The prodigal sons

We are very familiar with the story of the prodigal son infact I would like to call it the story of the prodigal sons. The younger one as we know wanted the share of his father’s property and so he demanded it and then left taking his fortune and future along with him. We all know the sad story of what happened afterwards. He was languishing while tending the pigs and there he remembered how his father’s servants were treated much better with food and clothes than the situation that he was in and therefore he decides to go back to his father and ask for his forgiveness and request if he can be accepted as of his servant so that he can get a better life. Since childhood I was of the opinion that this was a classic story of repentance and being accepted and reconciled to the father. However if you look a little deeper you can find a lot more to this story. Infact you can find similarities between the younger sons and some of the modern day self-centered Christian people.

For the younger son right from the beginning it was all about himself. It seems like he wanted the whole world including his father to revolve around himself and provide for his wants. The sole purpose of anyone’s existence according to him was to fulfill possibly his own carnal needs. We are not sure if he came back to the father with a genuine desire to get back into the fellowship with the loving father or just to fulfill his own needs and better his current pathetic situation. We have many such people now a days in the Church community. No wonder we have the so called prosperity gospel heavily believed and practiced today. We can easily call them the ‘Consumer Christians’. Their desire to know and be in the presence of God or even to have a close relationship with him stems from the fact that God is there to fulfill their needs. It could be physical or material as long as God is there to serve and provide for their needs. In fact they have gotten the doctrine wrong wherein God does not exist to serve them but the truth is that we all exist to serve the living God.

Let’s look at the second son. He was supposed to be the ideal and obedient son who always did what the father said. Now his true colors are evident when his younger brother returns back. We see his father pleading with him to come inside the house. Here we see how the older son reasons with the father that he did not at any time throw a party while he was with him or even allow him to party with his friends. And he even mentions as to how obedient a son he was and that he was doing all that his father wanted him to do. Here we see that the older son was doing all that out of probably a compulsion and never out of the love for the father. There are many so called Christians now a days who are more missional focused and for them their mission becomes the center than even God himself. They become so engrossed in their “mission work” that even God becomes a means to an end and not the end himself. Unfortunately there are many such Christians today and we can call them the “Missional Christians”.

For both the sons the objective was either “one self” or “the mission” and not the fellowship or the love for the father. Infact we can see the response the father shows in both cases wherein when the younger one returns and even when the older one refuses to come inside the home. For the younger one the father is so excited that even before the younger son is saying the practiced speech he is so eager to have him put on the new clothes, a ring and even a new pair of shoes and even he wants to celebrate his return in a grand way by killing a fattened calf and feasting. For the older son the father’s response is that “you have always been with me” which shows that for the father all that mattered was that his son was always with him and not much of what he did for him.

In John 15, Jesus says “Abide me as I also abide in you… Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me….. And apart from me you can do nothing”. The Father God desires that he has a deep and longing fellowship with you and me. He desires that each of us knows him and loves him unconditionally as much as HE loves and desires a deep relationship with us. Christmas is a time wherein we remember how God loved us and gave HIS only son for us. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!