Luke 15:20, commentary and pictures

When he was still a great way off, his father saw and recognized him despite years of sin and degradation, had compassion, ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him. The welcome comes before he reaches home and before he can make himself respectable, at even the first feeble step and desire toward God, for no one can take the first step toward the Father without Him hastening to receive, pardon and bless. This is God's pitying love for those who have strayed to their own course, revealing His mission to recover the lost rather than condemn or destroy them, and though He hates sin He gave Himself in Christ so the sinner might be saved to eternal blessedness. The returning sinner meets no reproach, taunt or reminder of unworthiness, but is forgiven and restored as a son, embraced, clothed with the best robe of Christ's righteousness, and celebrated with joy in heaven. So those who turn back are to be received with the same tender sympathy, encouragement, forgiveness and gladness, going out to meet them while still far away rather than with scolding, suspicion or contempt.

Parable Setting and Story

The parables to which this verse belongs were given because the scribes and Pharisees murmured at association with sinners, to set forth mercy and forgiveness. They concern those who once knew the Father's love but were led captive by the tempter. They turned from God to seek happiness apart from Him, taking His gifts for granted, wasting life in self-indulgence, and becoming enslaved to sin, with the far country picturing the spiritual and moral ruin of a self-centered life.

The younger son selfishly asked for his portion when rightfully he could claim nothing and should have had nothing. He wanted to separate his interest from his father's so he could manage his share by his own inclination, without counsel, reproof, restraint, advice, or mutual obligation. He withdrew far so he might even forget his father and be free to seek pleasure in any way he chose. He wasted all that had been given him in sinful indulgence until famine brought pinching want and regret and forced him down from extravagant pleasure to the low business of feeding swine. Children can be made prodigal and evil brought into the world when parents indulge rather than restrain and guide, and when there is failure to restrain and teach at home.

Far from his father's house and perishing with hunger, the prodigal pictures people lost in sin, ruined by selfish indulgence, fallen and unable to free themselves from Satan's snare, yet regarded with love, compassion, and tender sympathy. The return is taught through familiar events of daily life, by touching illustration rather than long, farfetched, complicated proof, coming right to the point to awaken sympathy, commend truth to the conscience, make the unseen understandable, and leave hearers free to accept or reject it. The father seeing his son while still far away and running to meet him is a most pathetic and touching scene, with rejoicing because the son thought dead is alive. The history also describes those who act as the prodigal while claiming to be commandment keepers, yet are unthankful, unholy transgressors of the law, using entrusted talents to counterwork God, conformed to the spirit and principles of worldlings and exerting influence on Satan's side while retaining the form of godliness, after whom there is yearning to do the good delighted in, but whose perversity prevents it, and it applies to one who had once loved and served the Lord but had turned away.

Father's Eager Welcome

While the son is still a great way off, the father sees him and recognizes him despite years of sin and degradation, poverty and rags and altered appearance, and is moved with compassion and runs to meet him and falls on his neck and embraces him tenderly and kisses him. The welcome shows the mission to recover the lost rather than to condemn or destroy them. It begins the son's restoration to his place as a son, and the squandered blessings and the son's sense of unworthiness do not prevent it, for the returning sinner comes ready to confess sin and ask for mercy. The father does not wait for the son to reach home or reproach him for his past, but lifts him with tender pity and love and forgiveness before he has earned or deserved such a welcome. His quick sight shows that the years of degradation have not hidden the son from him nor ended his love, and assures the sinner that God is eager to receive one who turns back.

The welcome comes before the son reaches home, before he can make himself respectable or do anything to earn acceptance, at even the first feeble step and desire toward God and before a prayer is spoken. No one can take the first step toward the Father without Him hastening to receive and pardon and bless. Even while the sinner is far from God, the Father's heart is toward him, and He eagerly receives the repentant sinner and His grace meets the heart's first desire for Him. His love, revealed at Calvary, assures sinners of acceptance and peace and love, and illustrates His readiness to receive and restore those who come to Him.

