Do you have someone in your family who tends to give ultimatums and never compromises?
Do you have someone in your family who took a perfectly good life and made a royal mess of it?
Do you have someone in your family who always does the right thing but is a bit of a martyr?
The story that Jesus told about the prodigal son is a great example of the relevance of scripture to modern day life. Jesus told a story that was full of characters we know and love and who drive us crazy in our own lives. (search for Luke 15.11-32 at bible.oremus.org to read the story)
Wake up and smell the roses!
That’s the advice one would give the Prodigal son when he headed off to squander his inheritance, leaving behind his loving family, well, a loving father at any rate, and an older brother who was .. Well, an older brother.
He thought he would have a bit of fun.
But one day, he woke up.
I know someone who was like the prodigal son – perhaps you do too. Someone who can take a perfectly good life and make a royal mess of it.
The prodigal son I am thinking of was actually a daughter, who rebelled against her parents lives and ran away to Israel to another country.
But life threw her unexpected challenges and she ended up having to get work wherever she could. One day she ‘woke up’ working in an arms factory, making ammunition that would be used to kill people.
She later said, ‘that was the moment I really woke up’.
For the prodigal son in the story, it was a pig sty – and the way his people felt about pigs, it must have been the worst possible place to find himself in. So he went home.
And what was home like? Not recriminations, not punishment, not judgment. Instead? A party!
When Jesus told this story, he was talking about more than people making peace with their relatives and getting on with growing up. He was talking about people finding their way back to a loving God, and he promises that this relationship, this place, ... the kingdom of God is not a stuffy, solemn place, but a joyful celebration to which all are invited.
So we are called to celebrate our relationship with God. Our salvation through Jesus Christ calls for a joyous shout, not a long face.