The Parable of the Brothers...

more commonly known as the Prodigal Son. Found in Luke 15:11-32.

This is a text that most who have attended church at some point in their life are well acquainted with. The plot is that there is a man who has two sons, the younger one wants to go and try his luck in the world while the older one is content to stay home and work the land with Dad. The younger son takes his half of the inheritance and blows it on the luxuries and pleasure of the world. He ends up doing manual labor at minimum wage before he realizes that the people that work for his father have plenty because his father is generous. He doesn't even hope to come back to the status of "son", he is content just to work for his father like the other servants. He's on the road home, rehearsing his apology, when his father greets him, welcoming him back from the grave. The father cleans the son, dresses him well, and throws a big party. The older brother sulks outside the house because he'd "done everything right, and I never got a party, why are you spoiling this child who wasted everything you gave him?" The beauty is that the father sought out both his sons, in different ways.

Most of the time when I read this parable I find myself siding with the older brother. I'm about as straight-laced as they come. I've never had my "wild, rebellious days". I started Seminary at 21....what "normal" college student does that? But this past month has had me more on the side of the younger brother. And I've seen the Father in a brighter light.

The younger son didn't run-away from home, he asked his father to give him money and permission to leave. The thing I've never realized before is that the Father graciously allowed his son to leave his presence. Now it's obvious that the Father knew what was going to happen to his son in the world, so it wasn't with joy that the Father allowed him to walk away. It is equally powerful that the Father knew he would never have his son's love if he kept him locked up at home. It's staggering to realize that God our Father, has also allowed each of us to walk away from our relationship with him, to take the things he has blessed us with and waste them on the world. In this parable we are not strange children who are adopted into the family, instead we are beloved children, allowed to leave, to grow up, to encounter the harsh world, and ultimately we are allowed the choice to return home.

Notice carefully what it is that draws the younger son home. It is the generous character of the Father, a generosity that extends even to his servants. God's generosity is what allows each of us to even hope to return to our Father's house. What the younger son didn't understand was the depths of his Father's grace. He had seen it toward others, but until he returned home he had not experienced it for himself. The same is true for Christians, God's grace toward other people is intriguing, but once we have humbled ourselves (or been humbled) enough to receive it for ourselves, we find that it is overwhelming.

It is important for those of us who are like the older brother to realize we can walk away from our Father without ever taking a step, but the grace of the Father compels him to come after us and ask us to come in and celebrate.

During Advent we hope for the gift of grace that makes our homecoming possible. God has allowed us to walk away from him, and in his grace he prepared the way home for us. This way is through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.