The sinner's longing and desire to return is the Spirit pleading with and drawing the wanderer back to the Father. God takes the first step to seek people even while they are still in rebellion, and rejoices to bring a wanderer home when allowed. While the sinner is still far from God, the Father's heart yearns for him. Yet the parable's picture still falls short of expressing the heavenly Father's infinite compassion.

The father does not wait for the son to come all the way, stand on his dignity, or meet him with wrath and accusations. He goes forth to meet the returning prodigal, humbling himself to meet man in his fallen condition. He meets the degraded, hungry wanderer with pity and signs of love and forgiveness rather than reproach, though the son's suffering followed from his own sin and separation, and the welcome assures him of his father's goodness and love. The welcome includes a feast celebrating his return.

God's Character Revealed

The verse shows God's pitying love for those who have strayed from Him and turned away to their own course, and He does not leave them in their misery while they are exposed to temptation but meets them with kindness and tender pity and receives them with compassion. The father's compassion in seeing the son still far away, running to meet him, embracing him and kissing him, illustrates God's mission to recover the lost rather than to condemn or destroy them. God has pity, loves the sinner, wills not that he should perish, and willingly welcomes him when he arises to return and confess that he has sinned and is unworthy. He does not leave the mourning sinner to perish, find satisfaction in his misery, or sternly withhold him from coming in repentance.

Doubt, despair, and thinking of Him only as a judge ready to condemn misrepresent and dishonor Him, put the doubter on Satan's side, hurt the soul, and discourage all effort to seek and serve Him. Though He hates sin, to bring eternal life within reach of all He gave Himself in the person of Christ, one with the Father, so the sinner should not perish but be saved to eternal blessedness in the kingdom of glory. God is ready to accept the prodigal and pardon all transgressions if he will but come, even now after long separation and neglect and staying away so long. The Majesty of Heaven invites him to come that he may have life, and Christ is ready to cleanse him from sin when he lays hold upon Him.

Christ bears with the erring through all manifest perversity and rebellion, His love for the sinner does not grow cold, His efforts do not cease, and He does not give him up to Satan's buffeting. He stands with open and outstretched arms waiting to welcome again and again the erring, the rebellious, and even the apostate. The return of the repenting sinner is a source of the greatest joy to the Father, and even when the poorest sinner comes in repentance there is joy among the heavenly host. God receives the returning one with compassion, pity, forgiveness, love, warmth, courtesy, gladness, and affection, though He is the one sinned against.

The returning sinner meets no reproach, taunt, accusation, or reminder of unworthiness, for God does not parade past wrongs before him but treats the past as forgiven and forgotten. Penitence is required, yet the degraded, hungry wanderer in poverty is met before he reaches home with pity and signs of love and forgiveness that give clear proof of love, deepen the sense of guilt for having grieved that love, and exceed the reception feared or felt deserved. God is full of compassion and ready to pardon, going forth to meet the returning prodigal and humbling Himself at every step to meet man in his fallen condition, ready to abundantly bless and to heal the bruised and smitten. The same God who so meets the returning sinner will show Himself strong to punish persistent, independent despisers of His grace.

The welcome pictures the Father's infinite love for the fallen race in the gift of His beloved Son as a sacrifice, making a channel for the outflow of His love so that all who believe on Jesus Christ are restored again to His favor. That love for people perishing in sin and far from the Father's house and perishing with hunger is seen at Calvary, where God loved sinners first and sent His Son to be the propitiation not for some only but for the sins of the whole world. Christ's dying love on Calvary and His goodness and mercy assure the sinner of acceptance, peace, and love, and through them the sinner is restored to divine favor. God in Christ daily beseeches men to be reconciled, ready with outstretched arms to receive and welcome not only the sinner but the prodigal, and this is to be taught in simplest form so the sin-darkened soul may see the light shining from the cross.

