Sermon #45 — Our Pilgrimage to Grace: In the Valley of Despair — Luke 15:11-32, Pt. 3

“Full often the most advantageous place for our manhood is that which is surrounded with splendid difficulties.”
Charles H. Spurgeon

So, the younger son of this wonderful and wonder-filled parable has fallen into the pit.  But even there he still can’t let go of his self-reliance.  He “gets smart” and thinks up a plan that will, he hopes, enable him to work himself at least back to having a full belly.  That’s his main goal.  “My father’s servants have food enough and more, and here I am envying the pigs their slop.”  It’s not the ruptured relationship with his father that troubles him there in that far away country.  It’s his grumbling, empty stomach.  And he sets himself to rectifying that problem.

It’s going to hurt, though.  He’s got to know that.  He’s in for a very rough time just to get to his father’s gate.  The village will pour out its resentment on him.  And surely, his father will make him squat at the gate for days, probably.  All the while, the neighbors and the village boys will abuse him fiercely.  But he’s desperately hungry.  He’ll take his medicine; he pay the price; he’ll put up with whatever he has to in order to get what he needs.

But his father does the unthinkable, the unimaginable.  And the young man’s world gets turned upside down.

Read: Luke 15:11-32.

Then, listen to:  Our Pilgrimage to Grace: In the Valley of Despair.

© 2013 Gary A. Chorpenning; all rights reserved.

Related articles

• Sermon #43 – Our Pilgrimage to Grace: Itching for Something Else – Luke 15:11-32 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #44 – Our Pilgrimage to Grace: Into the Place of Emptiness – Luke 15:11-32, Pt. 2 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)