A Story of Forgiveness Told by Jesus

Forgiveness may be something different from what you think.

In an earlier post, we discovered that forgiveness is rooted in the heart and actions of our God:

• Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)
• Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)

We also asked, “How does God, in Christ, forgive us?”

The answer to this will equip and encourage us to know how to forgive others.

Let’s listen to Jesus tell us about forgiveness through a story—the parable of the prodigal son. Who better to teach us and show us what real forgiveness truly is?

A Parable

A parable is more than simply a story to entertain. One Bible scholar writes that:

Parables do not just point to another world beyond this one, but to a new possibility in this world, our world: to a real possibility of beginning to see and experience life and the world in quite a different way from the usual one.[1]

So, the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) points to a new possibility in your world; the real opportunity to see and experience forgiveness in God’s way. 

Here, the text of this parable is taken from The Message,[2] which may render it in a fresh way for you. Feel free to read it from your regular translation.

I have organized the text into sections, accompanied by brief comments, to help guide you through the process of forgiveness.

1. Exclusion

There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.”

So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. 

In that culture and context, the son’s demand for his inheritance was the same as saying, “I wish you were dead!” By that request, the relationship was broken; it effectively died. Not only that, but he also severed himself from his family, household, and the village community.

2. Separation

Separation might be too mild for what he did. The prodigal departed; he now lived in a ‘distant country.’

There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

In that ‘distant country,’ he shut his father, family, and community out of his life and went his own independent way. Doing his ‘own thing’ led to not only feeding pigs but craving the pig food. What could be worse? Physically, mentally, and emotionally, he had reached the bottom.   

3. Journey back

That brought him to his senses. He said, “All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.” He got right up and went home to his father.

In this part of the parable, we can identify something of the dynamic of repentance—a dynamic we will discover as a divine gift. The Bible teacher, Harry Ironside (1876-1951), described repentance as:

… to change one’s attitude toward self, toward sin, toward God, toward Christ.[3]

This ‘change’ in the prodigal is the beginning of the way back.

4. Embrace

When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: “Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.”

This is the destination of his journey back. The son’s reappearance is, in itself, an act of repentance, and his confession is his words of repentance.

What remains to be done? Will the father forgive him?

5. Forgiveness

The father cuts into the son’s obvious expressions of repentance and remorse with words that convey his forgiveness, even reconciliation.

But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, “Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here – given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!” And they began to have a wonderful time.

Forgiveness is granted by the father (the victim) to the prodigal (the offender). The son who had been ‘dead’ is now back, forgiven, and ‘alive.’

What has love got to do with it?

We have all too briefly focused on the process of forgiveness. Is love present? And if so, what part does it play?

Let me quote from a scholar who is immersed in Middle Eastern culture, Kenneth E. Bailey. Regarding this return, he writes:

The father makes the reconciliation public at the edge of the village. Thus his son enters the village under the protective care of the father’s acceptance. The boy, having steeled his nerves for this gauntlet, now, to his utter amazement, sees his father run it for him. Rather than experiencing the ruthless hostility he deserves and anticipates, the son witnesses an unexpected, visible demonstration of love in humiliation. The father’s acts replace speech. There are no words of acceptance and welcome. The love expressed is too profound for words. Only acts will do.[4]

Despite the complex relationship between forgiveness and love, we must be careful not to confuse unconditional love with conditional forgiveness.  

The fact that the father saw the unannounced approach of his son “when he was still a long way off” tells us that the father, in his love, had continuously longed, hoped, and prayed for his son’s return. When he saw his son, he impulsively gathered up his robe and ran to his son in a most undignified way in sight of the whole village. His love would not allow him to wait another moment to embrace and forgive his repentant son.

Summing up

In time, this series will take deeper dives into each stage of the process of forgiveness:

• What does or does not cause a breaking or damaging of a relationship, requiring one to enter the process of forgiveness?
• What are some of the effects of a broken relationship on each party?
• What is the “gift of repentance,” and how does it express itself to others in words and actions?
• What is forgiveness, and how is it expressed to others?
• What is reconciliation?
• And much more.

In the next post, you will hear the story of the prodigal son and his father, told from the perspective of our modern secular world and its ‘therapeutic’ tools.

Please let me know if you would like to add something. You can reach me using this link.

FORWARD TO the next post in this series

BACK TO When Love and Forgiveness Get Confused

Notes:

[1] Edward Schillebeeckx, God Among Us: The Gospel Proclaimed (New York, NY: Crossroad, 1983), 29. 

[2] Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993 through to 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

[3] Harry A. Ironside, Except Ye Repent (New York, NY: American Tract Society, 1937), 15.

[4] Kenneth E. Bailey, Poet & Peasant; and, Through Peasant Eyes (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983), 182. My emphasis.

Photo credit: Image of the Prodigal Son used under fair use for educational and theological reflection. Artist and source unknown. If you are the creator or know the origin of this artwork, please contact me via johnbmacdonald.com so proper credit can be given.