Luke 15:32, commentary and pictures

The verse is the father's patient plea to the elder son to come into the feast and recognize the returned younger son as still his brother, because rejoicing is right and fitting when the lost comes home.
To have been dead and alive again is to have been spiritually dead and as good as dead to affection and home and now restored to life, and to have been lost and found is to have strayed from God into sin and misery and now been brought back to Him.
The father is God the heavenly Father in tender, loving, pitying care, who seeks the wayward while far away and when the sinner repents receives him with yearning joy and a feast without wrath, mocking, or reproach, forgiving and forgetting the past.
The elder brother's cold, jealous, resentful and unforgiving refusal to share that joy is wrong and unchristlike, springing from self-righteous confidence that he needs no repentance and acting with a hired servant's spirit instead of a child's heart.
Heaven rejoices over one sinner repented, and God's people are to share that gladness by welcoming the repentant with mercy and forgiveness and cooperating with God in seeking the lost to bring them home.

Words and Parable Setting

The saying is the father's plea to the elder son to come into the feast for the younger son, patiently urging him to share the joy and to recognize the restored sinner as still his brother. The welcome is given without reproach, and resentment toward the repentant fails to recognize both the continuing relationship and the father's gracious character. The restored one is acknowledged as son with a place beside the Father and in His work, and the Father's joy continues even if the elder brother refuses to share it. Refusal exposes the elder brother's own condition, for feeling righteous and faithful in home duties and supposing no need of repentance leaves him unable to sympathize with joy over the wanderer's return. Meeting the returned one with suspicion and an unforgiving, retaliatory spirit is therefore the opposite of the fitting response, and those who have known distrust must not return the same spirit in their labor for others.

It was meet to make merry and be glad because celebration is right and fitting when the lost returns. The joy is right because the son who had been lost and as good as dead was restored to life and found, dead in sin and now alive again. Repentance had brought him to his senses and made him abhor his course, and that restoration outweighs resentment and every other consideration. The welcome explains seeking those who need a Saviour rather than condemning or rejecting them, and the parable is meant to teach mercy and forgiveness toward sinners. Its lesson grows out of the lost sheep and is carried still farther through the lost coin to the prodigal son.

Was dead and is alive again means spiritually dead and as good as dead, dead to filial affection and to the household, now restored to life. The son had become unaware in sin and neglect, then came to his moral senses, valued his father's love, acknowledged his claims, and turned from sin. Was lost and is found means strayed from God and the Father into sin and misery, now brought back into the fold and to God. Those who separated themselves are still loved and not left in misery, but shown kindness and tender pity while facing temptation, sought while still in rebellion, and brought back as wanderers who allow it. The church that has failed to seek such straying ones must acknowledge and correct the failure so they can be brought in. Returning after being lost is therefore a reason for gladness, and those who humble themselves and follow enlightened conscience can return to the Father's house.

The prodigal and the piece of silver both teach Christ's great joy over a repenting sinner, even more than over those needing no repentance. The younger son had asked for his share of the estate to separate from his father and live as he chose, away from counsel, reproof, and advice. He separated himself to live by his own wishes, squandered his inheritance and the gifts of life in sinful pleasure and self-indulgence, and fell into destitution during famine in a strange country, friendless and perishing with hunger, until he fed swine. His course was selfish rebellion and his suffering the result of leaving his father, showing that apparent freedom from God leads to bondage, ruin, and emptiness. Penitent and humbled he returned, was welcomed, forgiven, and restored to the father's heart, warning youth that pleasure-seeking apart from God leaves them empty while return brings forgiveness.

The lost and dead condition is darkness, confusion, bewilderment, misery, and helplessness in a wilderness. It describes a soul that knew and enjoyed the love of Jesus and the guardianship of the compassionate Shepherd, left the pleasant pasture and fold through Satan's deceiving power, rushed farther from heaven and from the Shepherd's care, and cannot find the way back without help. It requires the tender and true Shepherd to leave the ninety and nine in the fold, go into the dreary wilderness, endure storm, cold, and roughness of the way, feel the burden, see the danger, and search until the lost is found and brought back. The father sees the son while still far away and runs to meet him, and the welcome and rejoicing make the return a deeply moving picture of restoration. The son thought dead is alive, and the one lost is found.

