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Join Patti Brunner to step inside the parable in Lessons from the Prodigal Son on Truth of the Spirit. See how failure to identify the Father’s love puts us in a crisis situation. Grow in understanding of the benefit of returning and approaching our Heavenly Father. Consider the barriers that keep us from being open to God’s love. Listen to more about God’s Love on the following Truth of the Spirit episodes: Basics of Faith VIII- Basics of Salvation [Playlist: Basics of Faith], Anointing of the Sick [Playlist: The Sacraments], Come to the Water Part 5 [Playlist: Fr. Philip Scott], “Does God Love Me?” [Playlist: Life in the Spirit], Sharing Your Witness [Playlist: Sharing the Abundant Life].
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One time I was at a women’s retreat and our leader had us act out the parable of the Prodigal Son. As we took turns playing the parts of the prodigal son, the other son his brother and the Father and the servants, I gained a new insight I had missed by reading the story in the bible. It is truly the “living word”. As I played the role of the father, I paced back and forth looking down the road for my son to return. I had never considered the strong longing in the father’s heart for the son who had turned his back on his father and gone off to do his own thing. And in that, I could comprehend how God desires our return to him, even though we have rejected his Presence. Recently, the Lord has been teaching me even more about relationship with Him through this parable.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. I’m your host, Patti Brunner. Today we are going to spend a little time with Lessons from the Prodigal Son.
When God created the world, with all its beauty, it was to share it with you. His love for you is greater than anything you can imagine; God loved Adam and Eve so much he gave them a paradise to live in. Their sin separated them from God—in God there can be no darkness and sin is dark. Throughout history man has continued to separate themselves from God through sin. Yet God never stopped loving us. In fact, God loved us so much that he sent his dearly beloved Son to take our sin upon himself and pay the consequences. When he paid the terrible price of death on the cross, suffering the torment and torturing, he reopened the gate to paradise by becoming the gate himself. We can be united to him in Baptism to become a part of his body. As he took his rightful place at the Father’s right hand, he reunites mankind with God the Father through the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that was promised to us. It is the Holy Spirit that sets us free and restores us to grace in each of the 7 sacraments. Jesus won victory on the cross—he conquered death. To help us understand how we can participate in the forgiveness and love of God, Jesus shared a parable called the “Prodigal Son.”
In the Gospel of Luke chapter 15: it starts out in verse 11, “Then Jesus said, “A man had two sons, 12 and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them.”
Now normally you don’t get your inheritance until the father dies. So it’s quite something for the father to go ahead and give the son his inheritance when he was still living.
“13 After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.”
So, what is dissipation? Dissipation is a life of debauchery, a life of overindulgence of wine, women and song, seeking self-esteem by impressing others with their wealth. Ok, verse “14 When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need.”
Ok, what happened to all of those people that had surrounded him when he had a lot of money? Now he is without anything. He’s spent everything. He is penniless. He is poor again. And so, in his dire need:
“ 15 So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.”
By Mosaic law, Jews were forbidden to eat swine, they were considered unclean. If you remember another parable, Jesus allowed the demons to escape into a herd of swine. Jesus is telling us how low this boy has sunk that he took the lowest of the low jobs among strangers.
“16 And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.”
So here he was, so hungry he was even willing to eat the garbage, basically, that was fed to these pigs. And no one gave him anything.
“17 Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. 18 I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,”
So, he’s got it all worked out in his head. He said, I will say to him: “18b “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’ 20 So he got up and went back to his father.”
In his desperate physical need of hunger, the younger son realized the solution was to return to his father’s house.
How often do we, in our physical need, turn to ask for God’s help? How many times are we desperate because of physical illness turn to God and ask for his help?
“While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.”
To see his son from a long way off this father must have been keeping watch, longing for the return of his wayward son. God, our Father, always wants our return. God, our Father, does not stop loving us when we reject him. If we lift up our hands like a child to him, he will take us into his arms.
“21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’”
OK, he’s getting ready to say this thing he’s been practicing all the way home. But verse “22 But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’”
Just think of the celebration in heaven when one of us sinners chooses to repent! This is what Jesus was trying to share with us. That, that when the Father welcomes us back, it’s to celebrate! Celebrate our return! Then, verse 24 continues: “Then the celebration began. 25 Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. 26 He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. 27 The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him.”
Do we get angry when God has mercy and forgiveness for others? Are we jealous when God reveals his love to others?
“29 The older brother said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. 30 But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ 31 The father said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. 32 But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’”
‘Everything I have is yours’. The older son also had the father’s love. He did not realize that everything the father had was also his. Like this older son we are heirs to God our Father. Through baptism we become children of God and are rightful heirs to the kingdom of God.