Jesus meets a great way off the one who feels deep soul-poverty with nothing good in himself, weak, helpless and despairing, whatever his past and however discouraging his present circumstances. When such a one comes just as he is, Jesus throws about him arms of love and the robe of righteousness, exchanges poverty for riches of grace, and gives righteousness and strength by being looked to. He presents the sinner to the Father clothed in the white raiment of His own character, takes the sinner's place, pleads before God for him, and His blood pleads with greater power than Satan's accusations claiming the sinner as prey. The pure in heart see God in this new and endearing relation as their Redeemer by faith here and now, discerning His goodness and compassion in providence and recognizing Him in the character of His Son as the Spirit opens truth to heart and understanding. While they discern the purity and loveliness of His character they long to reflect His image, and seeing Him as this welcoming Father longing to embrace a repenting son fills them with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

The father's love represents Jesus' love for Israel, for though Israel had repeatedly rejected mercy He still yearned for them and grieved over the judgment coming upon Jerusalem. God as a loving father toward a wayward child is willing to suffer for sinners and bear their guilt, and His warnings and invitations are acts of that fatherly love even when they are resisted. The Father's mercy and pity endure despite neglect, resistance, abuse of His mercies, and rejection of His claims. He receives the returning sinner graciously, loves freely, and pardons abundantly.

Forgiveness and Restoration

The father sees the returning son while still far off, feels compassion, runs to embrace him, shelters him from contempt, receives his repentance, and brings him home as a son instead of leaving him in the servant's place he had asked for. The past is forgiven and put away, and the sinner is restored to the family in tender, immediate, loving welcome.

The Father embraces the erring child, covers his rags with garments, puts on him the best robe, which is His own robe of righteousness, places a ring on his finger as a token of royalty, kisses away shame, encourages him as he comes home, restores his dignity, and makes a feast celebrating his return. God stands ready to receive with joy every wanderer who returns, in contrast to contempt and resentment toward restoration.

Returning to God is not degrading, for He receives the contrite, forgives sin, clothes the returning sinner with Christ's righteousness, gives a hearty welcome, and reconciles the sinner to Himself through Christ. The welcome comes with love and compassion to those who turn back in repentance.

The son's return and confession are met with full pardon and pitying love, inviting return and repentance and pardoning transgressions. That welcome does not make the sin less grievous, but it helps the sinner recover, covering disgrace with love, and parents are to show the same tenderness and pity without treating the sin as less serious.

Penitence is required, yet squandered blessings and a sense of unworthiness do not prevent the welcome. The returning sinner comes ready to confess sin, acknowledge unworthiness, ask for mercy, mourn with true contrition, and mark the return with repentance and prayer, meeting no reproach, taunt, or reminder of unworthiness.

The prodigal returns penitent and humbled, friendless, hungry, and in rags after a life of sinful indulgence, and the father welcomes him, forgives him, and takes him back into his heart. Though sinned against, the father rejoices when the son becomes sensible of great sin and neglect, appreciates his love, acknowledges his claims, and comes back to him as the only one who can supply his great need. He knows the sinning and now repenting son has suffered and felt his need and needs pity and love, and meets him with compassion, pity, forgiveness, love, and great joy.

Assurance of that love draws sinners home and leads to repentance. The son recognizes his guilt and plans confession, but his offer to become a hired servant shows he has not yet grasped the fullness of his father's love, whose years of watching are not defeated by sin and degradation.

The sinner who mourns for sin with true contrition and returns to God shall be comforted. God reveals guilt so the guilty will flee to Christ, and through Him be set free from the bondage of sin and rejoice in the liberty of the sons of God, coming to the foot of the cross and there leaving burdens. His love runs faster than the returning sinner's feet to meet him while still on the way back to Him and peace.

Welcoming the Erring

The chapter to which the verse belongs lays on the church the duty to seek the lost and bring them back into the fold, and that duty reaches to George Lay, who cannot be reached until the church acknowledges its own failure toward him. The father's welcome is the pattern Christ gives for receiving the lost and for how those who turn back are to be treated, with tender sympathy, encouragement, forgiveness, gladness, love, and joy. Scolding, censure, reproach, suspicion, jealousy, indifference, contempt, and severe judgment have no place in that reception, for erring, fallen people under temptation are to be met with tenderness rather than harsh condemnation. As the father sees the son while still far away and goes out to meet him, so believers are to approach erring brothers while they are still far off, not waiting for them to meet a standard and not discouraging them with predictions of failure, but helping them back to the sin-pardoning Saviour with mercy and patient effort to restore the fallen. It is not too late for those who have strayed to renew the struggle and gain victory.

