The story of the Prodigal is regarded by many as the greatest story ever told (see Luke 15:11-32). It is a story that describes the relationship between a father and his two sons. The father is God the Father of Jesus. The two sons represent humanity.
The younger son asks for his share of the family estate, leaves home and treats himself to a good time. He is wasteful and ends up broke. In fact, not only does he end up broke he also ends up broken. He finds himself broke financially and broken emotionally. He becomes penniless, powerless and friendless. He is stripped completely bare, left with nothing to hold on to. His hands are totally empty. Knowing that his hands are empty he decides to take a risk. He returns home hoping that his father will forgive and accept him. His hopes are realised beyond measure. His father is delighted to have him back. Without words of complaint or judgement his father clasps him in his arms and kisses him tenderly. Indeed his father calls for a celebration because he has got his son back safe and sound.
The elder son is the dutiful son who stays at home and does the work. His sense of duty while admirable makes him angry. He is angry at his younger brother for being wasteful with the family’s hard earned money. He is angry at his father for welcoming his younger brother back with open arms and no conditions. And he is angry with what he perceives as the unfairness in the life of his family and indeed in his own life. For the elder son love is not free. It has to be earned, achieved by hard work. The elder son is a conformist who has remained loyal, but his heart is resentful. He is not at peace.
The younger son’s failure and emptiness allow him to accept his father’s love as gift while the elder son’s pride does not. The younger son has no choice but to come to the father with empty hands. The elder son needs to have his list of achievements in the presence of his father. Perhaps for the first time in his life the younger son knows that his father’s love is unconditional. The elder son continues to see it as conditional.
But what about us? Where are we in the story? Is our experience of God that of the elder son or the younger son? Are we still trying to win God’s affirmation and approval by our achievements? Or are we now able to come to God with empty hands in the affective knowledge that his love is unconditional? Of course the truth is it usually takes an experience of failing and falling like that of the younger son before we can really accept the Father’s love as gift, not achievement.