Pondering on the Prodigal Son parable this morning, Luke 15:11-32:
We aren’t really told anything about the characters in this parable either before or after the facts recounted. That is, I think, one of the magical things about parables – I get to fill in the details with my own thoughts, and in that way, make the story my story, or at least more meaningful to me. In that regard, it does seem odd, doesn’t it, that the younger son would be so bold as to think he could just take off with his inheritance and make it in the world? Of course, as he leaves we have no evidence to support he is incapable of that, but look at what we have filled in later. We know he is the younger son, so we imply inexperience. We know the older son later talks of his dutiful actions on the return of his younger brother (“Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment….”), which at least gives us the opportunity to imply that the younger son was not as dutiful. And of course, we have the reality that the younger son “wasted his substance with riotous living” once he left and was left to “perish with hunger.”
Using my license to fill in details and come to make my own story, it occurs to me that what happened here is that the younger son, having much, came to the erroneous conclusion that what he had was of his own making, and had little to do with the father and brother, or just plain, dumb luck. Being full of himself, prideful, and certain that his good fortune was of his own making, he “gathered it all together, and took his journey into a far country.” That is, becoming full of himself, he distanced himself from those who helped him create his bounty, thinking he didn’t need them and could make it on his own, thank you.
That story, well, it starts to sound a bit too familiar for comfort. Indeed, I have made his story, my story more times than I care to recount. Thankfully, and true to the lesson in the parable, the Father is always there to meet me with open arms on the road home.
It occurs to me... 