younger son his share, and offered the older son his share, which should have been a double portion. But it seems the older son wanted his father to keep it in his own hands, and we can see what that brought him later (Luke 15:31), “All that I have is yours.” He gained everything by waiting for something to remain in reserve. The father gave the younger son what he asked for, and the son had no reason to say he had been wronged in the division. He received as much as he expected, and perhaps more.

In this way he could see his father’s kindness, how willing he was to please him and make him comfortable, and how he was not the unkind father the son had made him out to be when he wanted an excuse to leave. At the same time, he would soon be forced to see his own foolishness, and that he was not the wise manager he imagined himself to be. God is a kind Father to all his children. He gives life, breath, and all things, even to the evil and unthankful, and so he divides life among them. God gives us life so that we may serve him and bring him glory.

We then see how the son behaved once he had his portion in his own hands. He set himself to spend it as fast as he could, and, as prodigals usually do, he soon became a beggar, not many days after (Luke 15:13). If God leaves us to ourselves even for a little while, it will not be long before we drift away from him.

When the bridle of restraining grace is taken off, we soon go astray. The younger son decided to leave at once, and to do that he gathered everything he had. Sinners who wander from God risk all they have. In this prodigal son’s wandering, we see what a sinful state is, and how miserable the fallen human condition is.

First, a sinful state is a state of distance from God. Its sinfulness lies in this, that it is turning away from God. The son took his journey from his father’s house. Sinners flee from God, turn from him like a runaway servant, or like an unfaithful wife who leaves her husband. They say to God, “Leave us alone.” They try to get as far from him as they can. This world is the far country where they settle down and feel at home, and they spend all they have in its service and pleasures.

Second, a sinful state is a spending state. “There he wasted his substance with reckless living” (Luke 15:13). “He devoured it with prostitutes” (Luke 15:30). In a short time he had spent everything (Luke 15:14). He bought fine clothes, spent much on food and drink, entertained others, and kept company with people who helped him finish off what he had. In this world, people who live wildly waste what they have, and they will have much to answer for if they spend on their desires what should support themselves and their families.

This also applies spiritually. Willful sinners waste their inheritance. They misuse their thoughts and all the powers of their souls. They waste their time and every opportunity. They not only bury, but misuse, the gifts they were entrusted with so they could serve their Master, meaning God, and bring him honor. The gifts of providence, the good things God gives in daily life, are meant to help them do good and serve God, but instead they become food and fuel for sinful desires. The soul that becomes a slave to the world or to the flesh wastes its substance and lives in wasteful pleasure. “One sinner destroys much good” (Ecclesiastes 9:18). The good he destroys is valuable, and it is not his own. It belongs to his Lord, and he must give account for it.

Third, a sinful state is a wanting state. After he had spent everything on his harlots, they left him to find another victim. Then a severe famine came on that land, everything became scarce and expensive, and he began to be in need (Luke 15:14). Willful waste brings painful want. Reckless living may, and often soon does, bring people down to a crust of bread, especially when hard times come and expose the results of poor care. Wise care would have provided for that.

This shows the misery of sinners, who have thrown away their own mercies, God’s favor, their interest in Christ, the Spirit’s efforts, and the warnings of conscience. They traded these away for bodily pleasure and worldly wealth, and then they are left nearly ruined for lack of them. Sinners lack what their souls need. They have no food or clothing for the soul, and no provision for what comes after. A sinful state is like a land under famine, a great famine. “The heavens are like brass,” because God withholds the dew of his favor and blessing, and we must lack good things if he denies them to us. “The earth is like iron,” because the sinner’s heart, which should produce good fruit, is dry, hard, and empty of goodness. Sinners are terribly poor, and what makes it worse is that they brought this on themselves and keep themselves in it by refusing the help offered to them.

Fourth, a sinful state is a low, enslaved state. When this young man’s waste brought him to need, his need brought him into bondage. He went and attached himself to a citizen of that country (Luke 15:15). The same wicked life that was called reckless living is here shown as slave living, because sinners are truly slaves. The devil is the citizen of that country, since his rule reaches everywhere. Sinners bind themselves to him, hire themselves out to his service, do his work, obey his orders, and depend on him for support and reward. “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34).

How much he lowered and shamed himself when he hired himself to such a master! He sent him into the fields, not to feed sheep, which would have had some honor, since Jacob, Moses, and David kept sheep, but to feed pigs. The work of the devil’s servants is to make provision for the flesh, to feed sinful desires, and that is no better than feeding greedy, filthy, noisy pigs. How can a rational, immortal soul disgrace itself more than that?