The father, like God our Father, deeply loved both his sons. Until the conclusion of the parable, neither son seemed to be aware of it. The first son was wrapped up In rebellion and in his own desires and tried to buy love from others. His rude awakening came when he realized that when his money was gone so was his entourage. The second son, unaware of the love of the Father, was trying to earn his Father’s love and was unaware that love is a gift and not a wage.
Love is more than provision. Earthly fathers choose to do without for themselves to provide for those they love. Our Heavenly Father sacrificed his son for us so that we could be one in the Body of Christ. Truly as Christ stepped to the side of the Father in heaven all humans who have become one with the body of Christ inherited the kingdom of God with all its benefits and duties. It is the Great Love of God that gave this most generous gift.
As earthly fathers continue to love their children despite difficult circumstances, so, too, the Heavenly Father’s love for us is not hinged on us. We do not have to earn His love. We do not have to fight for his love. All we have to do is accept the gift of his love. By the gifts of freewill we can reject or accept it.
Now earthly fathers are not perfect like the Heavenly Father. God our Father is perfect. And so, sometimes we judge God our Father by the earthly fathers who did not love us as is intended, as we are intended to be loved. And so, when we see our heavenly Father, we think and judge him, as if he’s going to reject us the way earthly fathers did. Sometimes earthly fathers cause all kinds of problems in our lives. “Dysfunctional families they call it, and then someone said every family is dysfunctional in some way. And sometimes there is some confusion in our hearts And so when we have difficult situations that cause suffering or death. We might ask, ‘Doesn’t God love me?’ or ‘Why doesn’t God fix this?”
Again, God gives us freewill so that we can choose to love Him. All throughout history mankind has chosen to reject God’s love to do their ‘own thing’. When this happens bad decisions are followed by worse actions and soon the decay and suffering seem to overtake the world. We don’t have to look very far to see wars and persecutions.
As is clear in the story of Adam and Eve, our sin affects others sometimes for generation upon generation. The good news is that the love of God is triumphant over sin, suffering and death. God our Father never stops watching for our return, waiting for us to realize what we truly need Him. He is waiting for us to recognize how much He loves us. For us, like the older son, to recognize the truth and know that all along that as his child we have the rights of an heir to the kingdom.
In the resurrection from death, Jesus was victorious over sin and death. As we join Him at his side in heaven there will be no sting of suffering and death but the glory of God will fill us with everlasting joy.
His joy is available now, too. As we surrender, become docile to the Holy Spirit, we use our gift of freewill to accept God’s love and as His love enters our heart our life is transformed by his love.
When you see a picture of the Prodigal Son with his father, it’s a famous picture [Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, c. 1660/1665], it is important to notice what is not included. You don’t see the false friends upon whom the son squandered his inheritance. Their neediness continues in a different direction than approaching the Father for help. You do not see the older brother who stands in judgment against the favor that the Father gives. His unforgiveness will be dealt with by the father later in the story. You do not see the keeper of the swine who took pity on the man, the son, but who could not give what he did not have to provide for the basic need that each person has in their heart and soul. What is visible? The welcoming caress, the visual look of love, the constant availability provided by the Father. How does this mirror the love of God? Just as this father watched for his son to return each day, God our Father also desires our approach.
Think of the person that you love the most. Did you know that God loves them more than you do and in a more perfect way? Think of a person who you think God loves best. If you remember the story of the Prodigal Son, the older son felt that the Father loved his younger brother best. The father tells the older son he is wrong in this assumption. And he reminds him that everything the father has also belongs to him. This is the truth about God the Father. Whoever you think God loves the most—you are loved equally! God does not show favoritism to his children. Everything He has is yours.
So why did the older son feel unloved? Why did jealousy of his brother blind him to the truth? What is going on in your life that blinds you to this truth?
Scripture tells us “God is Love”. It is by discovering what love is that we will discover who God is. When we surrender to God’s love, we surrender to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us. God has given us the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not only a gift but the Giver of Gifts!
So, what lessons does this parable teach us? God’s love is always given yet it is not always received. By the gift of freewill, we are allowed to reject God’s love. We can do this by separating ourselves from God, the source of abundant love and as we steadily decline find ourselves in dire straits as sins drains our hearts until we hunger for God’s forgiveness. We can be in the vicinity of God, but reject his love by the barriers of jealousy, unforgiveness, and self-righteousness. We can get caught up with the idea of earning his love and ignoring the greatness of his gift of love, the Holy Spirit, who is freely given. We can stay a servant and ignore our inheritance of the kingdom of God as a priest, prophet and king.
Which character, which brother do you identify with in the parable? How do you reject God’s grace? Will you decide to return to the Father? Will you surrender to the Holy Spirit, the fullness of God’s love for you, and your inheritance?
You’ve been listening to truth of the Spirit. I’m Patti Brunner. Be sure and subscribe. It’s an easy way to come back for more. And with the Holy Spirit, there’s always more! Amen.
