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The Prodigal Son (Luke 15.11) There was a rich man who had two sons. The younger son came up to his father and said, “Father, one day all your wealth and land will be shared out between my brother and me. I do not want to wait that long. Please, give me my share now.” The father agreed and gave the boy his share of everything. He waited to see what his son planned to do.
The youth set out on a journey the next day with all his new wealth. He travelled far away into a distant country. There he settled down and started to spend all his money. He gambled a lot of it; he wasted much of it; he spent the rest of it foolishly.Then the trouble began. First, his new country suffered a famine and there was hardly any food. The young man had no money left and was starving, so he tried to get a job. There were not many people willing to give him work. In the end he started to work for a farmer. He was given the job of feeding the pigs. He was so hungry that he could have eaten the food that the pigs were getting.
Suddenly, he came to his senses. He thought, “What am I doing here. The servants that work for my father feed better than I am doing. I know what I am going to do. I will return to my father’s house. I will say to my father, ‘I do not deserve to be called your son, I have been so wrong. Please, make me one of your servants.’” When he was still a long way from home, his father saw him. He ran towards the youth and hugged him and welcomed him home with a kiss. The youth said, “Father, I have done wrong and am not fit to be called your son.” His father would have none of it. He called the servants and told them to bring the best clothes for his son, who was clothed in rags. He told them to prepare a welcome home meal. They were to use the fattened calf that they were saving for a feast. He said, “I thought my son was dead. But he has returned home. He was lost and now he is found.”
When the older brother came home from the fields where he had been working, he learned what all the celebrating was about. He was very angry, that this bad brother was being treated so well by their father. The father went out and tried to urge the older brother to join the festivities. He would not. He said, “I have worked hard all these years while he has been away. I have never disobeyed you. Yet you never offered me a feast with my friends. Your younger son wastes half your property and money on foolishness and he gets a feast.”
The father said, “My son, you are always here. All I have is yours. But we thought your brother was dead and he is alive. He was lost and he has been found.” 1. What did the younger son ask for from his father?
2. What did the son spend his money on?
3. Where did the young man find work?
4. What did the father get for the feast?
5. What did the father say about his young son, when he returned home?
Jesus told this story to show that 'Heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than others who haven’t strayed away, and that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God when one sinner repents.'
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