The Lost Sons

One of the most familiar stories that Jesus told is called the parable of the prodigal son. It is found in Luke 15:11 – 32, and is one of three stories that Jesus told in that chapter. The first was about a lost sheep that the shepherd goes out and finds, the second is about a lost coin that a woman cleans the house in order to find, and the third is about lost sons that the father looks for and goes out to find.

All three were told in the setting of tax collects and sinners drawing near to Him, while the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling and accusing Him of receiving sinners and eating with them! Imagine that! Jesus spoke to both groups with these three stories, revealing the heart of the Father in all three.

In all three stories there is something or someone who is missing, lost, not where they should be, as well as someone who is searching for them. This reaches back to Genesis 3:9 and the first question that God asked Adam, “Where are you?” This was after he and Eve had eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They had separated themselves from God and from each other as a result of their sin, and were hiding.

In each story, Jesus points out the fact that the shepherd, the woman, and the father made special effort to restore the one that was missing. The shepherd goes out searching, the woman sweeps and cleans the house looking, and the father searches the horizon desiring the son to come home. He also leaves the party to go out to persuade the older son to come in and celebrate when his brother did return home.

The third story is the longest in the chapter and describes how both sons were lost and how one was restored. We are familiar with the younger son, the one who demanded his share of the inheritance and then wasted it in a distant land in unbridled living.

The two words used to describe what happened to him in the far country are diaskorpedzo, and asotzo, “…the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he diaskopedzo his property in asotzo living.” 15:13.

The first word, diasporpidzo, means to scatter to the wind without any purpose, to throw away. It is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament to describe how God will judge His enemies, scattering them into hiding. The second word, asotzo, is used to describe a life without any boundaries, undisciplined, unhealthy and sick. In the Greek world it described drunkenness and sexual immorality of the worst kind and the sicknesses that accompanies those vices.

But the younger son returned to the father and was surprised by the joy of the father having received back his son whom he thought had surely died. The older son did not share the joy of his father. The story concludes with the father leaving the celebration to go out the other lost son who was just as lost as the younger was in the distant land.

In the story, the older son was angry because in his mind he had been working like a slave without any reward, “…Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.” 15 :29. His condition was just as sick, asodzo, as the younger son, maybe worse, because he was so close to the father and yet at the same time, so far away.

Today, meditate on these three stories and see the heart of the Father and the joy He has when we can celebrate with Him, having received His joy over what has been restored to Him! This is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.