Ever notice how Jesus’ parable in Luke 15:11-32 is referred
to as “The Lost Son” or “The Prodigal Son”?
I think it’s truly misnamed.
Jesus never named it that. People
all too often focus primarily on the son who asked for his inheritance and went away
spending it all in “wild” living and began to starve with the pigs, deciding it would
be better to return to his dad and offer to work as a servant than to die.
Recently, I was in that “in-between” state of not fully
asleep and not fully awake and had a sort of waking dream come to me about this
parable. I had not been reading it
recently, but Papa many times slips in dreams in my waking hours that are
startling to me and shed light on things I have not seen previously.
In my dream – the familiar story line of the younger son and
his request of his father came to me, but it was highlighted a little
differently. The son knew he was due an inheritance and foolishly did not value it - bent
on taking his entire inheritance (a pretty large sum) leaving for a distant
land where no one knew him and spending it in a wild run of self-indulgence. He did not know his true identity in His father's heart. No care or thought for tomorrow or the
consequences of his actions, until he runs smack into them. This is such a picture of many of us in our
culture today. People do not understand who they are and whose they are. As a result they never learn
how to control themselves. There is
little to no cultivation in people from very young in learning to govern their urges
and live self-controlled lives. Learning
how to endure pain and walk through suffering, delayed gratification or working long
and hard for a prized reward are not valued character traits in our society any more. Instead, people are told they deserve
everything – NOW. They should treat
themselves – why not? They deserve
it. This mentality and lifestyle has led
to where we are now – a society of self-indulgent entitled people whining that
they want everything now and that they deserve for someone to give it to them.
On the flip side – the older brother was a very interesting
revelation. He, having always lived and
worked along-side his father, had always viewed himself as a
slave. He had never connected with his
father – you can see they had no relationship, though the father’s heart of love was always available to him. He never received
his father’s love and the identity that came with it. If he had, he would never have resented his
brother’s celebration and felt a lack of his own.
He could not even be happy for his brother. He only saw meagerness toward himself from
his father in celebrating his brother’s return.
There never was meagerness toward him in any way from his father’s heart.
It’s interesting that one son separated himself physically
from his father and ended up in a self-inflicted physical and identity poverty and need,
while the other remained physically with his father and had access to his love
and all that he owned and yet suffered a self-inflicted poverty of identity. I find this mentality prevalent in many in
the church. We are dedicated to serving
the Lord, but, have never accessed his love and the identity and inheritance
that come with it through Jesus’ sacrifice to make bringing many sons into
being! Many stand far off from the
Father’s heart – some resentful and some even prideful that they have worked so
hard, but, never entering into their Father’s love, rest and provision. Both of these self-inflicted poverty states
steal the future away from individuals and the Kingdom that God intends.
This was a timely word when Jesus told the parable and it is
even more timely now. We have an
opportunity to receive The Father’s great love, identity, provision and joy to
us – be we younger, older or a mix of both sons. He runs to us when we return – His heart is
always full and available to us as we serve beside him. I pray we don’t miss Him and that the enemy
does not fool us out of our inheritance – I pray we connect with your great
goodness through all that Jesus did to make it possible, Father. Thank you, God, for walking us through and
committing to make us one with you!
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