The Prodigal Who?

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)

The other day, a church displayed a long term sermon series ‘The Prodigal God’.

Any time a public vehicle passed there, strangers would find common ground protesting that title. One day a girl was alighting at the church and the conductor asked her to explain the meaning and her explanation was not in the least acceptable.

I remember reading somewhere I suspect the pastor scoured that title from for such a sermon series.

That is when I decided to study that word. And it was amazing what that word means.

At the base of the word is wastefulness. The generosity in the word is from that irresponsible wastefulness. It can easily be understood when we look at something one has not earned, as happened to that son.

That is why it borders on blasphemy to apply the word prodigal to God. Remember that even after feeding about twenty thousand after multiplying a young boy’s lunch Jesus ordered them to gather the fragments so that nothing is wasted? How then can He be prodigal?

Anyway, today’s post is not about the word prodigal in any way. I just felt it is important to challenge us to stop using titles the way media uses them to attract an audience. Conveying life is different from peddling truths and untruths to keep your bottom line healthy. It is immoral to sensationalize the Gospel. It is most attractive in its simplicity.

I want us to look at one aspect of the father of that prodigal son. What do you think was in his mind when he gave the young man his inheritance? Why did he not refuse?

He was a responsible father who saw much farther than that son. Giving that son the inheritance was better than delaying that inheritance as it prevented that son from wasting his whole life.

Suppose he had refused and told his son to wait until he died?

I suspect that son was the kind that could kill to access that inheritance. But even worse was that he wanted that inheritance yet had no idea how to use it. He just wanted access to his father’s wealth without caring to know that there was a responsibility to maintain it. And we have enough examples of that wherever we look.

The father realized that it was much better for his son to waste his wealth earlier in life that after his decease. Then his life would have been completely wrecked as there would be nowhere else to turn. Chances would be that he would be having a family that would then end up living in squalor.

That is the saddest problem with entitlement.

Anyway, this father’s love for his son caused him to ‘waste’ part of his wealth for the education of his ne’er do well younger son.

But the point I want to make today is that the father must have followed up after his son. He must have been receiving briefs about what was happening to his son without lifting a finger to help him. And he did that so that he would be ready when the son came to himself.

Many assume that that father was fixated at his gate all those years waiting, indeed longing for his son to come back home, if he ever would.

The father knew his son, and that he would later come back after learning life’s lessons. He knew that the world was the teacher his son needed to take his position in his empire.

It must have hurt that father terribly knowing that his son was feeding with the swine. But he did not interfere. Interfering would have messed the education his son needed to connect to his heritage. He had to waste to appreciate. He had to waste to learn responsibility. He had to slave to agree to work on his heritage. And he had to lack to appreciate the bounty he had taken for granted.

The father knew when his son had come back to himself. That is why he readied himself and waited for him at the gate. That is why there was a fatted calf and a ring and a robe. He knew that what that son needed most was a befitting welcome and assurance that he had not been disowned.

I am sure the son came back more or less on tiptoe, ready to spring back running when his father came armed to eject him for that prodigality.

At the back of his mind, as we see in his prepared speech, he was in no illusion that he had completely lost the trust of his father.

What he did not know was that his father knew what had been happening to him. He knew the depths to which he had sunk. And better still, that he had known that he would sink that low, yet due to the love he had for his son had allowed him to walk away so that he could grow.

The father was not distraught to the point that he stopped doing everything else and sat at that gate for years waiting for that lost son. He was not fixated with that gate and path.

This father continued his life and business, and at the same time keeping updated on the progress of his son in that wilderness so that he would be on hand to receive him after he completes his education.

Do you realize that this is the way God treats us?

God wants us to grow and that is why He allows us to reap the fruits of our choices.

He allows us to walk in complete darkness when we refuse to walk in the light of His word. No wonder cults are full to overflowing.

The nature of God as our Father means He is as responsible as the father of the prodigal.

He expects responsibility yet will not force it on us. He expects faithfulness yet will not force it on us. But in the same way He will not stop the consequences of our rebellion from catching up with us. In fact He will not interfere once the wheels of that consequence start rolling over us.

