“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). Read Luke 15:11-24. The younger son makes a basely awful request of his father—he demands his inheritance—now. In that Middle Eastern culture, such a request was akin to telling the father, “I wish you were dead already.” Now, the Pharisees listening to this story would have been incredulous at the audacity of this son, but more than that, they would have been reeling at the response of the father, who let his son go with his inheritance. Jesus’ parable was designed to unsettle them with how incomprehensible, how longsuffering, how generous, how humble, how inexhaustible the love of the father, who, of course, represents our heavenly Father. The younger son burns all the bridges—or so he thinks. But sometime later, in a far country, the […]