People Matter To God: The Lost Son | Sis. Sophia Toh

I think I will try to split it up because today, after that, we have the bridge exercise too, if you remember what the bridge is. Okay, so let us just recap first.

The first parable is about the Lost Sheep by Pastor Fusen. The second parable is the Parable of the Lost Coin by Sister Janai, and these two parables emphasize the joy of finding something that was lost. It actually simultaneously reveals God’s profound love and His intensive pursuit of the lost and the sinners.

Can I have the next slide? So, if I may summarize the first two parables, you will see the theme evolving around “lost,” “found,” and then “rejoice,” right? Something is lost, something is found, and then there is rejoicing. Happy ending. You like it, I like it, right?

Now, when we look at the parable of the Lost Son, I’m not too sure what you will be expecting, but we’re going to dive really deep into this parable because it is actually a very profound parable with three significant characters: the younger son, the elder son, and then the father.

You probably will be thinking, okay, the parable of the Lost Son should be the same thing: lost, found, rejoicing. Let us just see. So, remember the keywords: lost, found, rejoicing. You will see throughout the parable there are a few key ideas: rejoice, celebrate, repentance—because the lost is found. Are we good?

Okay, do we need to do some more recap? No? Okay, let’s look straight into the parable of the Lost Sons, Luke 15:11-32.

So we kind of know it is about the Lost Sons, and often enough we are always taught that the emphasis is on the younger son. In this parable, you might imagine it is about God’s amazing love welcoming the sinners and all. But I would say that is only half correct. Where is the other half?

Now let us just read Luke 15:11-24. I’m going to read it; you just follow, okay?

And Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. How many sons? Two sons. The younger one said to his father—” And later we’re going to distill this.

‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So, he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.

So, he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’

So, he got up and went to his father. 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.

The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So, they began to celebrate.”

Happy ending, isn’t it? We stop here.

It is the same thing as the Lost Sheep. Same thing as the Lost Coin. Very predictable. You know, the lost sheep—one is lost, the sheep is found. Everybody: call neighbors, call friends, call the village. Celebrate. Same thing—the housewife lost her coin, then she found it. She rejoiced.

And she’s not rejoicing alone—she calls her friends, calls her neighbors, and everyone rejoices with her.

Now, we must have been expecting this to be the ending, and probably the father just calls celebrations, calls friends, calls neighbors—everybody comes and celebrates.

But rather than ending here, Jesus continued to tell the second part of the story.

This is where I say, listen: this parable is only half correct. The second part is very important.

So, Jesus continued the story to make His point. Let us continue.

Luke 15:25-32:

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So, he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.

‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So, his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Now, what can we notice in this parable?

Let us look at number one: the attitude of the prodigal son—the younger son.

Okay, so the younger son asked his father for money, right? He literally just wanted money and to get out of the home. That’s what he wanted to do.

If you look at it, some of you probably have the Message translation. You will see the Message translation put it very differently.

Yeah, probably different in the verse. Let me just take a look.

In Luke 15, it says: “Give me my money.” The Message translation will say, “I want right now what is coming to me.”

So, in other words, you can imagine if you love to watch Korean dramas or TVB dramas, this is the scene where someone says, “Give me all that’s due to me. I want to live a life of my own.”

The lost sheep was just a sheep that wandered away. The lost coin—probably the housewife was careless and dropped it. But this lost son? He made a choice.

He wasn’t careless, and he didn’t wander away. This was a choice—he decided to walk out and have his own life.

Now at this point in time, I want you to also think with me. Other than the younger son, the elder son, and the father, there’s also one more group you need to think about: the religious leaders—the Pharisees—who were listening.

Because this is a parable, right? Jesus used a parable to explain to them why He was eating with the tax collectors and sinners.

You can imagine the Pharisees, who were very self-righteous and very legalistic, saying, “What?!”

That would be their expression.

He asked for property, and the father gave it?!

Why such a reaction? Let me explain further. Stay with me.

Let me explain further a little bit, and then you’ll understand the depth of why these different reactions play out as you read through the parable again.

Back then, in Jewish culture—it’s very similar to Chinese culture, as I was just researching—I think it’s very similar to the Chinese culture.

