Luke 15.11-32

PARABLE OF THE TWO SONS

(often known as The Prodigal Son)

(Luke 15.11-32)

'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

The story of the two sons is very well known. Rather than wait until his father died, the younger son asked his father for his share of any future inheritance. He wanted to enjoy himself now, rather than wait until he was too old.

Much to his surprise, the father agreed, and so the son went off loaded with his future inheritance. Not surprisingly, the money brought him instant friendship, but once the money began to run out, it brought him instant loneliness, as his so called 'friends' deserted him.

Eventually, he had no alternative but to roll up his sleeves and find work. Alas, the only work available was the lowest kind of work which no respectable Jew would ever have considered doing. In desperation , he was obliged to look after pigs, which, as you know, were considered by the Jews to be unclean.

Furthermore, he was so hungry, that he would have gladly eaten the pods given to pigs to eat.

ln his loneliness and misery, he began to recall happier times back home, when even the hired hands had more than enough to eat.

So he decided to eat humble pie and return home. But what could he say? Who was to blame for his downfall? No one, except himself. 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

So with his head down in shame, he set off for home, obviously rehearsing what he would say when he met his father.

But then the most wonderful thing happened. When he was still some distance from home, his father saw him, and ran to meet him.

He was not interested in any fine speech his son had prepared. The only thing that mattered was that he was now home. This was indeed an occasion for celebration and not reprimand.

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Now I am sure we can all identify ourselves with the younger son. There are times in our lives when we have turned our back upon God, our Heavenly Father, and pursued our own selfish interests, only to find ourselves cut off from God, and not to know how to get out of the mess we have made of our lives.

But the good news is that no matter how low we may fall; no matter what a mess we make of our lives; no matter how hard we may find it to say sorry; God is always there, waiting for us. He is always there to welcome us with his warm embrace.

And what is more important, he comes and meets us and brings us back to where we belong.

He does not keep score of wrong. He does not say, 'l told you so.’ He does not rub salt into the wounds of our mistakes. Rather, he celebrates our return with a party because 'this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found’.

This is indeed good news.

oooOOOoo

But wait a minute. What about the elder son? The one who stayed at home and helped his father on the farm. The son who remained loyal whilst his younger brother was disloyal.

When he returned home from hard work in the fields, he was surprised to hear the sound of merriment. He was even more surprised to find that his father had killed the fatted calf for the occasion. But what surprised him even more was the cause of that merriment, namely, that his younger brother had returned home.

I am not surprised that he protested and said: ‘For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command: yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends’. And it does not seem fair - does it?

In the same way that the scribes and Pharisees did not think it was fair that Jesus should welcome sinners into his company. In fact, this is the reason why Jesus told this parable.

The spotlight, in fact, is not upon the youngest son who had made such a mess of his life, but upon the elder son, and the jealousy and resentment that ate away at his life.

It is not so much that Jesus favoured sinners more than the religious people of his day, but rather that sinners knew their need for God, whereas the religious people were of the opinion that they did not need the help of God. They believed that they had done nothing wrong. Jesus could not help them. It is a fact of life that one can only help a person when they are ready to acknowledge their need for help.

The elder son, who represents the religious people of the day, could never have said, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son’.

oooOOOooo

You and l probably find it comparatively easy to identify with the younger son in the story, for we are only too well aware of the mess we have made of our lives, and therefore of our need for God's forgiveness.

However, I suspect we do not find it easy to identify ourselves with the elder son. But wait a minute. How often have we found ourselves jealous of another person and resentful that they should receive apparent favours?

I would suggest that there is something of the younger son in each of us, and there is something of the elder son in each of us. The former is easy to see and to acknowledge. The latter is more difficult to see. Both are in need of God's welcome embrace and his forgiveness.