Weekly Devotional

Come Home

September 15, 2026 · Anne Barkley

The word “home” in the Bible is a dwelling place to be among one’s people both on earth and in heaven.

The message “Come Home” that God directed me to is from the familiar parable in Luke 15:11-32, commonly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son and Parable of the Elder Brother.

It illustrates the theme of returning to God through the story of a younger son who squanders his inheritance and an older son who resents his brother’s restoration.

The younger son, having wasted his wealth in a far country, returns in humility expecting only to be a hired servant, but his father runs to embrace him, restores his status with a robe and ring, and throws a celebration.

Jesus often spoke in parables to reveal a truth while also demanding a response from the person listening.

I believe that God is calling us to take a closer look at this Parable and how it applies to us today. Let us consider:

• God’s Readiness to Forgive: The father sees the son while he is "still a long way off," indicating God’s proactive love for repentant sinners.
• Restoration, Not Just Reconciliation: The father does not merely accept the son back as a servant but fully restores him to the family identity.
• The Danger of Religious Pride: The older son represents those who are physically close to God but spiritually distant due to judgment and lack of joy over others' redemption.

This may be the most famous of Jesus’ parables. Its basic story is familiar to many people.

Part of its meaning comes from its position in Luke (which is the only Gospel that includes it). It is the third of three parables that describe the recovery of something that was lost (lost sheep and lost coin) and then conclude in celebration.

Jesus tells these parables immediately after certain Pharisees and scribes complain about his practice of sharing meals with notorious people, “tax collectors and sinners.”

Jesus’ first two parables offer a mild rebuke to the Pharisees and scribes by reminding them of heaven’s joy over the repentance of a sinner. Then Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son to set up a more severe rebuke when he concludes with the story of the elder son.

In other words, it is the “Elder Son’s” behavior of the Pharisees and scribes that prompted the telling of these three parables.

One of the points of the parable, then, is that generous celebration is the appropriate response when a “lost” person becomes “found.”

God seems to be emphasizing that there will be people who most closely resemble the prodigal son and others who will most closely resemble the elder brother. These roles are not fixed.

Sometimes, a person will most closely resemble the prodigal son at one time and most closely resemble the elder son at another time, and I believe God wants us to see ourselves in the actions and reactions of the sons.

In this parable, Jesus tells the story of a young man who couldn’t wait to get away from home. He makes a very selfish demand of his father, he takes his inheritance and he heads out to a far country to live it up, free from the restraints of his father and his rules.

What he finds in the far country is not what he expected to find. Oh, he found good times and new friends, but when his money ran out, the good times and good friends ran out too.

He finds himself living with a pig farmer in the far country, working day by day feeding the pigs. He is broke, lonely and no one cares about him!

His situation is bleak: he has offended his father, deliberately disowned himself from family, lived wastefully and perhaps immorally, and found himself in the midst of a severe famine.

When sin reaches its ultimate destination in our life, we lose our affection for God, for life, and for people we ought to love and cherish.

Sin isolates us and that is what the enemy of our souls hopes to do as he seeks to separate us from the safety of family and Christian community.

As we look back on our lives personally, I believe that we can all identify with the foolish paths we have taken, thinking we knew better than others and wanted to do things our way.

The behaviors that separate us from the Father is made clear in 2 Timothy 3: 1-7—lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, loaded down with sins and led away by various lusts.

We read in Luke 15: 17, “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food overflowing, but here I am dying of hunger.”

Sometimes God has to let us hit rock bottom before He can get our attention.

The message is clear whether we are lost on the high hills of sin, lost in the house or lost in the far country, we need to know that we can come home.

Pride comes before a fall and his fall brought him to humility and confession: “I’ll get up and go to my father, and I’ll say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your presence. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me a hired worker.”

He Is A Concerned Father

Here comes the son down the road, he is dressed in rags, he has the filth and the odor of the pig pen all over him.

Still, this father sees him while he is yet far away, and he runs to meet him.

Can you see the father as he spends his days looking down the road for just a glimpse of the son he saw walk away so long ago?

We can see him as he steps out of the house every day and looks down the road in hopes that he will see his son coming home.

He has spent the time since his son left waiting and watching for his son to return.

He knew where the son had been, still he wanted him to return home. He still loved him in spite of where he had been and all he had done.

What a picture this paints of the heavenly Father!

Just like this father God sees us when we return home, but He also sees us while we are wandering in the far country of sin.

