The parable is a very familiar one, yet it is so full of sacred meaning that it always has some fresh lesson for us. Let us, then, consider the preliminaries to this kissing. On the son's side, there was something, and on the father's side, much more. It was not with icy eyes that the father looked on his returning son. Love leaped into them and as he beheld him, he, "had compassion on him." That is, he felt for him. There was no anger in his heart towards his son.
He left you and you did not hear from him for years. And he went on in a very vicious course of life. When you did hear from him, it well-near broke your heart. And when he came back, you hardly knew him. Do you recollect how you took him in? The father kissed his son much to make him quite certain that it was all real. The prodigal, in receiving those many kisses, might say to himself, "All this love must be true, for a little while ago I heard the hogs grunt and now I hear nothing but the kisses from my dear father's lips."
Assuredly there is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, heavy-laden Soul, that fountain is opened for you! The genuine love of God is manifested in His desire that to the utmost ends of the earth it should be proclaimed, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men."
And here, before we approach to behold the great sight, let us take our shoes from off our feet and bow down in lowest reverence of repenting grief, for, remember, if Jesus had not died for sins, we must have died, and died eternally, too. The Lord did not merely chasten Him and scourge Him, and put Him to grief by the use of agencies which were suitable for such a purpose in an innocent Person. He went further and hid His face from Him, which was a sorrow fitting only for One upon whom sin was laid.
I suppose that the patient was a young man, for the word, "Son," would hardly have been spoken by our Lord to a man older than Himself. His passionate earnestness extracts a promise from the neighbors that they will take him to Jesus. He begs them to do it now. But the Lord could not be reached, for a dense crowd shut Him in. "I must see Jesus," cries the man. His friends reply, "You cannot rise from your bed."
I will dwell in prison with a dry crust for my food if I am but delivered from Your wrath! Thus it is clear that the blotting out of sin takes the sting from every other sorrow. Let me add that it makes death, itself, light! "Son, be of good cheer." Have some regard to the outside world, for, if they are pardoned men and women with gruesome countenances, they will infer that there is not much comfort in the Grace of God, after all.
To be kept from sin is to be kept from many evils for, in the first place, sin has such a hardening effect upon the conscience. There is no man who ever sins without having some trace of it left upon his mind and heart. For one thing, it is more easy for him to sin the next time. But it must be, at least on this side of Heaven, a cause of constant regret to such a late penitent that he should have worked so much evil which it is not possible for him to repair.
Such striking Providences as that may not happen to all or any of us, for we may not require them. But they do happen to some people to prevent them from sinning against God. If they are given to you, you will have, for the rest of your life, strong assurance derived from the happiness of your first days.
"My dear son, a pleasant child." A pleasant child! Why, he has been full of rebellion from his birth! Yes. But he confesses it and mourns it. And he is a pleasant child when so much holy sorrow is seen in him. The Great Surety has secured His people from all risk of wrath. The undying worm is not for them! The unquenchable fire is not for them! Neither shall the Pit shut her mouth upon them, for they are not under the Law! He is no longer a slave, flogged with the whip of fear and made to labor for his very life and gather nothing for his pains. He is free from the principle of the Law and works from a principle of love, not to secure Divine favor, but because that favor has been freely manifested towards him.