Christ illustrated immortal truth from familiar facts of daily life and surroundings, gathering spiritual teaching from everyday experience. He went straight to the point without long farfetched complicated reasoning, to touch the heart, awaken sympathy, and commend truth to the conscience while leaving hearers free to accept or reject and forcing no one to believe. His illustrations give something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart and reach every kind of hearer. So the daily task instead of being mere toil is brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen, making familiar events vivid reminders of spiritual realities.

Father's Love and Welcome

The father in the story is God, the heavenly Father, and the call to be merry and glad is a true picture of His tender, loving, pitying care for the erring. He receives the one who repents and returns with pity, forgiveness, and joy, for the son had become dead to filial affection yet came to see his sin and neglect, to value his father's love, and to acknowledge his father's claims. The son had cut himself off from the household without recognizing that love, and his coming back from being lost and dead to the household makes gladness right and fitting.

Though His children err and stray, He does not leave them in misery but shows them kindness and tender pity even while they face temptation. He longs for the wayward child, welcomes him, and celebrates his homecoming. Even while the sinner is still far away and in rebellion, the Father longs for him, takes the first step to seek him, draws him by His Spirit to awaken the desire to return, and brings back every wanderer who will let Him.

When the sinner repents and returns, God receives him with yearning love and joy rather than accusations of wrath, welcoming him as a child and preparing a feast for him. He hastens to meet the returning one, enfolds him in love, and receives him with tenderness, warmth, courtesy, and love. He does not mock or condemn, does not reproach or remind of unworthiness, for what He requires is penitence.

The past is forgiven and forgotten, blotted out and remembered no more, with abundant pardon for all who return. The one who turns back is received with joy and clothed in righteousness, covered with Christ's robe. He is valued, encouraged, and restored with the signs of sonship, reconciled to God and given a place beside the Father, in His work, and at His table.

That welcome reveals infinite love for the fallen race, shown in the gift of His beloved Son Jesus as sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of the whole world. By that gift a channel is opened for the outflow of His love, so that all who believe are restored again to favor. Christ's dying love at Calvary and His readiness to receive sinners assure acceptance, peace, and love, and restore them to divine favor.

The parable itself still falls short of expressing the Heavenly Father's infinite compassion. That infinite love in Jesus as the sacrifice gives grand themes for thought and a solid foundation for faith, leaving nothing more to ask, with life in Christ for those who believe leading to obedience to all the commandments. God still loves those who have separated from Him and works to bring them back, and when they repent He receives them so that their return calls for rejoicing. He is ready to accept the prodigal who has stayed away long and to pardon all transgressions if he will come now without delay or false hopes while life and hope remain, for serving sin, the flesh, and the devil brings no profit but poor wages, and the sinner must turn and live lest he perish; He accepts the one who turns with full decision of soul whenever he comes.

The celebration flows from freely given love, not from any reward earned by the returning son. The restored sinner is still the elder brother's own brother and is recognized as a son, with a place beside the Father and in His work, and the one forgiven much loves much. That joy of the Father continues even if the elder brother refuses to share it.

Israel, Jews and Gentiles

It is right to make merry and be glad when a lost sinner returns to God, for the repentant one is welcomed as restored from death to life and from being lost to being found. The elder brother represents unrepentant Israel, which refused to recognize publicans and sinners as brothers who should be forgiven and sought that they might receive everlasting life. Every repentant soul is welcomed by the Father, and heaven rejoices over returning sinners without reproach or reminders of unworthiness, for what God requires is penitence.

Its lesson grows out of the lost sheep and is carried still farther through the lost coin to the prodigal son. The disciples did not fully appreciate the lesson when Christ spoke it, but after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit they understood it and entered into its joy when they saw the ingathering of the Gentiles amid the envious anger of the Jews. The father's loving welcome represents Christ's love for Israel, who grieved over Jerusalem and its coming destruction though Israel rejected mercy.

The father's receiving of the wayward son illustrates God's dealings with Israel, for like a loving father God remained willing to suffer for their sins and bear their guilt. He sent messengers with warnings, appeals, and invitations despite repeated resistance. The Jews acted out the elder brother's spirit when they treated long service and hardships as earning salvation and as a claim to a larger reward, and this spirit is unchristlike and makes those who indulge it untrustworthy.

Elder Brother's Resentful Spirit

Resentment toward a brother who has been restored is wrong and unchristlike, for celebration over his return is right because one who was lost and spiritually dead has been found and brought back to life. Such resentment fails to recognize the continuing bond of brotherhood and the gracious character of the father, who meets the returning sinner with welcome rather than reproach. Even when the one who resents has endured hardships and carried burdens, that spirit spoils the service rendered.

