The Prodigal Son: a story for our times

In our church this week, we’ve been looking at the parable of The Prodigal Son as recorded in Luke’s gospel. It is such a well known story, and our familiarity with the tale can prevent us from seeing just how controversial the parable would have been when first told, or just how relevant it is to our lives today.

Jesus’s tells the story of a youngest son who goes to his father and asks to be given his inheritance while his father still lives. In Jesus’s time this would have been seen as a terrible act of disrespect and was tantamount to say ‘you are in my way; I wish you were dead.’ But despite the humiliating nature of his son’s request, the father does what his son asks. And we are that the young man young man immediatley ‘gathered all together’ and left to journey to a far country. In other words, he liquidated the assets that his father had built up over a lifetime and fled.

Luke doesn’t say which country he travelled to, but the phrase ‘far country’ indicates that it was a Gentile land. In other words, the young man is not only rejected his father but also his cultural heritage and faith.

Far from home, he found plenty of friends to help him spend the money on ‘good times’ until inevitably his inheritance funds ran out. At which point in desperation, he was reduced to working for a ‘citizen of that country’ looking after pigs, an unclean animal which no self-respecting Jew would touch. But hungry and alone, he had sunk so low that he even started eyeing up the pig food. At which point, he finally came to his senses.

He remembered his father’s household where the servants were well fed and housed and he decides that he must go back home. However he wasn’t naïve. He knew full well how he deeply he had humiliated his father and was convinced that that he would never be welcomed back into the family. In fact according to Mosaic law, a son who had dishonoured his father in such as away should be put to death by stoning. But he decides to brave it and to go and ask his father if he will take him on as a hired servant, and so begins to walk the long road back to his homeland.

Jesus then paints a picture that would have shocked his first century listeners. He said that, while the wayward son was still a long way off, the father sees him – as if he had been looking out for him – and then runs to his son and gathers him up in his arms. For a respected Jewish elder this would have been the unthinkable - they did not run but rather processed in a stately fashion. But Jesus paints a picture of a father gathering up his robes and pelting eagerly along the dusty road towards his son.

And when he reaches his offspring, the astonished son begins to gabble his pre-prepared speech ‘Father I have sinned against heaven and against you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son’. But the father hushes him up and tells his servants to bring a robe (a sign of honour), the family ring or seal, and to slaughter a fatted calf that the family would have been saving for a great occasion like a wedding.

All is forgiven and against all odds the prodigal is welcomed back, the father saying ‘Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ (Luke 15:23-24)

It is the story of one man’s journey but it is also the story of humanity as told in the great sweeping scriptural saga.

The Bible begins by telling us that, as human beings, we were created by God in his image, as his beloved children, his sons and daughters. We were created to be in relationship with God, co-heirs with Christ to eternal life in communion with our creator, but like children we proved wilful.

As a parent, God began by laying down some boundaries. He didn’t ask for much, just that we recognised our limitations and didn’t try to be like little God’s in our own right, but we thought we knew better. We craved the knowledge that would make us like God, and that disobedience and pride led to our separation from our father.

This is the fall as explained in Genesis through the story of Adam (or Man) and Eve (whose name means ‘life’ or ‘breath’), who, we are told, ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and as a result were cast out of Eden and into the world, where and their descendants toiled to feed themselves.

But our Father, like the father of the prodigal son, doesn’t play by human rules. And instead of disowning his creation as we probably deserve, he left a way open to come back to him. God humbled himself, making himself nothing, being made in human likeness in the person of Jesus who opened his arms of love upon the cross for us so that we might find our way back to our father. All that we have to do is to stop running, recognise that we are running on empty and turn back.

The word repentance means, literally, to turn back. All we have to do is to recognise our need for God - and when we do he comes meet us on the road. He forgives us, opens his arms of love and joyfully embraces us - because once we were lost and now we are found.

This is the collective story of humanity as told in the Bible but it is also our story.

We all have an inheritance – not the kind that can be spent on wild living but one that lasts eternally. An inheritance of love and life in all its fullness as children of God. But if we are honest, each of us turns our back on God; at one time or another we have all believed that we can do without him. And Christians aren’t exempt from wanting to be in the driving seat and leaning on our own strength. This is the very definition of ‘sin’ and at the root of this sin is pride – the belief that we can do without our creator and father. Like the prodigal son we are effectively saying, ‘I don’t’ need you. I am in control’.

The problem is that this kind of pride is encouraged in today’s society which prizes individualism, independence and human achievement. And the world promises plenty to those who can live up to this, but it is an empty promise. It can take a lifetime for some of us to realise this and the process can be pretty painful. Some of us may even have to hit rock bottom before we accept that we can’t save ourselves. We may not suffer physical hunger but realise a spiritual hunger; a sense of emptiness and a need for meaning; a need for something more -for God.

It takes a special kind of strength to admit that we need God. The prodigal son didn’t go home to his father in a moment of weakness. It was actually a very brave decision and could have led to a very different outcome. But what Jesus wanted us to know is that God doesn’t punish us. He doesn’t even make us come to him grovelling on our hands and knees. He doesn’t turn his back on us as we deserve, instead he comes to meet us, embraces us and restores us fully as his children. All he asks is that we take one step towards him and then he will take a thousand steps towards us.

This is what Grace is - the abundant and extravagant forgiveness and love of God who - no matter how many times we run away - is there watching, waiting, hopeful that we too will turn back and take the road home.

So the question for you is this – is there anything separating you from God? If so I encourage you to turn back and offer this up to God in prayer. Because he is there just waiting to forgive and embrace you.

Kate Nicholas’s best-selling memoir Sea Changed (shortlisted as Christian Biography of the Year 2017) and her latest book Sea Changed: A Companion Guide – Living a Transformed Life are available at Christian bookstores and online at eden.co.uk, kooroong.com and Amazon worldwide. Her TV series Living a Transformed Life can be viewed on demand on www.tbnuk.org or at www.katenicholas.co.uk .