Prodigal Sons

Luke 15:11-32.

Sorry for the long post..bear with me!

The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most, if not the most beloved parable found in the Gospel accounts. The timeless story of a father who welcomes back his rebellious son appeals to our affections, and rightfully so. It is a story of grace, love, and celebration towards what was once lost, yet later found.

I am so thankful for a recent assignment that challenged me to dig deeper into this text (how’s that for spiritual growth eh? Just kidding..but really!)

During these times it was custom for fathers to will their possessions to their sons upon their death. Their first-born son was to receive 2/3 of the inheritance, leaving the remainder to be split up among the other sons. Men could give gifts of their property to others before their death, but it was understood that the owner would retain official rights of the property until their death. Therefore, it is very provocative that this son (especially the younger) would ask his father for his part of the inheritance while his father still lived. Land in those days was tied so closely to identity. Men were the land that they lived on. Their entire well being depended on the condition and extent of their land. So for this son to ask his father for his part of the inheritance was like asking for his father’s identity. He was asking his father to split up his life. It would be custom for the father to disown the son for making a request such as this. He desired and loved his father’s things, not his father.

Amazingly enough, instead of responding in anger and rebuking him, the father conceded and gave his son his portion of the inheritance.  Most of us are familiar with how it continues from there..The son squandered all that was given to him and ended up pleading with a keeper of swine to give him work. To a Jew in those days, pigs were unclean, (Lev. 11:7) and so the son’s desire to work with them reveals his desperate state in this situation. He devised a plan to return to his father and work for him, that he might earn some money to pay back part of his debt. And so he did.

This is where it gets crazy..

First of all, the father, upon seeing his son from far off, ran to greet his him. Men in these days were quite dignified and wore long, expensive robes. Surely some heads turned as this father forsook his prestige in an all-out sprint towards his son. He did not even give his son time to utter his plan to make up for his frivolous actions. Instead, he kissed him and embraced him. With all composure aside, this father rejoiced. He had robes thrown on him, a ring put on his finger, and a fatted calf (a possession of great wealth) slaughtered for a feast. He called for dancing and celebration among the entire village. His son whom he loved was home.  

The older son who heard all of the commotion from out in the fields asked a servant what was going on, and was astonished at what he heard. He could not believe that his father would slay the calf and throw a banquet for his little, rebellious brother. Just like the father approached his younger son to welcome him home, he went to his older son to invite him into the party. Verse 29- “’But he answered his father “Look, these many years I have served you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.”’ The Greek word this son used for “served” here is “douleou” which means “to serve as a slave”. How heartrending this must have been for the father. Twice his love for his sons was rejected. First it was rejected when his youngest son desired to depart from his father with his father’s things. Again it was rejected when his eldest son revealed that working for him was like slavery. This son did not work out of love for his father, he worked that one day he might gain an inheritance that his father’s death would be good for. Oh how this applies to us today..

It is not hard to imagine how some of us treat God like the younger son. We think we’re self-made, and our pride tells us that we can do things on our own, through our own strength. We use God for his gifts, go at life our own way, and then come to our senses once our actions lead us into despair. Yet in so many ways we are like the older son too. We think that God needs our good actions. We think they’re worth something and that they will justify us and cleanse us. We completely miss the relationship aspect of abiding under the Father in obedience sourced in love. If we do good for our own benefit what does it matter? How does that connect us to the Father in any way? Even good deeds done for self are indeed done in vain.

Isn’t it amazing to think that God treats us the way that this father treated his sons? This father went against all cultural norms and broke customs in order to show unfailing love to his sons who did nothing but sin against him and refuse the love he bestowed upon them. Even when they sinned, he gave them grace. Not only did he forgive them, but he clothed them in love and marked them as his. He never withheld love from them in order to teach them lessons. I rejoice that God, a Heavenly Father treats his children this way. We have been invited into a blessed relationship with him, a relationship that is not defined by our good works and efforts, yet by his grace and great sacrifice. May we not desire to be like the younger son, too absorbed in our pride to fall in love with God, and may we not be like the older son or the Pharisees, who were too consumed in the law and doing good to fall in love with God.

May we have the strength to comprehend, as Paul notes “what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18-19). And may this love motivate us to respond, not with pride or feelings of self righteousness, but with humility and love through thanksgiving for the living God and the risen Christ.

Blessings.