No one would ask for a father’s inheritance if the father is still alive, right? Chinese would say, “You curse me!” It’s the same thing with the Jews. They would not do any inheritance or wealth distribution while the father is still alive.

According to the law back then, inheritance primarily was always given to the elder son. Remember, we have a second character—the elder son? Same goes for the Chinese culture, right? In Chinese families, the wealth often goes to the eldest son.

I was just remembering one Build High session where someone was talking about wealth distribution. I remember he was saying, “How do you all probably do wealth distribution in this part of Asia?” We said, “Equal. If there are three kids, everybody gets equal shares, correct?”

Then he said, “No. I think wealth distribution should be given based on merit or performance. If one child does really well, more should go to that child.” We were all like, “What?! Is that how you do your wealth distribution?”

Now going back to the Jews—the eldest sons, according to the Torah law, would usually get two-thirds of the distribution, mainly in the form of land. That’s why, in the scripture, the word “estate” or “land” is so significant.

Land was critical for the family. It represented wealth, stability, and heritage. What does this mean? If the elder son was going to take two-thirds, that meant the younger son would only get one-third. That was the distribution.

Back then, the elder son had a huge responsibility to take care of the home, the household, and all its obligations.

Now you understand the context.

So, now reimagine the younger son going to the father and saying, “Give me all that is due to me.”

And the father gave it.

This was actually breaking the law. It wasn’t protocol. It wasn’t following the norm. He was going against the social and cultural expectations.

The father may have been condemned for what he did, but he still gave the distribution just because the son said, “I want it now. Give it to me.”

If you were the parent, would you do that? Or would you just say, “Get out of my house and don’t come back!”

But the father did it.

Interesting, right?

The father gave it. So, the younger son said, “Give me the money,” and that was essentially saying, “The moment I walk out, we will never see each other again. I am burning this bridge.”

Now the father actually gave it.

This is why, later, the son said, “I don’t deserve to be treated as a son anymore,” because of the significance of the social norms and laws in Jewish culture.

When the younger son had to go back, he never expected to receive the same treatment again. Remember, it was his choice to leave the home.

All right. So, the son is lost. That’s the first thing we notice.

Second, everything just went so wrong for the son.

He thought, “Oh, I’m going to have my life. I’m going to live it up in wild living.” But then famine hit. Famine was common back then, but it left him with no choice.

He had to get himself a job. He had no more money to buy food.

What did he do? He went back to his father, right?

We read that he wanted to be a servant to his father.

So, this boy, who used to have everything—a comfortable life—squandered the wealth his father gave him and ended up becoming a pig boy.

If I may term it this way: from playful boy to pig boy.

Feeding pigs was taboo.

Again, coming back to the Jewish culture—it was haram. They couldn’t go near pigs because pigs were considered unclean.

What’s more, he had to deal with pigs and eat with them.

If we could just say it plainly: he was so cursed. He made all the wrong decisions. He threw away his comfortable life and brought so much shame, not just to himself but to his family and the Jewish culture.

Sitting there in the pig pen, eating the leftovers meant for pigs, he thought about how stupid he had been.

Something clicked. He came to his senses.

He started missing home.

He realized, “I had it all back then. I should have gone home.”

He probably also thought, “I’ve hurt my father.”

This is why I say everything went wrong.

But the younger son actually came to his senses.

Can I just have Luke 15:17?

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!’”

He started to realize: “Silly me! Here I am eating with pigs. If I go home, I’ll have food to eat. I don’t need to worry. But here I am, starving to death.”

In Luke 15, as you continue to look at it, he said: “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”

He knew he could not expect anything better when he returned.

At this point, he came to his senses. Not just that, but he also awakened to the fact that he had done wrong.

He admitted his mistakes.

He left on his terms, but he was ready to return humbly and be punished.

Hunger and humiliation led him to homesickness.

You can probably think that, along the journey, he was rehearsing his speech: “This is what I’ll tell my father. I’ll say, ‘I’m so sorry, Father. I’ve sinned against you.’”

Imagine with me: all of this came together as he prepared to face his father.

So, we’ve seen the Prodigal Son. Now let’s look at the father.

The father always hoped for the child to return.