Fifth, a sinful state brings constant disappointment. When the prodigal began to be in need, he thought he could help himself by going to work. He had to be content with what the field, not the house, provided, and it was poor food. He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods the pigs ate (Luke 15:16). What a low place he had brought himself to, to eat at the pigs’ table. What sinners promise themselves will satisfy them when they turn from God will surely fail them. They are working for what cannot satisfy (Isaiah 55:2). What becomes the trap of their sin will never fill their souls or satisfy their deepest need (Ezekiel 7:19). Pods are food for pigs, not for men. The wealth of this world and the pleasures of the senses may suit the body, but what are they to precious souls? They do not fit their nature, they do not satisfy their desires, and they do not meet their needs. Whoever settles for them feeds on wind (Hosea 12:1) and feeds on ashes (Isaiah 44:20).

Sixth, a sinful state is one that cannot expect help from any creature. This prodigal, when he could not earn his bread by working, turned to begging, but no one gave him anything, because they knew he had brought all this misery on himself, and because he was reckless and offensive to everyone. Such poor people are pitied least. In the meaning of the parable, this shows that those who turn away from God cannot be helped by any creature. It is useless to cry to the world and the flesh, the false gods we have served. They can give what poisons the soul, but nothing that can feed or strengthen it. If you refuse God’s help, what creature can help you?

Seventh, a sinful state is a state of death. “This my son was dead” (Luke 15:24, 32). A sinner is not only dead in law, meaning under a sentence of death, but also dead in state, dead in trespasses and sins. He has no spiritual life, no union with Christ, no use of spiritual senses, no real life toward God, and therefore he is dead.

The prodigal son in the far country was dead to his father and family, cut off from them like a branch from a tree or a limb from a body. That death was his own doing. A sinful life is a lost life, lost to everything good, lost to virtue and honor, and lost to the father’s house, which had no joy in him. People separated from God are lost souls, like travelers off the road, and if mercy does not stop it, they will soon be lost like a ship that sinks at sea, lost forever.

A sinful life is also a life of madness and frenzy. This is hinted at in Luke 15:17, when he came to himself, which means he had been out of his right mind. He was surely like that when he left his father’s house, and even more so when he joined himself to the people of that country. Scripture says there is madness in the hearts of sinners (Ecclesiastes 9:3). Satan has taken hold of the soul, and the man possessed by Legion showed how wild that kind of bondage can be. Sinners, like the mentally unwell, ruin themselves with foolish desires and at the same time fool themselves with false hopes. Of all sick people, they are the most against their own healing.

Here we see his return from that wandering, his repentant return to his father. When he was brought to the last extreme, then he thought about how much it would help him to go home. We should not despair even of the worst person, for while there is life, there is hope. God’s grace can soften the hardest heart and give a good turn to the strongest habit of sin.

Notice what led to his return and repentance: his trouble. When he was in need, then he came to himself. Affliction, when guided by divine grace, can become a useful means of turning sinners from their wrong ways. It opens the ear to discipline and makes the heart ready to learn. It also shows plainly both how empty the world is and how damaging sin is. Spiritually, this applies when we find that created things cannot make us happy and that every other way of helping our poor souls has failed. Then it is time to think about returning to God. When we see that all except Christ are poor comforters and useless healers for a soul burdened by guilt and sin, and no one gives us what we truly need, then surely we should turn to Jesus Christ.

The next step was reflection. He said to himself, and reasoned with himself, after he came to his right mind, “How many hired servants of my father have bread enough.” Consideration is the first step toward conversion, or turning back to God (Ezekiel 18:28). He thought, and then he turned. To consider means to step back inside ourselves, think carefully about ourselves, compare things, and decide accordingly.

He first thought about how bad his condition was: “I perish with hunger.” He did not merely say, “I am hungry,” but, “I am dying of hunger, and I see no way to get help.” Sinners will not come to Christ’s service until they see that they are in danger of perishing in sin’s service. That thought should drive us to Christ: “Lord, save us, we are perishing.” And when we are driven to Christ in that way, he will not reject us or feel dishonored because we came in desperation. He is honored when we come to him for help in our deepest need.

Then he thought about how much better things could be if he returned: “How many hired servants of my father, even the lowest in his house, the day laborers, have bread enough, and to spare.” His father keeps a good house. There is bread for all his family in our Father’s house. That was shown by the twelve loaves of showbread that were always on the holy table in the sanctuary, one loaf for each tribe. There is enough for all, enough for each, and enough to spare for those who join themselves to his servants. There are even crumbs from his table that many would gladly receive with thankfulness. Even the hired servants in God’s family are well cared for. The least person who will hire himself into God’s household, do his work, and trust his reward, will be well provided for. This should encourage sinners who have wandered from God to think about coming back to him. In the same way, the unfaithful woman reasons when her new lovers disappoint her: “I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now” (Hosea 2:7).

