As Rebels, Lord, Who Foolishly Have Wandered

As Rebels, Lord, Who Foolishly Have Wandered

LSB #612

v. 2: Still we return, our contrite words rehearsing,
Speech, that within You warm embrace soon dies;
All of our guilt, our shame, our pain reversing
As tears of joy and welcome fill Your eyes.

This brief hymn recounts the familiar story of the Prodigal Son. He demanded his inheritance from his father and went off and squandered it all. Then he returned. What kind of welcome - if any! - would he receive? Or would he chased off? Or worse? Much to his surprise, his father welcomes him back with open arms and joy! All that matters to the father is that his son is home, safe and sound. Jesus wants you to know that is how your heavenly Father is, too. With our sin, we have squandered what God has given us and are poor, miserable sinners. Yet as we return to our Father, He welcomes us back with a warm embrace and, as the hymn writer put it, “reverses all of our guilt, our shame, our pain.” This is, of course, because of Jesus. He has paid the debt we owe and the price for our sins. So that in heaven, there are tears of joy over one sinner - each and every sinner - who repents. When you repent. That’s our joy of this Lenten season.