The prodigal’s expenditures in a far country were trivial compared to the cost that our sins have accumulated. Yet God loved us so much that He sent His son to pay the penalty we deserve (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Source of Joyous Celebration: A Beautiful Savior

Charles Dickens is quoted as saying that the parable of the prodigal son is the finest short story ever written. Many would agree. But if that is the case, we need to ask the question, What is so beautiful about this parable? Of course, part of the reason is that the lost son is found. But that is not the heart of why the story is so moving. If you think about it, the parable would not be so beautiful if the son came to his senses only to be rejected or abused by his father. The story is beautiful because of the gracious love of the father.¹

Bringing this story into our world, the central reason why repentance is an occasion for joy is because of the beauty of Christ who is represented by the father in the parable. The more we think about who God is, the more we consider the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and the more we will celebrate repentance for ourselves and others.² We can see the beauty of Christ in the prodigal’s father in five ways.

First, the Father gives us life and all good things that we enjoy. The parable of the prodigal son not only ends with grace but also begins with it as well. We should not miss the fact that the son is able to rebel only because his father gave him life and provided all that he needed to grow up.

As a pastor, I regularly think about how hard the fathers in our church work to provide for their young families. In the winter months, they often leave for work before it is light and return home after it is dark. They grind at their work of life so that they can be loving fathers who provide for their children.

So it is for us. Our heavenly Father has given us everything we enjoy. We need only to look around to see the beauty and glory of God in creation and all that he has provided. I don’t know what parts of our beautiful world get your attention, so I’ll share some of mine. My wife and I love the smell of spring rain in the upper Midwest, which soon gives way to the smell of hay in the summer. In those seasons, my wife and I enjoy the splashes of blue when bluebirds flit across our paths and the black and orange Baltimore orioles when they fly over. We love the smell of leaves in the fall and the sight of cold quiet mornings under a blanket of snow in the winter. At the table, we love the smell of bacon (pigs do serve a purpose) and hot apple pie. But more than being outside or eating great food, we love to kiss our grandchildren before giving them back to their parents when we are tired after spending time with them.

And here is the thing: All the beauty that we all enjoy is just a reflection of Christ, through whom all things were made and in whom all things hold together (Col. 1:16–17). How could it be anything but beautiful and joyous to turn to such a Creator? Think of what repentance is. It is turning “from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to…forgiveness” in Christ (Acts 26:18). It is finding rest in him who has given us all good things. How could repentance not be joyous?

Second, God is patient with us despite our ongoing rebellion. The original audience of Jesus’s parable would have been surprised that the father agreed to give his son his inheritance in the first place. In Jewish culture, there was even a formal ceremony to cut off a son, demonstrating that he was essentially dead to his father.³ Yet the father allowed him to take his inheritance and leave.

It is a beautiful detail in the parable that the father saw his son while he was still a long way off and rushed to meet him (Luke 15:20). Doubtless the reason the father saw his son the day he came home was because he was scanning the horizon every single day. He was praying over and over again that his son would return home. What a beautiful picture of the patient love of Christ!

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