Which father or parent doesn’t hope for their child to return when the child walks out of the home? Despite whatever might have happened, as a parent, I can be angry at that moment, but deep down, I would still be like the father—always hoping for my child to return.

The father always hoped that the son would come back.

When the father saw the son approach—notice here, just now we read that the father ran to his son, and the father made a great party because of the return of the lost son.

In the scripture, it says the father saw the son from a distance.

What does it mean that the father saw him “from a distance”?

It must mean that the father was always going out to wait, right?

When he saw the son coming back, the moment he recognized him, he ran.

If he wasn’t always waiting and anticipating, he would never have run.

The scripture could have said that the son came back home and entered the door comfortably. But it wasn’t like that.

The scripture says that while the son was still a long way off, the father saw him, was filled with compassion, and threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

Let’s look at the father’s response here.

But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.”

Number one: the father was waiting.

If I saw my son coming, I might just walk. But the father ran.

Remember: back then, the father didn’t wear jeans or shorts. The father wore a long robe.

For him to run, he had to lift his robe—just like what Pastor said—exposing his legs as he ran.

This was very inappropriate in Jewish culture.

Older men in the Near East did not run.

They shouldn’t run. They should walk slowly and steadily, maintaining their authority.

But the father ran.

This wasn’t appropriate at that time.

Despite all of this—the father ran.

He forgot all the protocols, all the rituals, all the traditions required of him.

Why?

Because he was filled with so much joy at seeing his son return.

His longing heart was filled because he had been waiting for his son to come back.

Now let’s look at the robe, the sandals, and the ring.

The father clothed him with the robe.

The father, already acting inappropriately by doing all of this, still gave his son the robe.

The robe symbolizes honor and acceptance.

It was likely the father’s own robe—the best robe.

It was a sign of honor and dignity.

When he placed the robe on his son, he was telling him that his place in the family was restored.

Before that, remember, when the son chose to walk out, it meant the bridge was burned.

This was a complete contrast.

“I want my way out. I want my life. Bye. You have fun, old fool.”

But now it was a total turnaround.

When the son came back, the father clothed him, telling him his place was restored.

The ring represented authority and belonging.

It reinstated the son as a rightful member of the household.

The sandals: back then, slaves didn’t wear sandals. They walked barefoot.

For the father to say, “Bring the sandals and put them on him,” it meant he was reaffirming that the younger son was not a servant but his son.

A deeper meaning of this act was that the son was forgiven and redeemed.

It symbolized a new start in life.

It represented freedom and sonship.

So, happy ending?

The son came back. The relationship was restored.

The father ordered the fattened calf to be killed.

Back then, the fattened calf represented celebration.

People didn’t eat a lot of meat, and slaughtering a fattened calf wasn’t a casual act.

The calf had to be fed and prepared in anticipation of a special occasion.

A family couldn’t eat one calf alone—it was meant to feed the entire village.

So, this was a massive celebration.

The father was confident the child would come home at some point, and he was ready to receive him.

Again, let’s not forget: there was an audience in the room—the Pharisees.

When the Pharisees heard this story, they were likely thinking, “What?! This is crazy.”

The Pharisees probably thought, “The son deserves to stay in the pig pen until he dies. That’s justice—an eye for an eye.”

But instead, what they heard was a symphony of grace.

They could never understand it.

Remember their background—they were religious leaders, self-righteous, legalistic.

They obeyed the law perfectly and knew the scriptures thoroughly, but they couldn’t grasp the heart of the father.

Coming back to that, I just want to pause and ask you a question: when you hear all this, who can you identify with?

Can you identify yourself as the father, the son, or the Pharisees?

So, just pause here and think about it. Can you identify yourself as the father, the son, or the Pharisees?

Okay, so we’ve finished the younger son and the father. Now let’s look at the elder son.

The younger son came back, the father welcomed him and threw a celebration.

How about the elder son?

The elder son came back from the field.

When he heard the music and dancing, everyone was happy—but he wasn’t happy.

Why wasn’t he happy? Right?

Shouldn’t he be joining the celebration because his brother was back?

Let me imagine, for example: let’s say Keith comes back home. I think Ken will be really happy because his youngest brother—his annoying, irritating brother—returned.

But that’s not the case here.

