We just started a new message series at Zebulon Baptist Church called Prodigal. The thing about Jesus' "Parable of the Prodigal Son" is that most of us have heard it (or some version of it) so many times that it's kind of gotten stale. Let's face it, if you were reading through the Gospel of Luke, when you got to chapter 15, you'd at least be tempted to think, "I know this story inside & out, so I'll just skim through to get to chapter 16." It's totally natural. It's why movies that we've seen over & over begin to lose their punch & books that we've read over & over begin to lose their appeal. Familiarity may not always breed contempt, but it does lead us to a "been there, done that" attitude, even about the Bible.
The problem with that mindset is that we end up missing out on the depth that is present in so much of God's word, but especially in this parable. After all, most of us think that the parable is about a punk bratty kid who demands his inheritance, blows it on a wild lifestyle, humbly returns home, & is greeted by a forgiving father who restores him to the family. That's almost always the way this parable is portrayed both in the church & in pop culture. However, when you dig beneath the surface, you'll start to realize that his part of the story isn't even the point. The part of the story we've romanticized is basically a vehicle Jesus uses to get to the real point. The real point Jesus is trying to make is centered around the older brother who stayed home, not the younger brother who ran away.
Take some time this week to go back & read this parable in Luke 15. When you really read it, you discover that these brothers aren't that different. Neither of them were interested in their father. They wanted their inheritance, but they didn't want their father. The younger son simply was open & honest about it. The older brother, on the other hand, was much more subtle & manipulative. He didn't dare ask for his inheritance early. Instead he would simply hang around, do what he was supposed to do, so that he could eventually get the pay off. In the end all either of the brothers wanted was the payoff. You see it in the older brother when he scolds his father for welcoming his brother home. After all, the younger son is the bad kid; he doesn't deserve all the fuss, but he, the older brother, was the good kid. He did everything he was supposed to do. He "slaved away". Therefore he deserved good things.
At the end of the story, the son who is "lost" isn't the bad kid who came back home. It's the older son who never left, but who assumed that his good, obedient behavior put the father in his debt. Jesus had a powerful spiritual truth He desperately wanted His audience of "sinners, tax collectors, & Pharisees" to understand.
"You Can Be Just As Lost In Your Goodness
As You Can In Your Badness."
Look at this way: Both of these brothers were trying to make their own way in the world. The younger son was going to make his way by rebelling against his father, wishing him dead, & taking his portion of the inheritance so that he could make his own way. The older son, although he stayed home & did everything he was supposed to do, was still trying to make his own way. He viewed his relationship with the father as a slave/master relationship. "I do A, B, & C for you, therefore, you need to do X, Y, & Z for me." In the end the older son was trying to secure his own way in the world.
Spiritually, most everyone does the same thing. Many of us run away from God, tell Him we don't want to have anything to do with Him (unless an emergency pops up), & set out to live our own life by our own standards. Then there's the rest of us. We're religious. We embrace traditional, Judeo-Christian morals & try to be "good people." And somehow we think that the pursuit of being good people puts God in a position of debt toward us. We've been good. Therefore, God has to bless us, & ultimately God has to forgive us for those few times we weren't good people. All that is is another attempt to make our own way in life. We've just chosen a moralistic path, but we've never submitted ourselves to our Heavenly Father. In the end, both paths are dead ends. Whether you're a wild child or the good child, if you reject the Father, He has no choice but to reject you as well. That's why self-righteousness is so dangerous. It subtly leads us to believe we're in a right relationship with our Father, but the truth is that we're trying to manipulate Him. When we think that practicing our religion or good morals somehow puts God in debt to us, it only blinds us to our own debt to Him.
Who are you in the story of two lost sons? Are you the good kid or the bad kid? How have you tried to make your own way or manipulate God? Here's the good news: our Heavenly Father is the same loving, gracious, pursuing father we see in the parable. He graciously welcomed the rebel back home while also pursuing the self-righteous son to finally embrace their relationship as father & son rather than thinking he somehow had to work for the father's love & blessings.
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