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How many of us have dealt with family drama, from fights in the car to severed relationships?
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Perhaps that’s why the parable of the prodigal son is one of the most popular stories in the bible.
It’s paints a pretty complete picture of the human experience, ranging from greed, jealousy, and anger…to love, mercy, and forgiveness.
Though we’ve heard it many times, this parable should still thoroughly flush our conscience.
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It begins with tragedy.
An immature, selfish son tears himself away from his family. He leaves the security of his home, demanding his share of his father’s inheritance only so he can waste it in the world.
Imagine this heartbroken father trembling with concern as he watches his youngest son disappear.
Any parent can imagine the type of questions racing through this dad’s mind:
Where will my son go? What will happen to him? Will he waste all of his inheritance? Will he ever come back alive?
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There were no guarantees.
But that’s a risk this father was willing to take.
He was not a dictator. He would not force his son to stay at home.
He was a free boy, who had the power to squander his inheritance if he wanted. The father could only hope that his son would come to his senses, returning home some day.
We know what happens.
His son chases every whim of his flesh, but ends up sleeping with pigs.
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That’s where a life of sin leads us – rock bottom. Emptiness. A life without meaning.
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Though the prodigal son returns to his father some years later penniless, he’s also a humbler, even wiser man.
He’s seen enough of the world to know that it cannot satisfy his deepest desires for love, security, and belonging.
Only his father can.
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That’s a lesson we all must learn.
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There’s a God-shaped hole inside all of us that God alone can satisfy. Nothing else can take his place.
But like the prodigal son, we can ignore that truth and try to satisfy our deepest hunger with more– more money, more power, more friends, more clothes, more food, more drink, another vacation, another home.
But it never works. We always want more. More will never be enough.
Countless studies have shown that the happiest people on earth are not the ones with the biggest homes or the largest inheritance; they’re the ones with the best relationships.
And what better relationship is there than a true friendship with God?
As Saint Augustine once wrote, “Our hearts are restless, O LORD, until they rest in you.”
How many of us are restless within?
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Like the prodigal son, where have I been selfish or tried to fill that God-shaped hole with things other than God? Have I placed an unhealthy emphasis on image, popularity, acceptance, or material things?
Where do I need to return to my Father?
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Then there’s the older brother.
He’s a sour, judgmental man who also needs to be reconciled with his family. How many of us have needed to do the same?
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Notice his reaction to his brother’s return. He’s livid! He won’t even refer to him as “brother.”
He’s so angry that he starts spewing accusations against him, saying he must have spent his money lying with prostitutes!
But the Gospel never reveals how the younger brother spent his inheritance, only that he squandered it.
Still, the older brother is certain that he’s a lustful spendthrift.
A Freudian slip, perhaps.
In reality, he, too, has desired to leave his father and spend his inheritance on himself. The only difference is he was driven by obligation, feeling like he needed to earn it.
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How many of us have found something of the older brother in ourselves?
It’s that ability to sour the relationships that matter most, to feel entitled, to hold a grudge against our own flesh and blood for far too long.
Like this older brother, is there anyone I need to be reconciled with? Perhaps it’s a member of my own family, a friend, or even an enemy.
“If you forgive those who sin against you,” Jesus says, “your heavenly Father will forgive you.”
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The parable of the prodigal son should flush our conscience.
It challenges us to turn away from sin – all those things that cannot fill that God-shaped hole within us, to be reconciled with family, and most importantly, to be reconciled with God.
Lent is the time to make that happen.