The elder brother's spirit stands in direct contrast to the father's merciful welcome and joy, being cold, jealous, and resentful instead of glad at the restoration of the lost and repentant. It shows itself further in contempt and selfishness, in criticism, refusal to forgive, stubbornness, and complaint, opposing the gladness with which God receives returning sinners, covers them with righteousness, encourages them, and restores to them the signs of sonship. That critical, jealous attitude is the opposite of sharing the father's joy, for self-righteousness makes people cold toward those struggling against sin and moves them to accuse rather than to show mercy.

He regarded his own course as righteous and faithful in home duties, supposed he needed no repentance, contrasted himself with the prodigal, and could not sympathize with the father's joy in receiving the wanderer back. Though he thought himself in a position to be commended and honored, his selfish unwillingness to receive his repenting brother revealed that he himself was in need of repentance. By denying the bond with his brother he manifested the spirit of a hired servant rather than the heart of a child in the family, while the father's joy continues and the restored one is acknowledged as son with a place beside the father and in his work.

That same self-righteous unwillingness places a person where divine favor cannot be received, since coldness toward strugglers and accusation instead of mercy shut the heart against the very grace needed. All heaven rejoices over the lost sheep, and refusal to share that joy exposes the refuser's own need for repentance. What was given for the benefit of those who claim to love God applies especially to many handling sacred things who act this same part, that they may properly represent Him in service.

The same elder-brother part is acted out by professed Christians who meet returned souls with distrust, suspicion, and unkind, untender treatment instead of making merry that the brother is alive and found again. Some called Seventh-day Adventists will act in this way toward souls for whom Christ gave His life, making the way hard for those who need help most. Those who have learned by experience what it is to be met with distrust must not retaliate, cherish dislike, or manifest any of that unforgiving and retaliatory spirit in labor for others, but must exercise patience and forbearance, keep Christ's prayer before the mind, trust Jesus, and overcome.

It is acted out again by church members who envy the work given to others and resent wandering people being brought into the church instead of rejoicing over their return. It appears as selfishness, coldness, and complaint when labor is given to hunting up the lost sheep instead of feeding those already in the church, with murmuring because ministers go to save outsiders rather than labor constantly for the church. Those who so murmur act selfishly and speak unjustly as if robbed of labor owed to them, plant doubt, questioning, jealousy, and evil surmising, gossip instead of laboring, expect to be constantly fed and held up while doing no righteousness at home or in church, neglect their own duty to seek the lost, lack the Spirit of Christ, hinder the work, keep souls from being added, and displease God. Those who love Christ will love those for whom He died, help the minister carry the burden for perishing souls around them, and become earnest working light-bearers who carry salvation by precept and example, by burden for souls and sincere prayer.

Established members illustrate the same attitude when they resent the care and attention given to new believers and fail to help them, and unless converted they work against God and His work. Cherishing that murmuring, fault-finding spirit hinders soul-saving and keeps souls from being added, and God is sorely displeased with it. Those who know God and have Christ formed within as the hope of glory share the father's joy and seek to save the lost.

The return and restoration outweigh every other consideration and all complaint, for repentance brings the sinner to his senses, makes him abhor his sinful course, and brings him from death in sin and deadness to filial affection back to awareness of sin, valuing of the father's love, and acknowledgment of his claims. Therefore it is right to rejoice when one lost in sin repents and returns to God, and the elder brother is urged to welcome him with gladness. Those who have erred need sympathy, help, and free forgiveness rather than repeated reminders of their mistakes, reflecting the pity, forgiveness, and joy with which the heavenly Father receives the erring.

Sharing Joy Seeking Lost

Heaven itself shares the gladness when the lost is brought back to God, for it is right to rejoice that one described as dead is alive again and lost is found. The Shepherd who gave His life counts the lost sheep as precious, searches until He finds what was lost, makes the dead alive again, and calls all His friends and neighbors to rejoice with Him. All heaven rejoices over the lost sheep and the sinner who repents and returns to the Father, welcoming the restored one with warmth, courtesy, and love. God takes the first step to seek those still in rebellion and brings back every wanderer who allows Him, for the lost are precious to Him, unlike those who consider themselves just. The elder brother's refusal to share the father's joy reveals his own need for repentance, and some who are not ready to rejoice over the finding are to be met with faith and patience and long-forbearance.

