Tested Faith

April 24, 2016 Background Scripture: Luke 15:11 – 32 Lesson Passage: Luke 15:11 – 24 Sometimes it takes a major setback in life for us to give our absolute undivided attention to God. We often speak of those setbacks as times when our faith is tested. Setbacks can occur at any time and for a number of different reasons. I think the most difficult setbacks are the ones that are self-inflicted. Yes, life might hurt but the pain seems even more unbearable when it comes as a result of our action or inaction. Our lesson passage today is so familiar to students of the bible that it seems almost too trivia to repeat. It is part of a chapter where Jesus uses the parabolic teaching method to teach principles of God’s view of the recovery of lost souls. In the text, the focus shifts between the actions of the father and the actions of the youngest son. The father, at the request of the youngest son, divides his estate between his two sons while he is still alive. The timing of the father’s actions is significant because he is given the opportunity to see how his sons will handle the stewardship of the estate that had become the father’s living. A few days after the father’s actions, the youngest son took all of his newly obtained wealth, left home, and began to squander it through ill-advised living. When the wealth was all gone, the son took on a job as a lowly slave tending swine. This is a situation that would have been seen as unthinkable for a Jew. In this state of poverty, the son was tempted to eat some of what he fed the swine due to his extreme hunger. No doubt, for the Jews listening to Jesus’ discourse, the scenario changed from the unthinkable to the absolute insane. This is the test that Jesus was communicating to his hearers: the son was impoverished, on the brink of starving to death, and presented with a choice that would remove him from the situation but it required great humility on his part. The son, in his pride, had demanded of his father that for which he was not due at the time. The son, with his father’s wealth had lived very foolishly. He had learned some very hard lessons about people and life. With his father’s wealth, he could find people to live it up with him. But when the wealth was gone and he was on the verge of starving to death, the text says that no man gave him anything. When he received his inheritance and left home, he lived as though his father was as good as dead already. In his humility, he began to reason as one who believed that he had destroyed his position of son-ship with his father. At that point, he realized that his father’s servants were living quite well. He decided to seek a position as a servant to his father which would be a much better situation than his current dilemma. This act of repentant behavior opened doors he did not expect. His father would have no talk of the notion of him being a servant but rather returned cheerfully to the position of son. The father even called for a celebration to commemorate the return of his son. Just as the son lived as though his father was dead, the father saw the son’s absence from him as though his son was dead. The son’s return home was as if he had returned from the dead and the father found it worthy of a celebration. The father’s example gives hope to all who find themselves as this wayward and wasteful son whose faith is put to the test. We have a heavenly Father who patiently waits to celebrate our repentance and return to Him—even if it is after life’s setbacks have tested our faith. Robert C. Hudson April 2, 2016