Some more thoughts from Wednesday night....

I thought I would share a couple more thoughts about the Parable of the Prodigal Son or The Tale of Two Brothers with you today that I started on Wednesday night at our Community Thanksgiving Day service.  

The story told by Jesus introduces us to salvation.  The younger son comes to his senses and his eyes are open to how great his father really is.  He is humbled and doesn't expect anything more than a position as a servant, if that.  He is blown away by the father's love and full acceptance into the family.  If the story ended right there it would be so great, but it doesn't.

The older son shows us what happens when we slide back into the default position of thinking and caring for only ourselves.  The older son is angry.  The older son is defiant to the father.  The older son can only focus on what he has done and what he thinks is rightfully his.  He has been physically with the father but you can see that he is not spiritually aligned with him.  What the father is excited about, he is not.

The father re-establishes for the older son what his focus should be.  It shouldn't be on himself but on others coming back to the father.  The father says to the older son that a celebration about salvation is a must.  

What got in the way of the older son seeing this?  The older son's focus was all about what he himself was doing apparently right and what his younger brother had been doing apparently wrong.  He had reverted back to a works based salvation.  I am saved by what I do rather than my coming to the father.  My worth is in my actions and therefore the one who does more actions and better actions should get more from the father.  

I wonder if the older son started out concerned about his younger brother?  I wonder if he prayed with his father at the start for his younger brother's return?  Did the reports coming in of the ungodly acts his younger brother was doing start to work on his growing insensitivity to his possible return?  Did the work he was doing for the father that doubled in measure make him start to be resentful for his younger brother leaving?  Was there a fear that if the younger brother came back that his apparently soft hearted father would give him more of what was rightfully his?  The story ends with us not knowing how the older son reacted to his father's corrective instruction.

Did the older son change his actions and attitudes?  Did he go into the house with his father and greet his wayward younger brother or did he stay defiant of his father's command and sulk outside some more?  We don't have the answer to these questions because I think Jesus told the story in a way so that we would answer them ourselves along with His hearers to the story in His day.  If we are a Christian, then we have been in the position of the younger son and come to our senses to humbly come to our Father.  Are we like the older son and have lost sight of loving what our Father loves and loving even those who might be seen as our enemies?  Have we slide back into thinking that the Father's love for us is based on what we are doing rather than what He has done for us?  Are we keeping track of our good deeds to make known to the Father and others and keeping track of others bad deeds to make them known too?  

This is one of those stories of Jesus that can make us feel very uncomfortable if we identify with the son who realizes he and his father and not thinking alike.  Remember, we are to be continually transformed into His likeness and therefore when corrected by Him, we choose to go in with Him to celebrate another one saved, born again, into His family.  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, thank You for the correction that You give us when we need it.  May we see where we might be slipping into the thought of a works-based salvation instead of a God's grace-based salvation.  May our hearts be tender to keep praying and reaching out to those who have rejected Your love so that when they turn, they may find our outstretched arms and hear our cheers of celebration.  Amen."

Pastor Adam