A Wide Open Story

"My Son, you are always with me, and all that is mone is yours" (Luke 15:31)

Parable of the Prodigal Son is about two relationships. We may be inclined to focus our attention on the father's relationship with his younger son - the prodigal who left home and squandered his inheritance. However, in terms of own own lives, the father's relationship with the older son may be the more important of the two.

Most of use are that elder brother. Most of us have been brought up in proper homes and have gone to proper schools, and have been the proper, regular church goers. Most of us live rather decent and respectable lives. Many of us have been here in the Father's house all our lives. Although we have our dreams and fantasties, most of us probably wouldn't know what to do if we went off in Babylon. But this doesn't mean we haven't sinned. It does mean that our sin may be more subtle, more dangerous and more destructive than the sin of the prodigal son. The danger is that we may become so puffed-up with our own respectability, so self-righteous and self centered as to lose touch with the lavish, beautiful, super abundant love of God at the deep center of our lives. And when we are estranged from God in this way, our capacity to be compassionate, caring, forgiving, loving people is diminished.

In the parable of the prodigal son, the father speaks one of the most stupendous sentences in all of Scripture, when he says to the elder son, "all that is mine is yours" (Lk. 15:31). The point is that God is saying that to us now: "All that is mine is yours - life and light and love and hope and the possibility of making a difference in your family and in that world out there - it's all yours." And to the extent that this Good News does not fill our hearts with joy, we are estranged from God; to the extent that this Good News does not inspire us to carry out His purposes, we are estranged from God; to the extent that this Good News does not move us to love other persons unconditionally, we are estranged from God - even in His own house.

Jesus left the end of the story wide open. The prodigal son was restored to union with his father. But the story doesn't tell us whether or not the elder son was reconciled to his father. We are the elder son.