He knows where we are and he has seen all we have done, but still He desires for us to return to Him.

God is a concerned Father Who loves those in sin. (John 3:16!)

He Is A Compassionate Father

When the father sees him, he forgets the hurtful things that were said when the son left.

He forgets the wasted resources.

He forgets all the lonely, heartbroken days while the son was away.

All he knows is that his son has returned home!

He is safe and he is home!

Here comes the son, slowly in humiliation, when the father sees him, he runs swiftly in excitement to meet him and he kissed him repeatedly!

Again, this father is a picture of the Heavenly Father. He too responds in compassion to all those who return to Him in faith.

When a sinner takes a step of faith toward God, He moves in great leaps toward the sinner.

James puts it this way, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”, James 4:8.

He is able to run to us, receive us and kiss us back into His sweet fellowship because He literally made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf.” (2 Cor. 5: 21)

When Jesus died on the cross, He took the penalty for your sins!

Now, the way is open for us to come to Him for salvation. If we will come to Him, we will not be turned away!

We need the mercy of the Father.

“Sozo” means complete restoration of body, soul and spirit.

We can come home to the Father to be His child.

Forgiveness involves privilege as the father clothed him with the best robe and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

He called for a feast to celebrate his homecoming with singing and dancing!

The father looked at him and said, “This is my son!”

When we repent of our sins and come home to the Father, we are given the great privilege of being recognized as His sons, 1 John 3:1-2.

When we come to the Father, He opens the storehouses of His grace and gives us everything He has!

What a privilege belongs to those who come home to the Father!

The Elder Son

So the celebration begins!

The father invites the servants, the neighbors and the friends of the family to a great celebration!

But when the father and rest of the family and many friends are gathered together to celebrate, the elder brother stays out in the field.

He is angry because he has always been there, but the Father hasn’t so much as given him a goat, much less a fatted calf.

He had the “what about me?” attitude!

He may have lived in the father’s house and worked in his fields, but he did not love the father like he should have.

We must be careful to do whatever we do for the Father and not for men knowing that our reward comes from Him. (Colossians 3: 23)

We are to perform every task with wholehearted enthusiasm, sincerity and excellence, viewing it as service to the Father rather than merely satisfying human masters or seeking human approval.

He may have been home, but he was in the far country in his heart!

The elder brother is a picture of the attitude of the Pharisees—the rule keepers who exalted themselves above others and ruled by pride.

They rejected Jesus and His grace and looked upon Him with judgment and disdain.

There are lessons to be learned from this attitude.

The elder son had enjoyed the privileges of his standing with the father.

He took the fellowship for granted.

This is a picture of many who are in the family of God today.

They are always around the Father, but they take Him for granted.

They do not enjoy His fellowship, and they refuse to rejoice when someone else comes to know Him.

They could eat the fatted calf anytime they want to, but they refuse to enjoy the blessings of their Father and give Him adoration and praise.

The fact of the matter is this: not all the prodigals leave home!

What a difference there would be in the house of God if those who were already there would join the Father in looking for those who aren’t home yet and would rejoice with Him when they do finally come home!

Note that the end of this parable is left open.

Did the elder brother ever come into the feast?

Did he ever reconcile with his younger brother?

We do not know because those things are in the future.

Jesus left the parable open-ended so that the Pharisees and the scribes could write the final paragraph, and we know what they chose—to crucify our Lord.

Today, we get to write the final paragraph to our story.

How it ends will be determined by what we do with the call of the Lord in our heart.

The Father knows our heart and stands with open arms to receive us, and He will erase our past and restore us to a place of blessing and rejoicing.

If we are in the far country, we need to come home.

If you are out in the Father’s field but lack the kind of love we need for the Father and others, we need to come home too.

The door is open; the table is spread and the Father is waiting for all who will come!

Dr. Stanley puts it this way: “If at some point you find yourself feeling lost, weighed down, distracted, confused, exhausted, or longing for a path forward, the solution is as clear and true as it was more than 2,000 years ago—Jesus is the way. Keep turning toward Him and He’ll be there, ready to guide you home.”

We are all prodigals and need to come home to the Father allowing Him to have His way in our lives!

It is time for us to do some soul searching and to renew our commitment to the Father.

Regardless of where we are today, the Father is beckoning us to come home to Him on this earthly journey as He prepares us for our heavenly home!

It’s time to get right and get tight with the Father!

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