God's people should share that joy and meet a sinner's return with gladness, mercy, and forgiveness, for the lost one has been found and restored. The parable is intended to teach mercy and forgiveness toward sinners, and those who have received Christ's mercy should follow His example by accepting the repentant and rejoicing over restoration. God receives returning sinners with joy and covers them with His robe of righteousness, while the elder brother's cold, jealous, resentful, critical spirit and refusal to forgive oppose that joy and show a selfish spirit. Heaven's response to a sinner's return is gladness, and those who serve God are expected to help straying people return rather than neglect or despise them, since such neglect can leave them lost while actively seeking them brings rejoicing. Rejoicing is fitting when one who was lost returns, for the repentant child is restored to life and found again, revealing God's tender, loving care and calling people to work with God to seek the lost and win them back. The return of the lost son calls for joy and gladness, not complaint, and those who claim to serve God should welcome the repentant rather than wound or drive the lost away, for these lessons have practical and eternal consequences.

Those who have erred need sympathy, help, pity, tender care, and above everything else free forgiveness, not repeated reminders of their mistakes. The father represents the heavenly Father who receives the erring with pity, forgiveness, and joy, and the son who was dead to filial affection became aware of his sin and neglect, valued his father's love, and acknowledged his claims. His return matters more than the elder brother's complaints, and the father's joy is right because the repentant son once lost and as good as dead has returned to his father's love. Fellow believers should rejoice over a repenting brother instead of trying to make him feel where he erred and continually reminding him of error, for those who have erred suffer in feeling and are frequently desponding and discouraged. A lost person who returns to life and is found should be welcomed with joy, not coldly rejected, for the elder brother's harshness is the opposite of the loving Father's welcome. The prodigal is an erring person whom Jesus regards with love and tenderness, and the parable should soften the heart toward those who have fallen and oppose severe judgment, harshness, condemnation, and cold rejection that wound, discourage, and drive them away.

The merry gladness over one who was dead and is alive again, lost and is found, calls men to cooperate earnestly with God in seeking the lost sheep and winning back the prodigal. The lost sheep represents people the church has failed to seek, and the church must acknowledge and correct this failure so that those who have strayed can be brought into the fold. The prodigal far from his father's house and perishing with hunger is an object of compassion, illustrating lost people who are to be brought to saving knowledge of truth and for whom Christians are to give themselves and their possessions in unselfish service. Those who have had labor bestowed on them should know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and if Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, they will not grumble and gossip and plant doubt and jealousy but will seek to save the lost, carry the message of salvation, bear light, hunt for souls, and stretch out hands in burden and sincere prayer by precept, example, burden, and prayer.

Those who love Christ will love those for whom Christ died and will help the minister carry the burden for perishing souls around them instead of expecting to be constantly fed and held up. The Father values every soul for whom Christ died, and the elder brother's jealousy and complaint over the welcome given to the prodigal expose the failure to share Christ's joy when the lost are brought back. Church members who murmur because ministers do not labor constantly for the church but go to save outsiders reveal exactly that elder brother spirit of selfishness, coldness, and complaint when labor is given to hunting up the lost sheep instead of feeding those already in the church. They act selfishly, speak unjustly as if the church has been robbed of labor it should have had, displease God, lack the Spirit of Christ who seeks the lost, and neglect their own duty, while cherishing that spirit hinders the work and keeps souls from being added to the church.

A person rescued from sin can understand how to seek others who are lost and help bring them home to the Father. One who returns to God can also help others be converted, for God accepts the prodigal when he turns with full decision of soul and restores him. Prodigals may return through a message of love that encourages rather than condemns, and those who have themselves been saved can help bring others home with grateful joy that one who was lost is found and spiritually dead is restored to life.

Some who are not ready to rejoice over the finding are to be met with faith and patience and long-forbearance. The elder brother met the returned prodigal with suspicion and an unforgiving, retaliatory spirit instead of welcome, showing that glad rejoicing is the fitting response when a brother comes home. Some called Seventh-day Adventists will act like the elder brother with distrust, suspicion, and unkind, untender treatment toward souls for whom Christ gave His life, making the way hard for those who need help most. Those who know from experience what it feels like to be met with distrust must not return the same spirit or practice it in labor for others, must not retaliate, cherish dislike, or treat others as they were treated, but must keep Christ's prayer before the mind, exercise patience and forbearance, trust Jesus at the right hand, and become overcomers through the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony.

The church must acknowledge and correct its failure to seek the lost sheep, so that those who have strayed can be brought into the fold and rejoicing be fitting when one lost is brought back. God expects His servants to help straying people return rather than neglect or despise them, for such neglect can leave them lost, while actively seeking them brings rejoicing.