Do you remember Jesus allowing the rich young ruler walking away sad? Yet instead of trying to ease that young man’s conscience started teaching the ones that remained. Remember Him asking the twelve if they also wanted to leave Him when the crowds fled from His heavy doctrine?

You see, sometimes the best way to appreciate what you have is by leaving it. The best way to build commitment is by starting with desertion.

There are people who will not learn it any other way. They will abuse favor and bounty and generosity and responsibility. They will take for granted love. Until they lose them.

Incidentally, it is when they decide to come back on their own that they will have learnt their lessons and not before.

‘Rescuing’ them before they finally decide to take the torturous and shameful walk back will make their situation worse as they will think they are your oxygen so that you can’t live without them.

Now that is what we call spoiling. This is what produces brats, or what the Bible calls sons of Belial. These are people whose entitlement quotient is with the clouds that they expect everybody to fall down at their feet to serve them. From Nabal to the sons of Eli we see them. They see themselves as too special as to have everybody else at their service.

Incidentally, the modern teaching of grace is one such spoiler, producing such spiritual brats as will make even the devil blush as they overshoot his ambition. Remember this idiot who the other day said that people will go to heaven according to his word and that he has the golden key that opens the way to heaven?

Brats are many times the product of a father who will not allow a wayward son to wallow with the swine. He loves him too much to endure the pain of watching his son sleeping hungry after wasting his allowance or pocket money as we say here. He is always rushing to deal with one crisis after another, all because he loves his son senselessly.

Sadly, very few mothers are able to endure the pain of her child. Many times they will report a theft to the police yet withdraw the case when they discover their child as the culprit. That explains why very few children of single mothers are socially healthy.

Of course those who read my posts know that I am the product of a single mother of sorts as my father was prominently absent as he was with another wife. And she did a good job, at least discipline wise. I am not therefore banging the heads of single mothers ignorantly. We have many examples. In fact a single mother’s child will be noticed almost immediately from their entitlement. Of course there are fathers who are not much different.

I also want to state that God only looks to the father as concerns discipline. In other words, the father is the one who is accountable to God for how the children turn out. Like I have argued elsewhere, chances are that Eli’s wife was the reason the boys were the way they were. Why do I say that? We see Eli trying to argue with them to respect God. Yet we do not even know his wife’s name. God judged him squarely for that outcome.

Anyway, the point I want to make is that a responsible father allows his son to suffer for his stupidity and receives him ONLY when he comes back to his senses and not before.

Yet we find believers visiting prayer mountains for deliverance from unrepented sins because they have been taught a grace that will rescue one from the pigpen before someone is ready to go back home. Others camp with pastors to escape the smell of that pigpen yet they have not dealt with what brought them there in the first place. And the pastors are excited to oblige because of the offerings and seed that follows those prodigals.

No wonder we are unable to deal with open sin in church. Many times you find that even the pastor is as prodigal as his congregation. He is finding comfort in the pigpen because of the numbers. They may even have voted that the pigpen is the best place to stay, even redefining it as their father’s house.

And God will not push them out of the pigpen. They must on their own volition choose to define it as a pigpen, smelling as badly as sewage and having no comparison with the Fathers house.

Look at where you are. Examine the scriptures to know whether you are where you are supposed to be. Let those scriptures lead you back to the Father’s house and your inheritance.

By the way, this is not to be taken as a sanction for waywardness. God expects us to be like the elder son, helping the father manage his wealth.

Being prodigal is not the ideal. It is like a virus to a healthy body.

But prodigal pastors have made being prodigal exciting. What of those people who converted from crime and other wickedness bypassing all those people who have been serving faithfully to become pastors and bishops without as much as a background check?

We are supposed to be faithful. The Bible says that he who remains faithful to the point of death will inherit, not the prodigal who rushed in as the door was closing.

Do not misunderstand my post. Do not distort my post.

This is a post about grace being directed at the rebellious.