Those who have erred and returned suffer in feeling and are often desponding and discouraged, and they need pity, help, sympathy, and above everything else free forgiveness. They are not to be labored with to make them feel where they erred, nor to be kept under continual reminders of their mistakes. Though He is the one sinned against, the heavenly Father meets the returning prodigal with compassion, pity, forgiveness, love, and great joy, knowing the sinning and now repenting son has suffered, felt his need, become sensible of great sin and neglect, appreciated his Father's love, acknowledged His claims, and come back as to the only one who can supply his great need. The return of the repenting sinner, once believed dead to all filial affection, is a source of the greatest joy to the Father.

The complaints of the elder brother were natural but not right, and his cold rejection must not be the treatment given to those who have gone astray. Those who turn back must be met without that complaining, envious, contemptuous spirit, but with joy and loving, unselfish care that helps lead them to repentance. The reception of the returning one with joy rather than complaint is a practical lesson involving eternal interests, to be studied with the lost sheep and the lost coin, so that instead of wounding and driving the lost away they are sought and welcomed. The father's compassionate reception shows why the elder son should rejoice when the lost are brought back rather than envy the attention given to the wanderer. That rejoicing is to be shared, not resented; those who know God and have Christ formed within as the hope of glory will seek to save the lost, carry salvation, bear light, reflect truth, pray in sincerity, stretch out hands all day long, bring truth close to hearts, and hunt for souls instead of gossiping, doubting, envying, and questioning, sharing the joyful, welcoming spirit of God as true shepherd and compassionate father who goes after the lost sheep, meets the returning one with compassion, calls him to return with promise, heals backslidings, loves freely, turns away anger, and fills all heaven with rejoicing.

As Christ deals in patient, forgiving, welcoming love with erring educators who themselves make many failures, bearing with all manifest perversity and rebellion without letting love grow cold, without ceasing effort, and without giving the sinner up to Satan's buffeting, but standing with open arms to welcome again the erring, the rebellious, and even the apostate, so educators must deal the same way with youth under their care who have had fewer advantages and less favorable surroundings. Parents likewise are to receive a wayward, erring child who returns with tenderness, pity, affection, full pardon, and love. That love covers disgrace without making sin less grievous, breaks down barriers, softens the hardened heart, draws back from ruin, holds the wayward son in faith, and seeks to save him rather than giving him up.

Prodigals who have left the Father's house are to be encouraged to return to Him, for the Father receives them with compassion when they are seen while still far away. Every outcast may be brought back, for God has provided a shepherd for every lost sheep, and His followers are to seek the untrained, neglected, oppressed, and degraded by every devising and planning through grace, working in perfect harmony with angels. The Father in all His compassion beholds the lost and sees what may be done for their uplifting, so that poor ignorant beings degraded by sin may be saved, elevated, sanctified, and ennobled through divine power. People are called to cooperate with God in this seeking, for the father's welcome shows the returning son received with more than the servant's place he asked, and those sought by Christ and brought back can help bring others to the Father. When a person links with God and turns with full decision of soul, God accepts him as the father accepted the prodigal, and giving heart and soul to God brings His blessing and His working with the returned one to help other youth give their hearts to God and be converted, giving more than finite possibilities.

Those who have wandered and nearly lost hope can return to God in contrition and penitence when they hear a loving message rather than blame and condemnation, met while still far away with compassion, welcome, and love. Backsliders return through labor in Christ, coming back to the Father's house. Tempted people need wise, gentle treatment that gives room to recover and return to safe paths, not harshness or condemnation, and they need the welcome of compassion rather than the elder brother's cold rejection. The failures of professed Christians can keep prodigals from entering the kingdom, and this stands as a warning. The verse shows God's compassion in reclaiming the lost and bringing them back to the Father's house, illustrating the recovery of one separated from God over whom all heaven rejoices, calling for compassion toward those struggling against temptation and those especially in danger from it, whose repentance brings greater joy than the ninety-nine needing no repentance.

