Apology Interrupted

Jesus' story of the prodigal son has to be my favorite parable. It is the gospel writ small. 

Jesus tells that story and two others to answer questions about Jesus' habit of spending time with sinners (Luke 15). The other two stories -- of the shepherd who left the 99 in safety to search relentlessly for the one animal in danger and of the woman who searched the house relentlessly for her precious lost coin -- end with great celebrations of lost things found.

The story of the lost son also ends in great celebration. But it is different in that the father did not search relentlessly for his son. He loved him relentlessly, but he knew he had to wait for the prodigal to return. He knew that the rebel could not be compelled to come back until he wanted to.  

The rebel son didn't want to come home for awhile. But when he finally came to his senses, he prepared his apology speech: "“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:18-19, ESV).

A good speech. And it just might turn the old man's heart. Then again it might not, because the son had so deeply humiliated his father, no small thing in an honor-based culture. But this humble apology was his only hope.

What I love about this story is that the son never got to say his apology. He didn't even get to finish coming home before Dad interrupted him. Jesus tells us that "while [the son] was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him" (v. 20). 

The son started into the desperate apology he had prepared, but he never got to complete it. Before he could finish, Dad interrupted him and turned to the servants with instructions: "Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found (v. 22-23).

In this story Jesus paints a beautiful picture of God's love for us. It wasn't the son's apology that won his father's heart. He didn't have to do anything to win his father's heart. His father had never stopped loving him, despite the pain and humiliation he had caused.

So it is with us. God loves us whether we're sorry for our sins or not. But we cannot know His love until we're sorry for our sins. We can't come back to Him until we turn away from our sins and come Home. To use the language of Scripture, we can't know God's love until we're ready to repent.

Repentance doesn't qualify us for God's love. Nothing we could do -- no good deeds or repentance of bad deeds -- can qualify us for God's love. But repentance puts us in the place to know His love.  

This is the Gospel. Not that we are sorry enough for God to forgive us, but that our sorrowful repentance puts us in a position to be forgiven. Our repentance doesn't change God's mind about us. It only brings us to the place where God can welcome us home, as He is longing and ready to do.