The elder son was very, very upset.

He discovered the party and saw everyone was celebrating, but he was angry and refused to go in.

He refused to join the party.

What’s wrong with him? Aren’t they supposed to be a family?

You probably have a lot of questions. What’s wrong with the elder son?

The elder son didn’t even want to talk to the younger son.

I would have imagined he would go hug him and say, “Welcome home! I’m so glad you’re safe!”

But no.

The elder son just stood outside the house, refusing to go in, not willing to talk.

In his mind, he was thinking, “He smells like a pig. He’s horrible. He squandered all the money. I could have managed the wealth better. He used it all, and now you want me to celebrate? This is ridiculous!”

That’s the elder son.

Let us look at his attitude toward his brother.

He was angry. He lost his cool and blew up.

It was ultimate indignation for him.

He thought, “This is so unfair. This is so unjust. I’m not going in.”

That was his attitude toward his brother.

Now, how about toward the father?

He said, “I’ve been slaving for you. I do so much for you. I’ve always been beside you, and this is how you treat me? You didn’t even give me a party to celebrate with my friends. I’ve done so much for you. What did I get?”

And that is the attitude of legalism.

All right, so we got it all.

Now let’s move to the second part.

We’ve seen the younger son, the father, and the elder son.

Now let’s unpack the whole parable and try to understand what it means.

Yes, Sophia, we know this parable. It’s always about the father’s love, about forgiveness.

Let’s go a bit deeper.

We’ve seen the father welcome the younger son home.

His response was to bring the robe, the ring, and the sandals and celebrate with the fattened calf.

This shows how much the father was waiting and anticipating the son’s return.

Let’s look at the response of the two sons.

Luke 15:24 says: “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

This is about the younger son.

He was lost and now is found, and they began to celebrate.

Now let’s look at the elder son’s response.

Luke 15:29-30 says: “Look!” He said—he didn’t even call him “Father”—he said, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

Can you imagine the tone?

Can you imagine how the father felt?

If I were the father, I would have lost my head.

When I read this parable, I think, “Wow, the father is so cool and calm.”

He endures the tantrum of the elder son.

Although the son did not call him “Father,” he still treated him tenderly and gently.

This was his response:

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

What can we learn here?

Lesson Number One: Heaven doesn’t see anyone as unworthy of forgiveness.

You know, I was just telling you about the Pharisees. Their response would have been anger. They would have said, “You’re crazy!”

In the Pharisees’ minds, everything had to be justified—who should come to faith, what type of people could come to faith, and even how God should think of them.

To the Pharisees, sinners and outcasts were irredeemable. They could not be redeemed.

The non-Jews? They could not be redeemed.

That’s the Pharisees.

But God in heaven doesn’t see people this way.

God’s love goes out to the lost, to the outcasts, and even to the self-righteous.

Now you can imagine the Pharisees, with their rigid view of worthiness, having definitions for everything—even who is worthy of forgiveness.

They missed the heart of God entirely.

They couldn’t understand God’s boundless grace and mercy.

There was no room in their hearts to encounter God’s love in that way.

And so, if we continue to look at this, here’s the lesson:

Grace is never earned.

Grace is unearned.

If you look at the younger son, he made so many mistakes. He walked out; he was completely wrong. He did all the wrong things.

But he couldn’t do anything to repay his sins. That’s for sure.

There’s no amount of good actions that can replace a heart softened by humility and repentance.

At that point, the younger son was simply repentant. He was humble. He knew he had done wrong, and he needed to ask his father for forgiveness.

Grace is unearned.

John 3:16 says:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The Scripture doesn’t say, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, provided that your sheet is clean, provided that you’ve corrected all your actions, provided that you are error-free, provided that you are no longer a sinner.”

Scripture is clear:

“When we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Pharisees couldn’t see that.

And the last point here is: heaven doesn’t see anyone as unworthy of forgiveness.

Heaven doesn’t begrudgingly accept wayward sinners into the family.

Heaven doesn’t say, “Only if they clean up their act.”

That’s lesson number one: Grace is unearned.

The Pharisees, who could only see their own superiority, missed the entire character of God.

Guess what?

They are the ones who are truly lost.

