The story is really about two lost sons, not just one. The prodigal son is lost when he takes his Father's resources and spends it on his own appetites. The older son gets lost on his Father's own farm.
Here's how he responds when the lost son comes back and the Father throws a party for him: 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'
"Slaving away." What's happened as the older son has dutifully stayed home is that he has worked hard but missed his Father's heart. He's missed out on his Father's yes. And the key to understanding what's going on here is the word "slave."
To mis-relate to the Father is to necessarily mis-relate to everything else. The boy is a son, not a slave, and his Father loves him dearly--dearly enough to run out after him much as he does for the returning Prodigal.
If we mis-relate to God our Father, we cannot help but mis-relate to everything else: family, friendships, work, ambitions, dreams, money, recreation. To miss out on this relationship is to miss everything.
Alas, the converse is not necessarily true: to correctly relate to the Father does not automatically mean we will relate correctly to the rest of our world and lives. Right living in the Land of the Ruins is always a learned characteristic. But to miss this foundational relationship is to guarantee a life of mis-relating to just about everything else.
1 comment:
We used the prodigal son at the VCU leadership retreat this semester, too. I was really struck by all the things the father didn't say to his sons. There was no attempt to reason with the younger son who wanted to leave, no discipline for the disobedient/rude sons, it's just love. I also really loved how the father responds to the sons in the way that they need, not the way they necessarily want to relate to him. Like the younger's prepared speech gets ignored and replaced by a warm embrace, whereas the elder seems to want to fight and argue but the father gently responds and he doesn't support the elder's idea of having earned something with all his empty works. This parable gets better every time I think about it.
Post a Comment