This is a familiar story and it’s possible to skim over it and not really read it. I have been reminded recently by something I heard Andrew Murray said about reading God’s word like a text book and not letting it penetrate our heart. This is how God speaks to us; if we’re only reading it to prepare our sermons it ceases to become the living and active Word of God to us. Sometimes it’s easy just to read and not to digest.
I want you to try and place yourself in the story. Who are you? With God as the Father figure, I see many ways to relate to both of the sons. First, the prodigal. The son who demands his own way, his rights, what he feels is his inheritance. How often do we do that? I have the right to be happy, we say, and we use that excuse to rationalize our sin. We get farther and farther away from our Heavenly Father until trouble strikes and then we find ourselves in desperate circumstances. I believe God allows us to experience that famine in our soul so that we will turn back to Him. But like the Prodigal son, that’s not always the first thing we do. We try to find our own solutions and find ourselves longing for the ‘husks of the world’ to fill us. The husks represent those things the world offers that look so good to us when we have a need to fill, but they are really useless garbage. What if the prodigal had been given the husks he longed for? As long as we have things of this world to fill us up, we will never look to God to fill our need. But when we come to the end of our self and have nowhere else to turn, like the Prodigal we come to our senses and set our heart on returning home.
And the Father welcomes us! The Father ran to meet the son. Picture it! It was simply not done. What extravagant love He demonstrated towards His wayward child. Not only was the son allowed to return home, a lavish party was thrown in his honour. God receives each of His children back with the same demonstration of unconditional love and forgiveness and extravagant, magnificent love. Pause for a moment and thank God for His relentless love for you.
There’s another person in this story that I relate to as well. The older brother represents those who have not left God’s side to waste their lives and His resources on selfish pursuits. That doesn’t mean his heart was right, though. Notice that when the younger asked for his inheritance, the Father split it between them. The older got his share too. Maybe he didn’t take it in cash like the younger did, but the Father effectively gave him everything that was left. So when the younger son came back, the expensive gifts the Father lavished on the younger son such as the ring and the robe actually belonged to the older son! And the famine that came on the land was on the whole land, we’re told; so from a human viewpoint the fattened calf and feast was depleting the sparse resources belonging to the older son as well. (of course, God our Father has unlimited resources but we as humans never really comprehend that). During a famine, food was more costly and not easy to come by, but the Father throws caution to the wind and dotes on the wastrel. No wonder the older son was angry!
Are we ever like that son? Do we think of ourselves as the ‘good’ children of God, obedient and always doing what the Father asks? Do we think we deserve the reward from the Father because of our attempts at earning His favour? Sadly, this describes all too often God’s followers. Yes, obedient and living as we think God’s children should live. Doing all the right things; reading our Bible, praying, going to church, serving where we can. But what is in our heart? Are there people in our lives that we resent because of how they have treated us? If they came back to the Lord would we rejoice or would we be inwardly angry with God because suddenly they are completely forgiven but we really hoped to see them pay for what they did? I’m ashamed to say I’ve felt this way too many times. Someone comes to Christ but I don’t really believe they have changed and I hold back my rejoicing to see if it ‘sticks’. I don’t pray for them as I should, or I pray but don’t really believe anything will happen. I see myself in this older son too.
The good news is that God loves us equally whether we are the younger son who walked into a life of sin, and the older son who appeared obedient but harboured judgmental and selfish attitude. Equally sinful, God opens His arms of love to all who would return. Who are you today? I invite you to listen to the son “When God Ran” by Phillips Craig and Dean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBzcOGydUaA
Christian Contemplative Journey 
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