Listen

All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Jesus told them this parable:

“A certain man had two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the inheritance.’ Then the father divided his estate between them. Soon afterward, the younger son gathered everything together and took a trip to a land far away. There, he wasted his wealth through extravagant living.”

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-13

Think

Jesus knew just how to get people’s attention. In today’s passage, he sees that his land’s biggest cheaters (tax collectors) and worst wrongdoers are listening. That makes all the religious leaders mad — but doesn’t keep Jesus from launching into a story that he knows will connect with the cheaters and wrongdoers.

The younger son in Jesus’ story shocks his father (and Jesus’ audience) by asking for his inheritance early — and then wastes it in wild living. I can imagine the cheaters and wrongdoers getting nervous as they listen to Jesus’ story. They put themselves in the younger son’s shoes, and they worry what is going to happen next. How will the father in the story punish him? They likely also worry how God might punish them, too, for all they’ve done.

This week we’ll walk through Jesus’ story day by day, and we’ll see how the father reacts. Maybe the way Jesus tells the story will get your attention, too, as you imagine yourself as one of the father’s children.

Chip Hardwick

Pray

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for getting my attention. Open me up to your word for me today, and help me to take you seriously. Speak, for your servant is listening. Amen.

Go

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is thy faithfulness!
Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Thomas O. Chisolm in “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (1923)