The Prodigal

Interestingly enough, after posting yesterday on the subject of hypocrisy, during which I wanted to include the lyrics of "Undo" by Rush of Fools (what a name for a Christian group, by the way), I googled for the lyrics, and came up with another blog that was using the lyrics, but her subject was the Prodigal Son. Last night, my pastor taught a study on the Prodigal Son. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyway, the story has different levels. I think most of us get the idea that the younger son took his inheritance (early), and went to a far country, and wasted it. When he realized what a stupid thing that was for him to do, he decided to go back home and ask his father for a job. When he returned home, however, his father forgave him completely, and put him back in his place as the son of the household.

I think a lot of people overlook the older brother's part of the story, though. When the older brother came in from working in the field, he found a celebration going on. He asked one of the servants what was going on. When he found out that his brother had returned, instead of rejoicing with his father, he became angry. He undoubtedly thought that his brother had dishonored his father, and even the family name, but here is dad making a big fuss about his return. It sounds as though the older brother would have been perfectly happy to have never seen his brother again.

Consider for a moment what Jesus was trying to teach: Not just that there is forgiveness in God, but that sometimes we in the church have a hard time forgiving others in the church. It doesn't even have to be a sin that we are directly a victim of. It's interesting, too, that Jesus told this parable to religious people who were criticizing Him for hanging out with sinners. Clearly, these religious people didn't understand that these "sinners" had been forgiven, and were welcome in the Kingdom. It was the religious people whose souls needed mending, but they were too busy being better than everybody else. Ever meet anybody like that? Ever been anybody like that?

It's interesting, too, that the older brother, when he heard the commotion, didn't ask his father what was going on, he asked one of the servants. You might think that it was simply more convenient--the servant was right there--but, really, whom should he have been talking to? And even when his father came out and talked to him, he was angry with his father, and felt cheated. So why is it that the father didn't tell the older brother before he started the party? Maybe because the older brother wasn't communicating with his father the way he should have. Maybe that's why he asked a servant, instead of talking to dad.

Yet, we know that God wants to hear from us. We know that God wants to supply our needs, even when we don't know what our needs are. We know that God wants us to be joyful. God doesn't want us to be jealous of each other. If it seems that somebody else got a better deal than we did, maybe it's because we aren't seeing the kind of sacrifice that the other person made in order to obtain that reward, or maybe it's just because we aren't taking our needs before God in the first place. The Bible talks about not having as a result of not asking, and then when you do ask, you ask amiss. We need to be honest with ourselves, and with God, to bring our needs before Him, and let Him meet our needs as He sees fit--not as we see fit.