Repentance, Return and Sonship

Repentance brings the sinner to his senses, making him abhor his sinful course, aware of his sin and neglect, valuing his father's love and acknowledging his claims, turning with confession and contrition, and this restoration outweighs the elder brother's resentment and every other consideration so that gladness is right and fitting. The one who was dead to filial affection, lost in sin, is found and alive again, and the heavenly Father receives such erring ones with pity and forgiveness and joy rather than with repeated reminders of their mistakes. Those who have erred need sympathy, help, and free forgiveness.

Backsliders who turn back do so through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, helped by earnest prayer, humbling themselves and following an enlightened conscience, turning unto the Lord with confession and contrition of soul, and none who so seek Him seek in vain. Their return is as the prodigal returning to his Father's house, met with deep and tender compassion from Him who died to save them. The Majesty of Heaven invites the erring brother to come now without delay or false hopes while life and hope of eternal life remain, with all things now ready, to lay hold upon Christ who will cleanse from sin, for serving sin and the flesh and the devil brings no profit but poor wages, and the sinner must turn and live lest he perish in his sins.

Returning like the prodigal means a thorough backslider leaving the service of Satan and of sin to come back to his Father's house, which is his Father's service, turning square about with immediate decision and promise before God to be a Christian from that day. Such a one enters a new channel with purified thoughts and changed purposes, with solemn responsibility and conviction, and receives evidence of pardon and love with happiness and thankfulness. That decision stands even if keeping the Sabbath costs a job, position, or trade, and mistreatment or severity from brethren, discouragement, temptation of Satan, or youthful indiscretion gives no excuse to stay away, since Christ loved and died to redeem with tender, compassionate love and His heart is not to be grieved longer.

The prodigal was welcomed into his father's house, but enjoying a son's privileges requires complying with sonship's conditions. Welcome alone does not give enjoyment of sonship; the restored one is to remain under the shepherd's and father's care rather than wander again, meeting God not on his own ground but on God's ground with cordial assent and willing obedience. Receiving Christ means accepting His rule and obeying His word. Friendship with God is measured by His dominion, acknowledging Christ as King, submitting to His authority, making His law the rule of life and His life the pattern, renouncing the favor and friendship of the world, making Him all and in all, walking according to His Word, denying self, and being ready to part with all and make any sacrifice for His sake, while Christ freely cooperates with all who receive Him as Saviour and is near to all who so come.

The verse pictures backsliders who have left their Father's house and blessing and need to turn toward heaven, and workers are to encourage sinful people and prodigals to return to God. Those who have left can be wisely helped and saved, for truth brought into life is a saving power, and their return is a cause for joy. Its return is illustrated at the Sanitarium where people may turn back to God through saving truth, in a man degraded by liquor moved to seek full conversion, and in coming back to parents and to God with a humble heart seeking forgiveness.

It places in the prodigal's position one like Amos who once loved and served the Lord but left the house, and one like Daniel Wessels who neglected the Spirit's invitation, stayed away from his heavenly Father, and is called to return to the Lord and take his place on God's side. It reaches one become a ruined temple of his own making through selfish indulgence, once standing in pride with ambitious hopes and winning prizes by excelling in seeking victory, then filled with self-sufficiency by praise and flattery and sunk lower and lower by habitual wine-drinking until courage was lost and mind and judgment drifted under Satan's guidance and control with no power to leave the snare and God-given manhood lost, to whom Christ speaks words of tender sympathy that he needs and can understand that he, discouraged, sick, tempted, and fallen, dead and lost, may live again and be found. It warns that failing to restrain and teach children through indulgent parenting can lead them into pernicious prodigal ways, yet joy is appropriate when a lost child returns as from death to life.

The gladness and praise are right when a wandering son returns to his Father's house, dead and lost no more but alive and found again through being led step by step in submission to God's will and way into a rich experience, a return that causes rejoicing and tears of joy in those who hear of it. Christ seeks and saves the lost, receives the sinner who comes to Him, and restores to God and to divine favor, and His dying love at Calvary assures acceptance, peace, and love. Jesus yearns after sons and daughters acting as the prodigal while claiming to keep the commandments yet transgressing the law, unthankful and unholy, using entrusted talents to counterwork God with no light and an influence that does not lead to sanctification or holiness, longing to do them the good He delights to do but hindered by perversity of character.