A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to share my testimony. I did so within the framework of Jesus' parable of The Prodigal Son. Not only because my story has similarities --Who can't identify with the urge to rebel against authority, or having to eat a little crow because of our past foolishness? --but I used this parable because of the lessons I am learning still today, lessons I learn every time I read it.
It appears Jesus was prompted to tell this story because of the Pharisees and scribes, lawful men of Israel who took it upon themselves to define and enforce Torah. They were quite put out by the fact Jesus was not discriminating in His audiences but was instead talking to "sinners" about His Father. (Oh, the irony! Were the religious elite so free from sin they were not sinners themselves?) Suffice to say, they missed the point. God's Law was given to keep us safe. God's Law was given that we might know clearly our inability to keep it and our need for a Savior. But God's Law was also given that we might know how to please Him, how to worship Him with our lives. The hypocrisy of those condemning Jesus didn't look at all like worship. And that's where the older brother in the parable comes in. I don't want to jump ahead, because there are a few things I'd like to point out with regard to the younger son and his father, but the older brother --bitter, judgmental, entitled, unforgiving, and arrogant --is the character who most likely resembles the guys who started this fight.
Let's pick up where we left our foolish young man; a stranger, penniless and starving in a far-off country gripped by a famine. Luke 15:15 says, he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. The word translated "joined" in this passage is the Greek word, kollao; it means "glue." It's the same word translated "cling" in Romans 12:9, Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. The idea is to join oneself firmly; attach or glue oneself to what is good. Or, in the case of this son, to another human being. Does that ring any bells? How about the joining together of husband and wife, the two becoming one? In Matthew 19:3-6, Jesus reiterates God's framework for marriage using the words "be joined" (proskollao in the Greek). This Jewish son was willing to compromise his principles, his identity to be joined with a stranger, a pagan who --Who what? If we read on (verse 16), we find the young man still had nothing to eat! He was craving the husks he fed to the pigs each day. The pigs were eating while he was not! And he longed for the empty pods. Not even real food! The outside shell of food! But no one gave him anything. He had attached himself to this person in return for nothing more than a place to lay his head.
Compromised. Alone. Starving and broke. Without dignity or principle. And as I read this, I ask myself how many times I joined myself to things and people who would be my undoing just to fulfill some immediate craving. How often have I put myself in predicaments --harmful spaces --because I didn't understand the gnawing emptiness was meant to draw me to the only One who can redeem me and who is fullness of joy? How many times was I willing to trust people who were fighting their own battles, who could only appreciate me based on the last party I threw? How many times had I been so desperate for the approval of others I not only ignored my principles but remained in situations that didn't even meet my most basic of needs? And how often had I done these things to avoid contrition and repentance? How often had I found myself still empty, slopping hogs, but full of pride?
We'll continue with The Prodigal next week, but I'd just like to leave you with this last thought. The younger son has become the star of this parable over the years; but lest we too miss the point, let us remember the pride of the older son and those finger pointing, legalistic elitists. It can be difficult to admit we were impulsive, selfish, too big for our britches; but the pride that sits in judgment of others while we ourselves are rejecting truth is a special kind of stupid --next level deception and a hardness of heart we should abhor.
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