“We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.”
Luke 15:22-24
Have you ever felt too far gone? Beyond repair and beyond help? The concept of being too far gone is something that has been on my mind a great deal over the last year. How often do we think we’ve screwed up beyond measure, and finally have done the unforgivable? That we have crossed the threshold of grace into territory that cannot be reached? How often do we find ourselves certain and fully convinced that we are too far gone? In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus tells the story of the son who left home. The story of a young man who tells his father that he wants his inheritance early, essentially saying to him “I wish you were dead.” His father gives him his inheritance, and he leaves home, then proceeds to squander every dollar to his name. The passage actually says that he wasted everything he had. He hits complete rock bottom. Having wasted every opportunity in front of him, spurned his father’s love, and ruined his own life, he is thoroughly convinced that he is too far gone.
Feeling defeated, this lost son resigns himself to his circumstances, but works up the nerve to return to his father. Not with the expectation of forgiveness or restoration, but to ask for a job, to become a servant in the house he once called home. In fact, he returns home with the intention of telling his father that he doesn’t deserve to be called his son at all. The story could have ended there, but love has no regard for what we deserve. Verse 20 says that when the son who had considered himself too far gone was a long way off, his father saw him, and ran to him, embraced him, and welcomed him. The son began to launch into his apology speech, but it says the father wasn’t listening. His father began to immediately call for celebration. “We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!” He wasn’t concerned with mistakes or failures, his son was home, and it was time to celebrate.
I don’t know who you are today, I don’t know what choices you’ve made or failed to make, what regret you may be living with, but I do know this. You are never too far gone. We serve a father who runs out to meet the children that return to Him. A father who never runs out of grace and has mercy to spare. The love of the father, and the love of those that seek Him, is a come home kind of love. It’s a sit down at the table, we saved you a seat, dinner’s almost ready, kind of love. So don’t give up, don’t quit on yourself, don’t think you’re too far gone, and don’t be afraid to turn around when you feel like turning around is impossible. He’s a come home kind of God. So come as you are, and trust that He won’t leave you that way. We’re going to have a wonderful time.
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