The ones who are really lost are the Pharisees, because they could only see their own need for God’s grace and denied it to the rest.

Here’s a question for you:

Have we, at any point, allowed our pride or self-righteousness—like the elder brother—to blind us to our own need for God’s grace?

Have we missed our Father’s heart for the poor and the marginalized?

Think about that.

Do we think grace is only for us?

Lesson Number Two: God loves the lost.

We know God loves the outcasts, but God also loves the self-righteous alike.

The sins of the younger brother could not keep him out of the father’s embrace because of his repentance.

But the elder son could not earn favor because of his pride.

He thought, “I deserve everything. I should be rewarded for my merit.”

That was his attitude—bitter and self-righteous.

That’s why he refused to join the celebration.

He thought, “Only if I see proof of worthiness will I join.”

He couldn’t understand the joy of his father in that moment of receiving the younger son back.

The elder son could only see himself.

He could only see his objections.

He justified his response by saying, “The brother doesn’t deserve a party. Not after all he has done. This is unthinkable, unfair, ridiculous.”

The father rebukes him gently, saying:

“My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

Have you ever wondered about this response?

The elder son had always been with the father. The younger son was the one who walked out.

But the father’s reply here exposes a deeper truth:

How could the elder son, who stayed with the father for so long, know him so little?

How could he not grasp the depth of his father’s love and grace for the younger son?

If he had understood, he wouldn’t have responded as he did.

He was surprised by the father’s response and behavior toward the younger son.

This shows us something important:

He hardly knew his father.

He was present, but he was also absent.

Coming back again to the Pharisees—this message was directed at them.

The radical grace that Jesus spoke about toward sinners also revealed how little the Pharisees truly knew about God.

They were blinded by their rigid views, unable to comprehend God’s love.

We could be in church, week in and week out.

We could be attending Bible study, going to seminary, and serving in ministries.

But here’s the question:

Do we truly understand the heart of our heavenly Father?

When He looks at the poor, the outcasts, and the marginalized—do we see what He sees?

That’s the work we do. We go to the poor and marginalized, giving them hope and a second chance to live.

Let me land here for the second lesson:

God loves the lost, the outcasts, and the self-righteous.

What are we saying here?

Everyone matters to God.

No matter the financial circumstances, ethnicity, or background, the lost matter to God.

If the lost matter to God, they should matter to us.

Restoring the lost brings celebrations in heaven.

Every soul that is saved brings a celebration in heaven.

But if we are judgmental like the elder son, we will miss the party.

We will be like the elder son, standing outside the house while everyone else celebrates.

Let us not be caught up in our virtues and judgments, forgetting the heart of God—a Father who runs to embrace the lost, regardless of where they’ve been or who they are.

Let us put down our judgments.

Lesson Number Three: Reflect the heart of the Father.

We know the Father’s heart for the lost and outcasts.

Now, what do we do?

We need to reflect the heart of our Father to everyone.

The Pharisees could never imagine this.

Even as Jesus finished the parable, they likely thought, “This is ridiculous.”

The younger brother abandoned his father.

The elder brother abandoned his father in his heart.

The story ends with the father and elder brother standing outside the house, staring at each other, while the younger brother basks in the celebration.

The elder brother had a choice to go in but decided to stand outside and miss the joy of the celebration.

When we look at this parable again, where are we?

Do we need to seek reconciliation and say, “Father, I’ve gone astray. I want to come home. Will you accept me?”

Are we like the elder brother, standing outside, thinking we deserve all we have and refusing to extend grace to others?

The Father’s heart is that grace is for all.

He calls us not just to be recipients of grace but also releasers of grace.

Freely we receive; freely we give.

We are not saved because we have a good report card.

We are not saved because we’ve changed our behavior.

We still need God’s grace every day.

Let us come to the table of communion daily and say, “God, forgive me. I confess my sins. I want to make it right before You.”

As we look at how the father welcomed the prodigal son, I want you to imagine:

The Father is sitting on the throne, waiting to welcome you home.

He is waiting to clothe you with a robe, to restore your place in the house.

He is waiting to put sandals on your feet and call you son or daughter.

Because of this, we should reflect the heart of God wherever we go—in our workplace, in our communities—knowing that God loves and God cares.