Returning and Remaining Sons

The backslider's coming back to his father's house pictures turning from sin and returning to God's service, confessing backslidings and setting the feet on the heavenward path under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit with contrition of soul. Those who have left the Father's house and blessing can come to Jesus in this way, firmly trusting Him to do all He has promised, for He is sufficient for all things and none who seek Him seek in vain. The Lord will be a present help to them, and their return brings joy as they accept His pardon and love. He meets them with tender, pitying, loving compassion far greater than human compassion, for He loved sinners and died to save them.

A thorough backslider who gave up the Sabbath under Satan's temptations, discouragement, and harsh treatment by brethren who did not know how to deal with youthful minds returns like the prodigal by turning square about, leaving the service of Satan and of sin for the Father's house and the Father's service. Even when youthful errors of indiscretion have been treated with too great severity, the return calls for an immediate, open decision to be a Christian before God and angels and witnesses, even at the cost of losing work and a trade, because Christ loved the wanderer enough to die to redeem him and His heart is grieved by continued rebellion. The Father meets such a return with evidenced pardon and love that puts the sinner in a new channel, with purified thoughts, changed purposes, a solemn sense of responsibility, happiness and thankfulness. The prodigal's decision to return can be guided toward salvation, for the Father invites the sinner to return home without delay. The wayward should not delay returning to parents and to God with a humble heart, asking forgiveness to receive pardon while relying on Jesus' strength rather than their own.

The way to get hold again is so humble that the proud heart shrinks from consenting to accept it, yet it must be accepted without delay and without flattering the soul with false hopes, for to neglect it is to perish in sin. God is ready to accept the prodigal and pardon all transgressions if he will but come, meeting him even now though he has long separated from God and stayed away, with the Majesty of Heaven inviting him to come that he may have life and Christ ready to cleanse him when he lays hold upon Him. Enjoying a son's privileges requires complying with sonship's conditions and living by the father's word, for God meets sinners not on their ground but on His, requiring cordial assent and willing obedience to His terms. Christ gladly receives all who receive Him as Saviour and King to reign in the soul, renounce the favor and friendship of the world, make Him their all and in all, consult His will, make His law the rule of life, take His life as pattern, deny self, walk in accordance with His Word, submit to His authority, be bound by His requirements, obey His Word, and be ready to part with all and make any sacrifice for His sake, with friendship with Him measured by His dominion over them.

The return means the gift of the whole life in unreserved surrender, remaining under the Shepherd's care instead of wandering again, repaying love by staying in the fold, responding to God's love, and becoming loyal to the heavenly Father. One who has neglected the Spirit's invitation must come to the Lord in this condition, and returning to claim a son's privileges also means accepting a son's obligations. God waits with outstretched arms to welcome back one who has failed and been betrayed into sin, recognizing every effort to reach His ideal, and failure does not remove the right to pray and come before Him. The returning sinner should go to Him, tell Him mistakes and failures, and ask strength for fresh endeavor, for He never disappoints and never abuses the confidence of the one who returns. When a person links with God and turns with full decision of soul, God accepts him as the father accepted the prodigal, blessing him and working with him to help other youth give their hearts to God and be converted, giving more than finite possibilities.

The sinner's return to God is a penitent return to the Father's house, where while still far away the father sees him, has compassion, and welcomes him with affection, and where Jesus waits to show grace and mercy as the personal Saviour calling the sinner back to hope in the Father's love. Philip is urged to come back to God and resume His service as a wayward child lovingly welcomed, and Edson's return to his father's house is likened to the son's return in a renewed experience of submission to God's will and way. The heavenly Father still loves one who has left Him and wants him to come back as His child, welcoming him with compassion, receiving every wanderer who returns, encouraging the erring child as he comes home, and restoring his dignity as pictured by the embrace, covering garments, and ring.