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Prodigal’s
Prayer
When
the prodigal son returned to the Father, he said to Him: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:21 ESV). Let’s examine this prayer. “Father”
First
the prodigal son prays, “Father.” This
is what Jesus taught us to pray. Jesus
said, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name…” (Luke 11:2
ESV). Likewise, in His famous Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus preached, “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name’” (Matthew 6:9 ESV).
In fact, in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught us that praying to a
Father should give us great confidence.
He said: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will
find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the
one who knocks it will be opened. Or
which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a
serpent? If you then, who are evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is
in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11 ESV). “I have sinned
against heaven and before you.”
The
prodigal son was right that he had sinned.
The fact is that we all have sinned.
Paul said, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23 ESV). Likewise, Solomon said:
"there is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46 ESV), and, “Indeed, there
is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins”
(Ecclesiastes 7:20 NASB). And God wants
us to admit that we have sinned. John
said: “Suppose we claim we are without sin. Then we are fooling
ourselves. The truth is not in us. But God is faithful and fair. If we admit
that we have sinned, he will forgive us our sins. He will forgive every wrong
thing we have done. He will make us pure. If we say we have not sinned, we are
calling God a liar. His word has no place in our lives.” (1 John 1:8-10 NIRV). We
implicitly “admit that we have sinned” when we pray for forgiveness, as
commanded by Jesus [“When you pray, say…forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:2-4 ESV)]
and Peter [“Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he
may forgive you” (Acts 8:22 TNIV)]. “I am no longer worthy to be
called your son.” Once
again, the prodigal son was right. He
was not worthy. And none of us are
worthy. In fact, Jesus taught us to say
that we are not worthy. He said: "Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or
keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and
sit down at table'? Will he not rather
say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I
eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what
was commanded? So you also, when you
have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have
only done what was our duty.' " (Luke 17:7-10 ESV). The
apostle Paul told the church in Thessalonica, “we always pray for you, that our
God may make you worthy of his calling” (2 Thessalonians 1:11 ESV). Our brother Earl Edwards wisely commented on
this passage: To be “considered worthy”…means to enjoy God’s forgiveness
through His grace so that He considers us worthy even though we are guilty of
sin. However, He will not do this unless
we try to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling” (Eph. 4:1), which includes
admitting our sins and repenting of them (1 John 1:8-10). |