Sometimes
we make such a mess of our lives that we have to admit it. The parable of the
Prodigal Son is the best example of this (see Luke 15). I see in this parable an
analogy that could apply to all of us.
To recap, a
man had two sons. Imagine you are the younger and you wanted to leave home and
make your own way in the world and perhaps sow some wild oats. You plan to part ways with your family so you
ask your father for your inheritance. The plan was to have some fun and even
gamble and maybe make some speculative investments to double your money. You
are sure there is an easier way to make it than your father tilling his fields.
The father
obliges and sends you out into the world. No doubt he can see that you could
learn a few lessons. Much like our Father in Heaven who had sent us down to
earth not just to learn a few lessons but to eventually become like Him and
enjoy the riches of eternity.
The older
brother in the Parable, the heir of all his father had, was pretty much of the
opinion that his brother deserved all the misfortune he got. This brother never sought him who was lost, despite
the kinship, despite the brotherhood, despite the father's sorrow over his
loss.
Our older brother, on the other hand, knowing from the beginning that He alone would inherit all the Father has, had a very different approach to the situation. Knowing that none of us could come back home by our own efforts, in essence said: ‘I will pave the way, I will seek them and I will bring them back.
So
you the prodigal, with your inheritance spent are now reduced to the lowest
form of poverty and misery that the world can offer. You find yourself sleeping
and eating the husks with the pigs in your service. Imagine
such degradation and suffering as eating and sleeping with pigs, especially for
one of an honorable parentage who was raised in wealth and was attended to by
servants.
Your
suffering is extreme, you can sink no lower. You reflect on the home of your
youth and the security and safety you had there and how well you were provided
for. If only you could go home to the Father who loved you! But you have no means to make your way back. And
you are in agony of remorse for what you have done. The guilt and shame is
consuming you.
And then,
the unthinkable happens. Your older brother finds you and tells you he will pay
for your way home and he will redeem you from all your debts and he will even
share his inheritance with you. There are some conditions that will have to be
met to ensure your return but you will be saved from the failure your life has
become. It is almost too good to be true and you hesitate in your weakness.
And then
the hope and courage is born to follow your brother home! You would go home to
the father who loved you and would surely forgive you and allow you to serve
him. You would go home to the father who would lift you out of the misery and
hopelessness you had fallen into. You would go home because there was a path of
return, with a price paid to cover all your debts.
What
exquisite hope his father was to the prodigal! How that hope would have lifted
him out of the mire he was in and propelled him to return home! And what courage
was given him by his brother who sought him to bring him home! He was not
forgotten and he was wanted!
So here some of us are, like the prodigal,
eating husks with the swine for this is not much more that this world has to
offer. What hope our Father must have had when He sent us out into the world that
we would remember the splendour we came from, that we would want to run home.
And so a great sacrifice was made for our return. The Son who came to guide and to seek us to bring us home climbed the hill of Calvary so that we could in our lowest earthly moments say:
For
me Your body was broken,
For
me Your blood was spilt,
For
me Your death was offered
That
I might live with You still.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Modern Prodigal Son by Liz Lemon Swindle)
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