Prodigal People, Prodigal God

9. September 2009 by BruceSmith.

Prodigal People, Prodigal God

Luke 15 has for me been one of the most important passages in all of scripture in terms of its influence in my life.  Its the story, told by Jesus, to religious listeners, in order to communicate, clearly, the essential message of the Gospel.  Typically, the focus is upon the “wayward” son who has broken the heart of his father, squandered family wealth, and ruined his own life.  Yet, a close look at the story reveals much more.

The passage, one of three “lost” passages offered in succession, is the culmination, the punch line, the climax of Jesus’ teaching on the theme of lostness and searching.  The three passages together, taken as one teaching unit, offer a profound look at the message of God for lost things, lost people.  He is on an all out search for us.  Even when we are ignoring Him and looking for life in all the wrong places, He fixes His gaze in our direction, just waiting for us to turn His way and take a step toward Him.  Let’s take a look at the passage.

First off, the passage is indeed about the son who has gone astray.  The message of God about this kind of life, a life of loose living, partying without boundaries, and a no rules approach, is quite clear: God is saying, clearly, life lived on our terms is hopeless.  Fun will not be enough.  Money will not be enough.  Sex will not be enough.  Travel will not be enough.  Life lived for the moment is not gonna work.  All of this and more, apart from God…will NOT be enough.  It never has been, and it never will be.  Further, the teaching of Jesus here demonstrates the nature of “prodigal” living.  Life lived disconnected from sold out unreserved intimacy with God is viewed by God as an extravagant waste, an excessive dismissal of reality which never ends well.  There are boundaries.  He defines them.  Anything else will leave us spiritually broke and battered.  

Secondly, this passage, spoken to an audience with many religious people within earshot, and many religious leaders actually, is a message about the heart of the father.  As extravagantly sinful and dismissive of God’s truth and calling as the son (all of us) in the story is, the Father’s love (God’s) is all that much more excessive and ridiculously  extravagant.  Where sin abounds, Grace abounds all the more.  The heart of God runs toward those who have squandered their lives and have woken up among the pigs, repented, and turned back in the direction of home.  Sin is real.  His truth can be denied.  However, His love remains open and able to heal the heart that will turn to Him and walk back in His direction.  He stands looking for us, waiting to see our shape in the distance, longing to run toward us and take us back.

Third, the passage is about the nature of religious duty and its inability to produce true Godliness and joy.  The older brother in the passage, enraged by the Father’s acceptance of the wayward and reckless son, is a picture of those religious figures who have lived life doing and saying all the right things, but with all the wrong motives and desire.  The life of faith, real faith, is one of joy, it a passionate pursuit of God for who He is.  Fullness of life comes not from religious duty or ritualistic religion, but from a continual enjoyment and intimacy with God.  Worship, is not part of a service on Sunday morning, its a moment by moment posture of submission and joyful servanthood before God.  The true worshipper can break out in song at any moment.  The lover of God finds bliss in the most mundane moments of life.  The people of God can even endure hardship with a peace that passes understanding, and are not always looking for health and wealth promised by TV preachers of the day.  What the older son, the “good” son missed in his life of duty to the father, was the restful and joyful reality of authentic relationship with his dad.  Duty had killed intimacy.  He lived up to the rules but somehow missed the love.  Without love, Jesus suggests, the relationship is grossly hindered, misconstrued.  God wants our heart first.  Once He has that our lives will become what He desires for us.  We cannot get the cart before the horse on this one.  First God, then Godly living.  The latter is always, always, a byproduct of the former, but we cannot force the former by duty to the latter.  

Luke 15, finally, is a picture of our calling.  The call of every human heart is to find oneself in Him.  There alone is our bliss, our home, our hope, and our inspiration.  Our most basic calling, as revealed in this passage, is a counter-cultural, and a counter-religious approach to living.  We are called to find our place in Him, and to rejoice as others find their way home.  Our calling, despite all we may do to define ourselves or to make a living, is to lead others to the reality of this truth.  This was Jesus’ motive for sharing the story.  He was showing the heart of God for us, and calling all hearers, and readers, to recognize the truth and to share it with others.  We, Jesus suggests, are called to be searchers for lost sons and daughters.  This is our mission as we go about daily life.  We never lock eyes with anyone who does not matter to God.  Every glance, word, reaction, every movement we make is pregnant with the the love of God as we live for an audience of One.

As the passage suggests, there is nothing in life more worthy of celebration than that moment when a heart is awoken to the reality of God’s wooing.  In returning to Him, in giving Him our entire lives to the Father, the true party begins.  The extravagant celebration highlighted in the passage conveys the the joy of God at our coming home to Him, and also the astounding joy for those present at the party.  The heart, transformed by God, and inspired by Grace, is a heart fully alive.  It is in fellowship with God and others who know Him that we find our purpose, passion, and place.  

We are all, indeed, extravagant and reckless sinners, loved by an enthusiastically extravagant God of grace.  He woos us home because He knows without Him we are lost on a sea of emptiness and confusion.  He desires to lift us out of the pig sty and bring us back into His estate.  May we, along with the sons in this story, find our way back to Him, and begin to truly enjoy the celebration of grace.  This is true living.

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

soulstormsite.com

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