There was music and dancing, the best robe was put on him and a ring on his hand. As if that was not enough, the fattened calf was prepared and there were celebrations. This description does not seem to fit a homecoming for a wayward son. The son who allowed pride to take the better part of him and sought his inheritance and independent life far away from his father. His blatant attitude and brimming selfishness manifested in his outright rejection of the father and made him believe the grass was greener away from home. Jesus painted a picture of what today may be branded ‘worst sinner’.
Not many days later, he went on a journey to a far country, where he squandered his property in reckless living. Contrary to his expectations, life became a jungle where mercy and grace never existed. When he hit rock bottom, it dawned on him that it was better while in his father’s home. There, everything is abundant and everyone has more than enough including servants. So, he resolved in his mind that he would humble himself and return to his father as a servant, not a son. Someone destitute like him would do anything to live.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ Reading and reflecting on this portion of scripture I cannot see anything other than the unwavering love that our God, the Father in this case, has for me and you. He was waiting for the return of his son, see how he noticed him from afar. Though broken and contrite, our hearts are moldable and shapeable. He expected to be accepted back as a hired servant but he was celebrated as a SON who was dead, and is alive; was lost, and found.
Only MERCY and GRACE can describe our father’s actions. Mercy because like the prodigal son, we have not received what we deserved. Grace because like the lost son, we have received what we did not earn. We were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in MERCY, because of the great LOVE with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by GRACE we have been saved.
Amidst music and dancing and feasting, there was grumbling. Look, the oldest son goes, ‘these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.’ This resonates with the Pharisees or so I think. The Pharisees complained that Jesus received sinners and ate with them. Like them, the son resented that his father cared for the lost son instead of rejoicing. You may have the father with you but no relationship. Not because you are doing anything wrong, but because your idea of being good and legalism is blinding you to the fact that we need MERCY and GRACE. We neither appreciate what we have nor want anyone to share in it. Let us therefore be grateful to God for his love and kindness and acknowledge his grace in our lives. May the grace we have received make us gracious. When we consider those among us who commit offenses may we remember that there is hope for them in Christ. If this were not true, then there is no hope for me and you either because the man who was hanged on that cross was not just anybody but God in human form.
It is my hope and prayer that in between the lines of this submission, we take pauses and evaluate ourselves and where we stand in our faith. Are you the wayward son filled with pride? Feeling weighed down by the strings of accountability and responsibility found in our father’s house? Do you think those outside have more pleasantries than we do? Are we the oldest son? Thinking because of our legalism we can earn God’s favor? Or lacking grace at all?
~ Emmanuel Ndune