The Prodigal Son
The Prodigal son is a parable of imperfection, a parable of which none of the pieces fit perfectly.
Look at the younger son. Why did he come home? Because he was out of money. He had no one to help him, and he could eat better in his father’s house. His motives were mixed – it isn’t a piece that perfectly falls into place.
Then there’s the elder son. He pouts outside, angry and hurt because his father didn’t appreciate him. It doesn’t quite fit perfectly in the story of reconciliation.
Then there is the father. He should have shown appreciation to his older son. It’s too bad that it took a crisis for him to tell the elder son how much he appreciated him. Those words should have been spoken much sooner and many times. The father was not perfect.
Jesus is telling us a great deal about real life. In real life, the pieces never fit together perfectly. We are more than willing to forgive other people if and when everything falls together smoothly . . . if they fully realize what the problem was and accept it . . . if the others around me could accept it all without misunderstanding. Then there could be reconciliation. But things don’t fit together that way. They are like this parable.
Jesus tells us that things will never be all together until the kingdom. Meanwhile, we have to put up with a lot of things that are not as they should be.
What this parable says is that God loves us and forgives us even when things are not all together – our motives are mixed, we overlook many things, we are unappreciative. Yet God accepts us and can deal with that for now.
What God asks is that we, in our turn, be willing to deal with people in the same way.
Spend some quiet time with the Lord.