At last, his thinking came to a firm decision: “I will arise and go to my father.” Good intentions are good, but good actions are what matter most. He decided what he would do. He would not keep delaying, but would rise and go at once. Though he was far from his father’s house, he would return. Every step away from God must be answered by a step back toward him. Though he had bound himself to the citizen of that country, he made no fuss about breaking that bond. We are not debtors to the flesh, and we are under no obligation to serve our old masters. We may leave that service. His words show strong resolve: “I will arise and go to my father. I am determined to do it, whatever happens, rather than stay here and starve.”

He also decided what he would say. True repentance rises and comes to God, saying, “We come to you.” But what words should we bring? He thought that through as well. It is wise, when we pray or confess to God, to think beforehand what we will say, so that we may set our case in order before him and speak with reason. We have freedom in prayer, and we should use it fully without abusing it. He planned to say, first, “I have sinned.” Since we all have sinned, it is fitting and proper for us to own it. Confession of sin is required and strongly urged as a needed part of peace and forgiveness. If we deny our guilt, we place ourselves under the covenant of innocence, and that will surely condemn us. If we admit guilt with a humble, repentant, and obedient heart, we throw ourselves on the covenant of grace, which offers pardon to those who confess their sins.

Second, he would make his sin seem as serious as it really was, not easier. “I have sinned against heaven, and before you.”

Let those who are unkind or disobedient to their earthly parents think about this, they sin against heaven and before God. Wronging them is also wronging God. We should all remember this, because it makes sin far more serious and should make us far more sorry for it.

First, sin is done in contempt of God’s authority over us: “I have sinned against heaven.” God is called heaven here to show how far above us he is and how fully he rules over us, for the heavens govern. Sin reaches upward in rebellion, against heaven itself. The bold sinner is said to “set his mouth against the heavens” (Psalm 63:9). Yet that evil is weak, because we cannot truly harm heaven. It is also foolish, because what is aimed at heaven falls back on the one who shoots it (Psalm 7:16). Sin insults the God of heaven, it puts a person at risk of losing heaven’s glory and joy, and it goes against the very purpose of the kingdom of heaven.

Second, sin is done in contempt of God’s gaze on us: “I have sinned against heaven and before you.” To sin under God’s eye is a great insult to him.

Third, the sinner judges himself and admits he has lost every right to the family’s privileges: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:19). He does not deny the relationship, because that was the only thing left for him to hope in. But he admits his father would be right to refuse him and shut the door. He had already received the share of the property he asked for, and he had no reason to expect more. Sinners should own that they deserve no favor from God and should humble themselves before him.

Fourth, he still asks to be taken back into the family, even if it is in the lowest place: “Make me like one of your hired servants.” That is good enough for me, and too good for me. True repenters value God’s house and all its blessings, and they are glad to have any place in it, even one as lowly as a doorkeeper (Psalm 84:10). If being among the servants is part of their humbling, they do not merely bear it, they count it a privilege compared with their present condition. Those who return to God after turning away from him want, in some way, to serve and honor him. They want to show that they love their Father’s house as much as they once despised it.

Fifth, in all this he looks to his father as a father: “I will arise and go to my father, and say to him, Father.” Looking to God as Father, and as our Father, helps us greatly in repentance and in returning to him. It makes sorrow over sin real, strengthens our resolve against sin, and encourages us to hope for forgiveness. God is glad to be called Father by both repentant people and those who come asking for mercy. “Is not Ephraim a dear son?” (Jeremiah 31:20).

Now we come to the way he carried out this purpose: “He arose and came to his father.” He put his good resolve into action right away. He struck while the moment was still fresh and did not put it off to a better time. It is wise to quickly act on convictions of sin. If we have said, “I will arise and go,” then let us arise and go at once. He did not come only part of the way and then stop, saying he was too tired to go on. Weak and worn out as he was, he finished the matter fully. “If you will return, O Israel, return to me, and do your first works.”

We also see how his father received him. He came to his father, but was he welcome? Yes, warmly welcome. This is also a lesson for parents whose children have been foolish and disobedient. If such children repent and submit, parents should not be harsh and severe. In such a case, they should follow the wisdom from above, which is gentle and easy to reason with. Let them be like God, and merciful as he is. But the main purpose is to show God’s grace and mercy to poor sinners who repent and return to him, and how ready he is to forgive them.

First, we see the great love and affection with which the father received the son. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him” (Luke 15:20). The father showed kindness before the son had even fully shown his repentance, because God goes ahead of us with the blessings of his goodness. Before we call, he answers, because he knows what is in our hearts. “I said, I will confess,” and you forgave.

What vivid pictures we have here. There were eyes of mercy, and they were quick to see. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him,” before anyone else in the house noticed him. It is as if the father had been watching the road from a high tower, thinking, “If only I could see that miserable son of mine coming home.” This shows God’s desire to turn sinners back to himself, and his readiness to meet those who are moving toward him. He watches people even after they have gone astray, to see whether they will return, and he notices the first movement of their hearts toward him.

