This evening at church we have the interactive sermon of the prodigal son. I have heard, read, and even taught this story many times. I have never however realized that it is really a story of separation from God. The two sons both separate themselves from the father but in different ways.
The younger son is the one that focused on the most. He is willing to act as if his father is dead and get his inheritance early. He blatantly separates himself from the father because he thinks life is better without the father. As I take this parable to meant those that have known the father the younger son would be the one that has been with God and decided he likes the carnal life better. He takes what he can get and waste it. In the end he has nothing but what the father can give him.
The older sons separation is more subtle. We see in him the traits we appreciate in the religious. He is loyal, hard working, diligent to do the father's will. But he fails to actually know the father's heart or his own position. He has everything because he is the father's son but yet believes that the father is holding it back. He is then resentful when the younger son returns because he is either in fear of losing part of his inheritance or believes that the younger one should be rejected. The father never rebukes him for his actions, he rebukes him for not accepting the younger one back.
At the end of the story the younger one is closer to the father than the older brother even though the older has been there the whole time. The younger is closer because he is there due to the love of the father, not because of anything he has done. In contrast the older believes he deserves what the father gives him even though he truly only gets what he gets because he is his father's son.
We are saved by grace and not works lest anyone should boast. Who are you in the story?
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