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PROGRAM HELP! GUESTBOOK |
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Two lost sons SUMMARY ONLY: FULL TEXT UNAVAILABLE 1 Relationships often have subtle, but detectable markers, such as whom a person chooses to sit with, or where he or she stands in a room. We need to be alert to such markers, as they tell us a lot about what is really going on. It is important to detect how a person feels about others. While some make their attitudes quite clear through verbal expression, others only make it clear through such indirect evidence.Yet both the person who creates uproar and storms out and the person who quietly and coldly detaches are part of broken relationships. Sadly, though the uproar and storms breach is more sharply unpleasant, it is also often more easily repaired. The parable speaks of two sons whose relationship with the father is broken. One goes off in a storm; the other remains at home, but his heart is far away.
2. In families, it is often the younger one who is more mobile. The elder generally feels responsible, and may stay around despite a desire to move on. Jesus' parable is true to life experience. The young man essentially tells his father that it doesn't matter to him if his father is alive or dead -- he just wants the money. The father divides the inheritance -- both sons get their share -- and the younger man leaves. He goes to a far country. He doesn't want his father's existence, his father's culture, his father's religion. He wants his own way.
3. People rarely change without a crisis. In my own case, I knew the facts of the gospel ever since I was about 14, and a Scripture teacher at school pointed out to us how people who met Jesus responded to him, and didn't merely acknowledge his existence. The crisis came when I was challenged by the gospel at the same time as I was becoming aware of relational failures, and saw that my whole life, and not just my relationships, needed to change. On 8 July 1962, at an Open Air meeting in Goulburn Street, I surrendered to Christ. We must never denigrate the various ways that people reach out to others. Many tracts, many footpath sermons, make no impression. But sometimes, when a person is ready to change, all that is needed is a little reminder that there is hope, that God is there, that Jesus offers a new way.
4. The young son had such a crisis when famine came. In the distant country, he had enjoyed life, because that life was what others were doing, it made him feel free, he was getting kicks. But famine came, cash ran out, and friends fled. He was reduced to farm labouring, and worked among pigs -- probably the worst thing that can happen to a Jew. The result was that he began looking realistically at life, and saw that even the servants at his father's farm lived better than he did. He chose to return.
5. He was still a long way from home when his father spotted him. It seems that the father was always keeping an eye out for his son to return. He ran to meet him, He welcomed him home. He ordered a party. There is more rejoicing in heaven over the one sinner who repents than over ninety nine who do not need to repent. God is like that. He is already a long way down the path to meet us as we return to him. God commends his love to us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We don't have to persuade him: he has already acted for us! God's way is the way of grace, reaching out to us while we are still far away. Not only did the father welcome his son and celebrate his return, he also reinstated him to sonship. Putting the ring on his finger was like giving him an unlimited credit card. In those days, the ring was the symbol of your authority, and evidence of your credit standing.
6. The other son was outside on the tractor, still ploughing the last few furrows, when he heard all the noise. It was like the Day of Pentecost, when some heard, in the great noise of that day, Christians declaring God's wonderful deeds. But others, who were unwilling to listen, said, "It's babble, and they are all drunk." The elder son didn't know what the noise was, he had to ask a servant what was going on. He could have been right behind his father when he ran down the road, but he still chose to be good and responsible, but detached. The relationship wasn't there. And, when he found out, there was no rejoicing, there was no glad welcome for a lost brother. He threw a tantrum. "He gets everything, and I get nothing!" The father points out to him that he had everything, and he only had to ask if he wanted to celebrate at any time. The elder son doesn't get it that the father is overjoyed that his son, who seemed lost and even dead, was now found and alive.
7, There are several lessons: sometimes people come who don't seem to fit, who don't know how we behave, who have bad habits and unpleasant manners. We need to work hard to accept them, because Christ does. The heavenly father has reached out and drawn them to us. If they don't fit in, maybe we should change. (2) For those who are not yet Christians... We may have gone to a distant land in our separation from our heavenly father, or we may be ploughing close to home, but never part of the joy of home. The heavenly father has come a long way down the road to meet us. Now is the time to turn back and find life in relationship with him.
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