Throughout the world, the famous painting of "The Return of the Prodigal Son" is known and loved, painted in oil by Rembrandt in the 17th century. It is considered by many to be the greatest, most monumental painting ever painted. The painting represents the moment of the return of a lost son home, a story told in one of Jesus' best known parables. Read it in Luke 15: 11-32.
Traditionally, the story has been called "The Parable of the Prodigal Son", although Jesus himself never gave a head to the parable. But perhaps it should rather be called "The Parable of the Amazing Father." Because the central figure in the story is not the youngest son who returned home, nor even the eldest son who ever left; the main figure is the father and the love so deep he had for his two children.
Today, on the 12th of Lent, we will look at the youngest son, the one we know as "the prodigal son." As I was reading about this character, I realized that my perception of the meaning of "prodigal" was completely wrong. When I asked several people what they thought, I discovered that only one person among them knew what the word means. "Prodigal" does not mean "being lost and then returning home," as I thought. "Prodigal" describes someone who wastes money in an excessive and wasteful way. Interesting what I learned - but sad too. Even though it is a fictional story, it is unfortunate to be remembered throughout the history of mankind only for something negative, especially when there was reconciliation at the end ...
The youngest son: we know he had a father and an older brother; We don't know anything about the mother. But it seems that neither with the father nor with the brother had a close relationship.
He told the father one day to give him the part of the property that corresponded to him, that is, his inheritance. When his was distributed, he sold it to take the money. When he had the money in his hand, not many days later, he went far to a remote province. What kind of son was that?
For Jewish culture at the time, a request and a procedure of that magnitude were unusual. The parents always had complete control over all their properties while living. They decided when and how they were going to hand over their inheritance. It was a big offense that the youngest son asked for it, and even worse that he asked for it while he was still very much alive. In essence, the youngest son didn't care if the father lived or died; the only thing that interested him was the inheritance.
Moreover, in the Jewish culture of those days, even if a father decided to divide his property among his heirs, neither he nor they could sell them while the father still lived. But the younger son didn't care about decency standards either; He was only interested in money.
When the youngest son left the house, he left the father and the elder brother to defend themselves with the house and the remaining lands. The family and the responsibilities in it, nothing mattered to the youngest son; He was only interested in his freedom to go far and to live his own life.
But the story goes from bad to worse. It seems that the youngest son threw not only correct behavior but also all his beliefs overboard, because the remote province he came to was no longer part of Israel, but a pagan land, where later we see that there were pig farms ( an animal considered unclean by the Jews). There, in that distant land, the youngest son lived lost, and wasted his property. One day, a great hunger came in that province, and as he had wasted everything he had, he began to lack it. The only option he had left to survive was to approach one of the citizens of that land and ask for work by feeding the pigs of his farm. There, he wanted to fill his belly with the carob beans that pigs ate, but nobody gave him. How far the youngest son went! Away from home, on pagan land, without money, without where to live, without eating, without family or friends - alone, helpless, hungry, lost, almost dead. But at that moment, the story changes course, because at that time the youngest son came back to himself.
It was in the middle of the pigs that the son thought again about his father's house. It was in the middle of the mud and the stench of his hard work, that he decided to repent, get up and return to his father, confessing his sin against him and against heaven, acknowledging his unworthiness of being called a son and humiliating himself to accept being a simple day laborer. His hard stone heart had become a broken and contrite heart of flesh. When he could not fall further down, he remembered his house and his father, and in complete humility and brokenness he decided to ask to be able to return home.
Beloved: Where are you? Are you also far from your Heavenly Father? Have you ever lost your sense of home and family, and decided to go far away to live without Him in your life? Did you waste everything He gave you?
Did you waste your life? Have you reached the lowest state and are you living with pigs, or even like pigs?
Beloved: "Come back"! Recapacita! It's not too late yet - there's still hope. Recognize being lost and dead, repent, confess your sin - and then, get up and return to the house of your Heavenly Father.
You have already read the rest of the story (if not, do it now: Luke 15: 20-32). You know how your welcome will be at home. It will not be what you deserve. It will not be what you fear. God the Father will surprise you with His waste of mercy, emotion, and overflowing love for you. It won't throw your miserable past in the face. He will not accuse you, nor condemn you for all your mistakes.
Do not! Simply when you are still far away, he will see you coming, and moved to mercy, he will run to you, lie on your neck, and kiss you. Can you imagine a more incredibly lush and generous welcome?
Beloved: take advantage of it now, that you are still on time.