There were also bowels of mercy, deep feelings of pity that stirred within him at the sight of his son. “He had compassion.” Misery calls for pity, even when it is the misery of a sinner. Though he has brought it on himself, God still has compassion. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel (Hosea 11:8; Judges 10:16).

There were feet of mercy, and they moved quickly. “He ran.” This shows how swift God is to show mercy. The prodigal came slowly, loaded with shame and fear. But the tender father ran to meet him with welcome and encouragement.

There were arms of mercy stretched out to embrace him: “He fell on his neck.” Though the son was guilty and deserved punishment, though he was dirty and had just come from feeding pigs, and though anyone without a father’s tender heart might have been repulsed by him, the father took him into his arms and held him close. That is how dear true repentant people are to God, and how welcome they are to the Lord Jesus.

There were lips of mercy, like honey: “He kissed him.” That kiss did more than assure the son of welcome, it sealed his pardon. His past foolishness would all be forgiven and not used against him. Not one word of rebuke is spoken. It was like David kissing Absalom (2 Samuel 14:33). This shows how ready, free, and eager the Lord Jesus is to receive poor sinners who return in repentance, according to his Father’s will.

Then comes the humble response of the repentant prodigal (Luke 15:21): “Father, I have sinned.” Just as it honors the father’s kindness that he showed it before the son expressed repentance, so it also honors the son’s repentance that he said this after his father had already shown such mercy. Even after receiving the kiss that sealed his pardon, he still said, “Father, I have sinned.”

Note that even those who have received pardon for their sins, and the comforting sense of that pardon, still need real sorrow in their hearts and honest confession with their mouths. This includes sins they have good reason to believe are already forgiven. David wrote Psalm 51 after Nathan had said, “The Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die.” In fact, the comforting sense of forgiveness should deepen our sorrow over sin. That is the kind of sincere gospel sorrow that grows when we remember God’s mercy. See Ezekiel 16:63. The more clearly we see God’s willingness to forgive us, the harder it should be for us to forgive ourselves.

The kind father’s generous care for the returning prodigal is striking. The son was still trying to continue his confession, and one line he had planned to say in Luke 15:19, but did not actually say in Luke 15:21, was, “Make me like one of your hired servants.” We do not think he forgot it, and even less that he changed his mind. Rather, his father interrupted him and kept him from saying it. In effect, the father was saying, “Stop there, son. Say no more about your unworthiness. You are warmly welcome. Though you are not worthy to be called my son, you will be treated as a dear son, as a loved child.” Anyone welcomed like that does not need to ask to be made a hired servant. In the same way, when Ephraim mourned over himself, God comforted him (Jeremiah 31:18-20).

It is remarkable that there is not a word of rebuke here. The father does not say, “Why did you not stay with your prostitutes and your pigs? You could never have found the way home unless your own troubles drove you here.” No, nothing like that appears. This shows that when God forgives true penitent people, he forgets their sins. He remembers them no more, and they will not be brought up against them (Ezekiel 18:22). But even that is not all. The father makes rich and royal provision for him, suited to his birth and standing, far beyond what he could have expected. The prodigal would have thought it enough, and would have been deeply thankful, if his father had only noticed him and sent him to the kitchen to eat with the servants. But God does for those who turn back to duty and throw themselves on his mercy far more than they can ask or think.

The prodigal came home torn between hope and fear, fear of being turned away and hope of being received. Yet his father was not only kinder than his fears, but kinder than his hopes. He did not merely take him back, he received him with honor. First, the son came home in rags, and his father not only clothed him, but also dressed him up. He said to the servants, who were all attending their master when they heard the son had returned, “Bring the best robe and put it on him.” The worst old clothes in the house would have been enough for him, and even those would have been more than he deserved. But the father does not ask for a coat. He asks for a robe, the garment of princes and great men, the best robe, the first robe, the robe he had worn before he went off in his reckless wandering.

When backsliders, people who have turned away and then repent, return to their first duties, they are received and clothed in their first robes. “Bring that robe and put it on him.” He might feel ashamed to wear it and think it does not suit a man who has come home in such a filthy condition, but the father says to put it on him, not merely offer it to him. Then he adds, “Put a ring on his hand,” a signet ring marked with the family seal, showing that he is still owned and honored as part of the family. Wealthy people wore rings, and the father is showing that although one share had been wasted, he still meant to give him another after his repentance. The son came home barefoot, perhaps with sore feet from travel, so the father says, “Put shoes on his feet, to make him comfortable.” This is how God’s grace provides for true penitent people. First, the righteousness of Christ is the robe, that chief robe, with which they are clothed.