The story of the Prodigal Son goes something like this: A father has two sons (the father of course is symbolic of God). One of the sons is and always has been faithful and obedient to his father. The other son decides at some point to ask his father for his share of the estate and sets out on his own. He then proceeds to ruin his life by squandering his time and money on worldly pleasures. Down and out with no other options, this prodigal son then gets the idea that he will return home and plead for his father to forgive him and take him back as one of his hired servants. When the father looks up to see his wayward son coming toward him the father is overjoyed. The son begins to tell his father 'I have sinned against heaven and against you. i am no longer worthy to be called your son.' (Luke 15:21) But before his son can finish speaking, the father orders his servants to prepare a huge feast to celebrate his son’s return. The other son takes great umbrage with this. He tells his father that he can’t understand why he never arranged a celebration for him who has always been the faithful and obedient son, but upon seeing the return of his sinful brother he immediately orders a celebration feast. The father replies to the first son that although he acknowledges his lifelong faithful obedience, he has cause to celebrate because the prodigal son ‘was lost and know he is found’.
Recently I was talking to a friend, a devout Christian, who told me he heard this parable of Jesus read in church the previous Sunday and after thinking about it my friend decided that he doesn’t agree with it and in fact has a major problem with. My friend said that he doesn’t think that God should reward someone who has sinned their whole life and then repented; much less to the point of rewarding that type of person even more than someone who has been faithfully religious their whole life and lived what they believe to be a life largely free of sin.
But that is precisely the point of the parable of the Prodigal Son. This story along with other parables that Jesus told, was intended to offer insight into how God thinks, which is often contrary to the way we think. In fact, the point of this parable is that if you are like my friend, the ‘obedient son’, and you have a problem with God forgiving and even rewarding people who have been sinners, then it doesn’t matter what you think of it because this is the way that God feels about it.
These are the lessons of the parable of the Prodigal Son: God appreciates those who have been his faithful servant their whole life, but God also rejoices when someone who has turned away from Him sees the error of their ways and comes back to Him. Those who have made every effort to be faithful their whole lives should not question who should be in God’s favor the most; that is up to God. And also this: people who are sinners and know it might repent every day, while people who are faithful but self righteous may be assuming they themselves are not sinners when in God’s eyes they really might be.
H.E.Miller www.ApocalypticDreams.com
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