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“Sometimes, I allow myself to simply sit in silence.” That is a sentence you will rarely if ever hear me say, and my wife will strongly attest to that. However, this week when driving back from our EPC General Assembly, I finished an audio-book, couldn’t find one something else interesting, and just sat in silence for a while. And it is often in those moments that my brain becomes creative. Allow me to share something that I am still processing through, but occurred to me regarding the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).

We all know the parable well: the younger son demands his inheritance, squanders it on worldly pleasures, and then—after hitting rock bottom—returns to his father, hoping to be admitted as a servant. But upon arrival, his father embraces him, clothes him, and celebrates with the fattened calf. The mercy and forgiveness demonstrated here is unimaginable. But the older son, the one who remained and worked faithfully for his father, is upset—how could the father celebrate such a squandering failure of a son? When confronted with this, the father responds, “‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

Most commentators recognize three distinct figures in this parable. The first is the father, who represents God the Father, who forgives and redeems. The second is the older son, who represents the Jews/Pharisees, or perhaps the faithful Christians, who have remained with the Father, but cannot find joy when a sinner repents. The third is the prodigal, the one who squandered everything, representing either the Gentiles or a rebellious Christian, and comes to his senses. But these three figures are actually not the focus of this article—instead, I am thinking about the other two groups of people mentioned in the parable—have you ever noticed them?

The Servants
The first group I want to point out are the servants—these are the ones who prepare the feast, the ones whom the prodigal thought he could join upon his return. These servants might represent the angelic hosts—the servants of the Most High celebrating when a sinner is saved (Luke 15:7). This would certainly make sense. But I want to suggest that they might represent another group of people: the visible church. The visible church is all of those that are outwardly part of the Christian faith, but not so inwardly—they haven’t truly been adopted as sons, though they are present at all the family reunions. In this parable you have these servants hanging around, helping out, serving, claiming the Father as their master—but not the title of sons.

Now consider the prodigal son: hoping to return as one of these servants. Friends, how many people do we know who have been steeped in sin—at their breaking point, wallowing in misery—look to the church as something that they are unqualified to embrace yet deeply knowing they need it? Thinking that their sin is too great for adoption into the family of God, too awful ever be truly forgiven. or, maybe they simply aren't convinced that this family isn't that special, not not sure it's worth digging in deeper. Either way, this group finds themsleves on the outsides of church life—they may show up, they may watch online, but the idea of God’s mercy being enough to cover their sins is more than they could hope for, or maybe simply uneccesary. This community, this fellowship isn’t for them in its fullness.

We all have these people in our churches. We all have members of the visible church, serving alongside us as times, participating in the party at times, but not yet adopted as sons. When a prodigal son returns to your flock, to your church body, how often do we approach those yet to be adopted, those yet to embrace God’s mercy, those struggling to see the full value of this family, and show them that Jesus’ blood is good enough, rich enough, worth enough to move them from outside the family to sonship and inheritance in Christ, just like that prodigal? That's the first neglected group in the parable.

The World
The second group neglected in this parable is the “citizen” mentioned in verse 15. This is the man for whom the prodigal agreed to work when his wealth was depleted. He represents, I suggest, the world. Consider this: when a prodigal returns to the faith, why does the world he left think? What does the world think he left behind or sacrificed in the process? Does the world think he's groveling back to be a slave, or that he is being embraced in the goodness of the Father? I guess the question is: Are we using this as an opportunity to go into the vacancy he left and tell the story of how the prodigal was restored beyond his wildest imagination by the great mercy of the Father? Do we tell them that the Father has robes, rings, and fattened calves for them too, if only they would abandon the filth in which they wallow?

You see, we typically focus on the main characters, as we rightly should: the Father, the older son, and the prodigal son. But I think we sell ourselves (and the story) short if we stop there. Friends, if we miss the opportunity to lead the visible church into the invisible church (sonship), and we forgo the chance to bring the world to the Father, we have neglected to use a tremendously powerful example of the Gospel of Jesus--we've failed to apply the testimony of God's goodness to their prospective spheres.

Here's the challenge: Let the prodigal son’s return be a tool with which we call servants and citizens to the Father--sonship through Jesus Christ.