Coming Home

The Lenten Season is a bit like old fashioned Spring cleaning, though in this case you're not only cleaning out your physical home, but your spiritual home as well. Now, while I'll readily admit I'm not all that fond of cleaning house, it makes a lot of sense in this instance. We want to rid ourselves of all the clutter, inside and out, getting rid of the dust bunnies under the sofa and the cob webs in our heads.

Jesus used parables as one of His teaching tools--a familiar kind of story with multiple levels of meaning. He used the fifteenth chapter of Luke to present three different stories about repentance and redemption in response to another challenge by the Pharisees and scribes.

The Pharisees, who were too uptight and rigid in their self-righteousness and ritual stunted mentality, objected to Jesus ministering to tax collectors and sinners, even breaking bread with them! They were too full of themselves to become empty vessels receptive to the Word of God.

In these three parables, the shepherd lost one sheep out of one hundred, the woman lost one coin out of ten and the Father 'lost' the youngest of two sons. Jesus used these parables to show that God loves and values every single one of us equally. While the sheep mindlessly wandered off as they will do and the woman lost her coin through carelessness, the Prodigal Son left the Father's house by choice not chance.

How many times have we set out on our own, claiming "I can do it myself!", only to find ourselves up against a hard place, singing a different tune? "Ok, God, I messed up again. What are we going to do to fix it?" Sound familiar? Or maybe we try playing the blame game again, you know the one: "I didn't do this to myself, no way! It was ......" Just fill in the blank. Of course, we can't grow through the lesson and the pain until we accept responsibility for the choices we've made--just like the Prodigal Son.

A certain man had two sons. And the
younger of them said to his father,
"Father, give me the portion of goods that
falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood.
And not many days after, the younger son gathered
all together, journeyed to a far country, and there
wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
Luke 15:11-13

Perhaps the son set out with the intent and expectation of succeeding on his own terms, a real desire to know and to learn more than he might in his own home. Of course, he may well have just wanted a chance to get away from his Father's rules and restrictions and see the world. Clearly, once he reached the far country, he lost sight of his true self and any good he might have accomplished on his own. It's easy enough to be distracted by bright lights and city ways, even when we know better.

But when he had spent all,
there arose a severe famine in that land,
and he began to be in want.
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of
that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the
pods that the swine ate, and no one gave
him anything.
Luke 15:14-16

Not only did the son waste all that he had in loose living, but the land where he lived was faced with serious famine of its own. Which meant, of course, that jobs and food were hard to come by during that time, forcing him to do what no Jew of that time would dream of doing--tending to a herd of swine. He had hit bottom and, worst of all, the very swine he fed ate better than he. Sometimes, we don't switch off the auto pilot until we slam into a wall or find ourselves at the bottom of a pit.

But when he came to himself, he said,
How many of my father's hired servants have
bread enough and to spare, and I
perish with hunger!

When he came to himself, when he remembered who he was, his first thought was of his Father and the way home. There are times in our lives when we lose ourselves in other people, in other places, and find ourselves someplace where we never meant to go. When we finally return to our senses, we remember who we are--the sons and daughters of God, made in the image and likeness of God. Eric Butterworth put it this way in Discover the Power Within You:

The "image" is man as God sees him.
The "likeness" is that which must be worked out
in man's own mind and made manifest in his body
and affairs. It is man's destiny to produce a
likeness in the without of the image
within himself.

The son not only came to himself and remembered who he was, but he acknowledged his mistake to himself and to the Father.

I will arise and go to my father,
and I will say to him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before
you, and I am no longer worthy to be
called your son. Make me like
one of your hired servants.

Luke 15:18-19

All too often, the temptation is to say "Whoops, help me!" and never truly come face to face with the error thinking which brought us to this state. Until we peel away the layers of denial and accept responsibility for our choices, we will not be ready to grow through it. Repentance and redemption.

The Prodigal Son returned home to a joyful welcome and the healing balm of his Father's love. He was quickly enfolded in his Father's robe and shoes placed upon his feet, for only slaves went barefoot in those days. And his Father placed a ring upon his finger, symbolizing his place in the Father's house.

The Elder Brother, not unlike the Pharisees, saw the Younger Brother as a sinner who should not be welcomed into the Father's House. The Elder risked nothing and gained nothing. The Younger risked everything and gained a new understanding of and a new relationship with his Father.