The Return of the Prodigal Son

Luke 15-11-32: The Return of the Prodigal Son

Jackie Bolen-January 14, 2007

Maybe some of you are like me and have a hard time answering the question, "Where's your home?" It's easy enough to say Canada but when people probe a bit deeper, I don't really know what to answer. This is not as simple of a question as it may first appear.

I left home at the age of 18 and haven't lived with my parents since then. I lived in a different city for 5 years attending school. I've traveled across the USA and Canada for a while, not really having a home. I went to grad school in a different Canadian city for another 2 years. And now I'm in Korea, which is becoming more of a home the longer I'm here but in reality, it's probably not a permanent thing. However, I've been discovering this past year that has been filled with so many changes and a move across the Pacific Ocean that while I may live here in this world for another 80 years, it's only temporary. Our true home is with God, who welcomes us with open arms and longs to love us extravagantly.

Today I'm going to talk about a story that's probably familiar to most of us about the prodigal son, who leaves home and wastes away his inheritance. He returns home to the loving embrace of his father and the jealousy of his older brother. I think this is a story that's easy to understand but much more difficult to live out. Why is it so hard sometimes to come home to the Father, who welcomes us and offers such amazing love, grace and forgiveness?

As I read, I invite you to listen with open hearts and minds even though it is a story you know. Luke 15:11-32.

The first thing we're confronted with is the choice that the younger son made. Asking for his share of the inheritance before his father is dead is something that is unheard of in that culture and ours as well. The son is basically saying that he wishes for the death of his Father. He made the choice of death in the world instead of life at home.

We have to make this same choice: life with God or death in the world. Our world is filled with addiction and compulsive living. Just a few of the many examples are alcohol, gambling, overeating, and unhealthy relationships that expect too much of the people around us. People around us can never meet every need that we have. We try to get these people to love us with an unconditional love that only God can offer us. We try to use things and people to fill the emptiness we feel inside of us instead of coming home to rest, with God our Father.

It's easy to read our Bibles looking for principles we can follow: be generous, forgive your neighbor, do not commit adultery, deal with your anger, have fellowship with others Christians. We sometimes think of God as a vending machine: if we can find the principles to follow, He'll give us the blessings we want: a good marriage, well-behaved kids, financial security and good friends. We scheme and manipulate instead of living a life of obedience that seeks God and follows Him, despite the circumstances around us. We sometimes fail to know the living God who is alive and actually speaking to us through the Bible. The Bible is not a dead thing. It's God's living Word, made real to us by the Holy Spirit. We can talk about God and go to Church but not let ourselves be loved and forgiven and welcomed home by God.

In the story of the prodigal son, the younger son chooses death in the world: he's mistreated, starving, alone and living in darkness. I feel like the younger son a lot of the time: weary, tired, living sinfully and compulsively. I think this is probably the reality for most of us at least some of the time if we're honest.

But this doesn't have to be the reality that we live in: the younger son chose to return to his father and we can choose to do the same. We can make the choice to move from the darkness and walk in the light of God's all-forgiving love. How easy it is to ignore the voice of God, calling us to the light in a dark world. The further we run, the harder it is to hear the voice calling us back. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:

"Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I'll continue on in our story to where the son returns home. I'll re-read part of Matthew 15 again, starting at the second half of verse 20. Matthew 15:20b-24.

The part that I like best about this story is found in verse 20. Although the son left home in a very offensive way and wasted away his Father's money with sinful living, the Father was watching for him to come home. I wonder how many weeks, months or even years the Father stood at the end of his driveway looking for his son. Even when the son was a long way off, the Father saw him and ignoring all sense of dignity ran out to meet him. In what can only be called grace, the Father gave the son extravagant gifts and welcomed him back home with open arms.

The younger son came with nothing: no self-respect, honor, money, or reputation. He was willing to be his Father's servant instead of a son. He came in humiliating surrender, giving up any illusion of control over the situation. We come to God in the same way, with humility because any good thing in us is a gift from God. The son thought the Father would demand an explanation for why he left and we often think the same: that God's love is conditional. We think we have to prove ourselves worthy of God's love by our success, popularity, perseverance in prayer, perfection and a multitude of other things but God's love is a free gift.

No matter how far we run or what we have done the Father will forgive us, we have to receive it, with humility as the son did. Our sins and struggles perhaps look a bit different than the younger son in the story but we can all receive the same unconditional love and forgiveness when we come home to God. We are deeply loved and deeply forgiven. The challenge is to live our lives out of this reality.

I'll now move on to talk about the older son in our story. I'll read from Luke 15:25-32.

I think the younger son represents the reality of my life pretty well and when I read the story I have no difficulty putting myself in his shoes. But perhaps some of you have lived a dutiful, responsible, righteous, respectable kind of life and have a hard time identifying with the younger son who left home. Maybe you've never really left home and have walked with God since you can remember. You read about the older son's anger and jealousy and think he has a right to feel this way. Perhaps he does.

But I want to suggest that although the older son stayed home with his father his entire life he was just as lost as his younger brother and perhaps even more so. The younger son at least knew he was lost and sinful and came to his Father, with humility. It's obvious, when reading this last part of our story that the older son never found any joy in being home with his father. Although he was physically present, spiritually he was far from home and filled with pride. He's resentful and angry, unable to enjoy his brother's homecoming, instead he has a spirit of complaint that thinks only of himself. In the same way that the Father offered forgiveness and grace to the younger son, it's offered to the older son as well. The Father goes out to the older son and pleads with him to join in the celebration but he refuses. We're left with a picture of a man who is resentful, angry and jealous and more lost than his younger brother, who willingly received forgiveness.

And so I would say to those of who feel like you've always done the right things that perhaps you need to return to your Father as well. Do you find joy in knowing God? Do you walk intimately with Him, in prayer, following Him despite the circumstances in your life? Do you follow God only for the blessings that He'll give you or to actually know and be known by Him? Do you go to Church, pray, tithe and serve faithfully but not find any joy in doing these things? It is hard for you to rejoice when a lost Brother or Sister comes home to their Father? If you see yourself in the older son, you are perhaps lost as well and the Father invites you to come home, to find rest in Him. You're loved and forgiven.

Finally, I'll talk about the Father. I'll start with a quote from Henri Nouwen, in his book, "The Return of the Prodigal Son"

"Here is the God I want to believe in: a Father, who, from the beginning of creation, has stretched out his arms in merciful blessing, never forcing Himself on anyone, but always waiting, never letting His arms drop down in despair but always hoping that his children will return, so that he can speak words of love to them and let his tired arms rest upon their shoulders."

The Father watches and waits for us, even while we're a long way off, loving us even before we knew Him. He leaves His house to run towards us, to love us with an undignified love that's without bounds. He doesn't care about our apologies, our weaknesses and our sin-filled pasts. He's waiting to forgive us, to extravagantly love us and give us new life in Him. He's generous and His goodness and compassion are without limit. By His grace, He calls us friends.

So if you're like the younger son and a long way from home, you're never too far to return. Your Father, who created you, loves you and is waiting to forgive you and to welcome you back home. If you're like the older son who has never left, the Father is also inviting you to return to Him and to find joy in being at home.

I'll finish by praying the same prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians (3:14b-21).

"I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in Heaven and on Earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.