“…"A man had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So the father divided his property between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country. There he wasted his possessions on wild living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the husks the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. "Then he came to his senses and said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more food than they can eat, and here I am starving to death! I will get up, go to my father, and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. I don't deserve to be called your son anymore. Treat me like one of your hired men."' "So he got up and went to his father. While he was still far away, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him affectionately. Then his son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. I don't deserve to be called your son anymore.' But the father said to his servants, 'Hurry! Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let's eat and celebrate! For my son was dead and has come back to life. He was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate. "Now his older son was in the field. As he was coming back to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called to one of the servants and asked what was happening. The servant told him, 'Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he got him back safely.' "Then the older son became angry and wouldn't go into the house. So his father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, "Listen! All these years I've worked like a slave for you (many versions instead have: 'Look, these many years I have served you’). I've never disobeyed a command of yours. Yet you've never given me so much as a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But this son of yours spent your money on prostitutes, and when he came back, you killed the fattened calf for him!' 31 "His father said to him, 'My child, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come back to life. He was lost and has been found.'" (Luke 15:11-32, ISV)
This story has been widely spread within Christian and non-Christian circles and I even dare believe that I would not be risking a lot in asserting that most preachers have at some point or another preached, exhorted or taught on this passage. I wouldn’t like to repeat some of the obvious comments that we all have heard over the years, but would rather like us to ask ourselves a few rather disturbing questions, in order to help us look deep inside of us, before making my points of the day.
If you are already a parent, just imagine that the precious child for whom you have sacrificed a lot things so as to ensure that they may have a bright future and whom you sent to the best educational institutions, the one who regularly attended Sunday school, becomes wild: drugs, thefts, early pregnancies, murders, prison, prostitution etc. Think that despite all your efforts and prayers, your child refuses to come back to reason and leaves the house. For months or years, you have no news on her/his whereabouts at all and then, one day, the doorbell rings and here she/he is, in a deplorable state, crying and begging for forgiveness: what will you do? Are you capable of reacting like the father of the prodigal son in our passage?
Are you are not a parent as yet? Well, you can always imagine what you would do, if you were one. If not, imagine that you are the brother or the sister of the child that I have just described. You come back from school and you find that your parents have taken a week off to spend time with ‘the returning one’, something they have never done for you. You go to the kitchen and you see that they have gone out of their way to prepare all the dishes that ‘the returning one’ has always liked while you can’t even remember the last time your mother served your favourite dessert. Then you hear some music coming out of the room of ‘the returning one’; you go to have a look, and this is what you see: a brand new TV in a corner and the latest iPad on his/her table while you have been asking your father to change your old laptop for the last 6 months! What are you going to do? Deep down inside, how are you going to feel? Are you capable of wholeheartedly taking part in the celebration and adding your own gifts without ‘faking’ your joy?
Whatever your answers are, just be honest with yourself and God - find out why you think you would behave like that.
But, let’s come down to the heart of this article. The story of the prodigal son is evidently an apology for forgiveness and restoration, two things that should actually go beyond the context of filial relationship; but it is mostly in my view, an invitation to behave like the SONS (or DAUGHTERS) and not like CHILDREN.
Both boys had two fundamental problems: immaturity and a slave mentality.
Galatians 5:17ff, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do… 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience… 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
1Corinthians 3:1, “… I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.”
If you give a child a kilogram of sweets, he will just want to eat them all as soon as it’s practicable. Watch a kid who is handed a glass of juice; If not stopped, then he will drink it at one gulp, and sometimes without even breathing.
Children do not know how to wait. Here, the younger of the two brothers was too eager to ‘freely’ enjoy his inheritance. Then, when his adventure went all wrong, he decided to go back home. But he did not go back because he had realised that his father was missing him, neither did he even think that his father may never have had a good night’s sleep since he had left. NO! This is even proof that he did not know his father. He had never really spent time with him ; he hadn’t taken the time to understand him, to love him, to know what could please him. His father was just a purse, a ‘sponsor’ or a bank.
However, a worthy SON or DAUGHTER reflects the character of his/her parents. He/she is their image, their footprint, and those who have seen him/her, have ‘seen’ his/her father or mother. ‘‘But I say, walk by the Spirit…” (Galatians 5:16): the sons of God walk by the Spirit of God, their Father; likewise, worthy sons/daughters also walk by the spirit of their earthly parents.
Anyway, he went back home, and only returned because he was hungry: the motive behind his decision was the desires of the flesh. He was ready to be hired by his father so that he would hunger no more; and by the way, even when he found himself keeping the pigs, he only did so because he was in need, he was hungry. The guy was only working when compelled and forced to so-do. Say flesh and you say carnal, and if you say carnal, you say infant.
To be continued...
To be continued...
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