The Prodigal Son

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity

Luke 15:11-32

June 21, 2026

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

In the parable of the prodigal son the father represents God the Father. He has two sons. Neither son recognizes the father’s love, grace, and mercy in his house. The prodigal son outright rejects his father’s love. He asks for his portion of the inheritance. In that day and age it would have been the same as telling his father to fall down and die so I can get what’s mine.

This son wants the goods but not the father. Like all those today who want the gifts of Jesus the Father gives, but not in the way the Father wants to give them. They call themselves Christians but then live and act like the world and not like sons of God redeemed by the blood of Jesus. They take their baptism and confirmation and church membership and cash in the goods and go live as they please thinking they punched their ticket. With sadness the Heavenly Father lets them go. The gift is free and you can leave if you choose, just like the son in the parable. But in the world the inheritance is soon lost. Faith is destroyed. But the father waits.

The son goes off and squanders away all of the father’s inheritance with unrestrained, immoral living. His new life in the world quickly leads to poverty and regret. He’s broke, starving, and living with pigs, wishing to eat their slop. How quickly life’s unrestrained pleasures and sin destroy faith. But one day in the depth of his despair, the son remembers the love of His father and desires to return. This is our hope and prayer for all of our sons and daughters that have walked away from the faith. The prodigal son in the depth of his sin and regret is a picture of those who’ve walked away from the body of Christ and feel shame and remorse because of their sin. Away from the Church and immersed in the ways of the world, their life begins to fall apart. In the midst of their guilt and shame they remember their baptism and gift of faith and the life in the Church they left.

The prodigal son recognizes his sin. He sees that he alone is responsible for his situation. So the prodigal son decides to go back, confess his sin and ask his father for mercy. Maybe his father will take him back as a servant. The prodigal still doesn’t understand the full depth of his father’s love. He believes that in some way he must make amends for his own sin. Show great remorse and then work as a servant instead of returning as a son. He’s greatly mistaken. His father isn’t looking for the return of his son to become a servant to earn forgiveness. The Father is seeking the return of His son in order to love him and forgive him.

When the father sees his son coming he has compassion and runs to his son. He embraces and kisses his son. The son confesses his sin and unworthiness to be his son. But the Father doesn’t want a servant he just wants his son. The father takes the finest clothing and covers his dear child. There is feasting and celebration. The son that was dead and lost has returned. He lives. All of heaven rejoices.

This is the love we have from our Heavenly Father in Jesus.

Have you looked into your heart and examined your life and seen your filth and sin? Your vile and disgusting thoughts and desires? Have you felt your wretchedness and great corruption? Have you despised and rejected your father and mother, your wife or husband, your children? God Himself? Have you hated your neighbor? Have you abandoned your faith and confession for a moment of vile pleasure and filth? Have you’ve scorned and mocked God’s Laws and His teaching? If so, what do you have to offer for your sin? Would you pay with your life and your blood? It wouldn’t suffice. All you have to offer is your guilt and unworthiness. Your Heavenly Father stands waiting. His arms are open. His compassion is never ending. His love and grace and mercy are soaked in the blood of Jesus. Once again He covers you with the forgiveness and righteousness of Jesus. There is no greater love.

Now consider the older son who stayed in the house. He was just as lost as the prodigal son. He didn’t understand the love of the Father either. He thought he had earned his Father’s love. He thought there was something worthy within himself. He scorned his Father’s love. He resented and hated the brother who returned. He was living under the Law and not trusting in the love and grace and mercy of His Father. Even in the house of His Father he was living in unrepentance. For those of us still living in the Father’s House may we not reject God’s Laws and teaching and live in unrepentance.

Only through recognizing our sin and turning from it can we receive God’s love and grace in Jesus. Through repentance and faith in Christ alone there is forgiveness and life and eternal feasting and celebration in the House of our Heavenly Father.

Now consider the father in this parable. This sermon isn’t meant to be a Father’s Day sermon. It just happens to be Father’s Day. But if you are a father, or just a Christian man with people you need to take care of and love, then learn from the father in this parable.

God has given you precious souls to love and care for and lead in the light of God’s Word. You are the spiritual leaders of your families and in the church according to God’s design and purpose from creation. It is what you are created to do as Christian men.

Those under your care and authority and are not to live in submission to your dominance or your lazy, self-serving behavior. They are to submit to your care and authority according to God’s design from creation, trusting that you will love them and care for them according to God’s will, not yours. You are called to sacrifice and dedicate your whole life to them. Love them as Christ Himself loves the Church. Be examples of sacrificial love and faith in Christ alone to them. Forgive them. Point them always to the bloody Cross of Jesus. Make sure they come to church every Sunday. Let them see your love and desire to feast weekly on the gifts of Jesus.

Be men of conviction, compassion and courage in your families and in the church. Don’t sit in the corner, stand up and lead with the confidence and the authority given to you in God’s Word. Let the people in your life see the love of Christ in your words and actions. Do the hard things. Sacrifice and look out for the interests of others above your own.

Discipline and take care of your minds and your bodies. Don’t choose the path of weakness, gluttony or addiction. The demons are watching and looking for an opening into your lives. Don’t open doors to demons. Make no room for evil. Put down your phones. Pay attention to your wives and your children, to your coworkers and friends, to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Be present in church for all the good things that take place here. Be the men and spiritual leaders God has created you to be. You have no greater purpose in life.

Do not give in to complacency and laziness in your lives of faith. Read the Bible every day. Pray every day. Teach your children to read the Bible and pray every day. Teach your children to sing good, confessional hymns and not listen to that emotional, evangelical fluff.

Don’t swear and use disgusting language or laugh at perverted jokes. Don’t watch violent, and sexually perverse things. Walk away from filth and ungodly behavior. Speak up for the weak and the vulnerable. Protect the unborn and those who can’t protect themselves.

Be Christian men. Raise your boys to be Christian men. Raise your girls to be Christian women. Love and protect your children, your wives and your mothers and your grandmothers. Love and protect them like their lives actually depend on it. Do the hard things today. Tomorrow is too late. Put in the work and learn how to speak and confess God’s Word unapologetically to everyone in your life, both Law and especially Gospel. Let the unbelieving world mock and scorn you. The Lord is on your side. Do not fear. What can man do to you? Trust in the Lord above all things and lean not on your own understanding. Let God do His work with His Word and Spirit as He promised.

If we men fail to be the strong Christian men of conviction and compassion that God created us to be, then our families our churches and our communities will crumble. Don’t let it happen to your family, to your church, to your community. Be Christian men and fathers who build your houses and homes on the Rock that is Jesus. So when the floods come, and they will come, your house will not be shaken because you are founded upon the Rock which is Jesus Christ crucified and risen. You are men of God loved and forgiven by Jesus. Believe it and live it.

The father stayed in the house and waited for the son. He didn’t change. He was a man of conviction and compassion that didn’t waver or give into weakness and sin. He knew where true eternal hope and love and grace and mercy were found. It was in the house of God through the bloody Cross of Jesus.

Be that man. Be that father, that friend, that brother in Christ until the day you die. You and your families stand covered under the perfect blood and righteousness of Jesus. Stay in the house of God and fight the good fight with the sword of the Spirit and remember that you were dead but now alive. You were lost but found. Thanks be to Jesus. In Jesus name. Amen.