The Prodigal’s New Clothes

 

By Stephen Terry

 

Sabbath School Lesson Commentary for May 28 – June 3, 2011

 

 

 

 

"Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living." Luke 15:11-13, NIV

 

We all know the story of the prodigal son who took his inheritance to the big city and squandered it all.  We also pride ourselves that we would never fall into such a trap. With a Pharisaical attitude, we thank God that we are better than that. (See Luke 18:9-14) We tell ourselves that we would wisely handle such a boon and never end up like the prodigal. However, it is easy to dream about the opportunities of wealth when not faced with the reality of having it.

 

No doubt, the prodigal son dreamed many of those dreams. Contrasting it with the boredom of life at home and imagining the excitement and energy of life in the city, he could take it no more. Although it was not his to claim, he demanded his inheritance from his loving father. He did not consider the burdens it created for his father who had to make due with less than before. He also did not consider the burden he was placing on his brother who now had to cover the farm chores alone. The bright lights of the city were calling, and he had no interest in any desires but his own. Imagining that he was missing something, he quickly left to experience the excitement that beckoned like a siren song.

 

In the city, he found that a man with money could count on the company of those who would help him spend his wealth for entertainment and companionship. Fooling himself that the sycophants who surrounded him were his true friends, he increasingly let them dictate every aspect of his new lifestyle. He mistook their love for his money as a love for him and his ideas. The freely flowing alcohol, paid for with his riches, helped to cloud the true nature of the new friendships.

 

He had chosen the city in order to get far from the restraining influences of home. Now, when he was most in danger, those who truly cared for him had little ability to reach him with warnings and counsel. Even if they could, his friends and his lifestyle would have made it difficult for him to hear them.  With no one to unselfishly guide him, he saw his wealth dwindle and vanish.

 

Now with no money, he found that in spite of his loose lifestyle, all around him were the straight circumstances of recession. Seeking work, he only had the skills of a farmer’s son. Eventually, he found someone who could use those skills to tend their pigs. But this farmer could not or would not pay him enough to survive, and he was soon reduced to starvation. Even the pigs had more to eat than he did.

 

With the pangs of hunger upon him, he finally began to think of his father’s love. He remembered that his father made sure even the servants had plenty to eat on the family farm. That became his hope. If his father would just be willing to take him back as a servant, he would at least be able to stifle the growling in his stomach. Determined to seek now the love that he had originally spurned, he set out for home.

 

His clothes had now become rags on his body. Mute witnesses to the selfishness that had been his guiding principle, they testified to the failure of that lifestyle. Symbolic of the rags of righteousness (See Isaiah 64:6) of those who seek to go their own way, they demonstrated his need for something better. With hope in his heart, he traveled the many miles back to the family farm, believing that the farm that was so boring, so restricting was now a place of hope and salvation.

 

The loving father had never stopped caring for his prodigal son. Praying for him daily, he must have often wondered how he was doing and wished he could reach out to him to let him know that his love for his son was unshaken. True, the farm was diminished by the money that the son had selfishly taken as his own. True, that they needed to carry more of a workload than they had before. But it was also true that none of this diminished the love that the father had for the son. He was missed and loved, and his father only wished to know his son was well and to be a part of his life again, to restore the family as it once was.

 

He had a habit at the end of the day to look down their country road and wonder how his lost son was doing. One day when he looked down that road, he saw someone walking toward the farmhouse. The gait looked familiar, like one he had seen many times before. As the form drew nearer, emotions rapidly played over his face. First, puzzlement shaped his features, then disbelief, astonishment, and finally joy as he realized his son was coming home. He could barely contain his joy as he ran to his son and embraced him.

 

The son struggled to get out his carefully prepared speech. He managed to blurt out a confession of his sin, but before he could say more, he was swept up in his father’s love and things began to happen to fast for him to speak. His father covered his filthy rags with a rich robe and prepared a meal to still the pangs in his emaciated son’s stomach. As a demonstration of how much he was missed, all were invited to join in the welcome home party. “ ‘…Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.” Luke 15:23-24, NIV

 

His brother heard the party and asked a servant what was going on? When he found out, he was incensed. He had grown angry while his brother was away. Every time he had to do a chore his brother would have done, he chaffed. His anger burned when he saw his father weighed down with grief that the son was gone.  He fumed about the selfishness his brother had displayed in taking so much and doing nothing to relieve the burdens of the rest of the family. He refused to celebrate the return of his brother. Finally, his father had to come to him because he was too angry to show the respect due the father.

 

His father pointed out that he had provided everything for his fuming son. Nothing would be withheld from him. Why then did he begrudge his brother since he had taken nothing from him? The only thing he had lost was his brother. Now his brother was back and like his father, he should rejoice that what was lost was now found.

 

Just like the prodigal, we can come home to our heavenly Father. When we realize how selfish we have been and how little it has done for us, we can come to Him and find a loving welcome. He is watching for us down the road, eagerly scanning the horizon for those who would come home. Have you left thinking that life with God was too boring, too restrictive? Have you realized that the only real peace you have ever really known was with God?  Maybe it is time to come home again, to return to the One who loves you the most. He is the one who truly cares like a father for what happens to you.  I want to come home to Him. Don’t you?

 

 

 

 

This Commentary is a Service of Still Waters Ministry

www.visitstillwaters.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

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