Rembrandt painted more than one painting about the Prodigal Son. The one I have been talking about so far is his later work. Nearly thirty years before this (c. 1636), there was another painting he painted with the same theme. If we could compare these two paintings, we will find some differences. For example, the earlier work shows lots of actions like the father running to the son and the son throwing himself at his father’s feet, while the latter one really does not show such movements but stillness. Probably, these differences are made by Rembrandt’s age, life circumstances, and spiritual maturity. Christian Tumpel says, “The moment of receiving and forgiving in the stillness of its composition lasts without end. The movement of the father and the son speaks of something that passes not, but lasts forever.” Jakob Rosenberg says, “The group of father and son is outwardly almost motionless, but inwardly all the more moved . . . the story deals not with the human love of an earthly father . . . what is meant and represented here is the divine love and mercy in its power to transform death into life.” 

The parable is not about a prodigal son’s leaving home in time and place as historical event, but about any “denial of the spiritual reality that I belong to God with every part of my being, that God holds me safe in an eternal embrace, that I am indeed carved in the palms of God’s hands and hidden in their shadows. Leaving home means ignoring the truth that God has ‘possessed my reins… and covered me in my mother’s womb.’ He made me fearfully and wonderfully.” When we are home with God, we have nothing to fear. We can walk in the valley of darkness. 

At this point, there is something that we should consider. Jesus prayed to the Father for His disciples. John 17:16-19, “¹⁶They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. ¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” This prayer tells us of our true abode, our home. As Nouwen said, “Faith is the radical trust that home has always been there and always will be there” (p. 47). How often and how many times have we left home? Instead of dwelling under the wings of God, we have searched faraway places for more pleasure and enjoyment. Once in a while we have remembered some happy moments at home and loving voices of the Father, but we have not desired to return home for permanent living. We have sometimes hoped to find better and greener pastures outside of home and desperately searched for such places. Sometimes we have to admit that we have gone out too far and felt that we have lost our home. To make up for our frustrated and empty minds, we began to listen to other voices. People came to us as if they were our true friends and cared for us. They whispered their soft voices to our ears, saying, “go for higher education. Your degrees will prove your qualities. People will know that you are better than your friends. Don’t show your weakness, you will be used. Be productive, or you will lose your reputation and people will not be interested in you.” These endless voices will ever echo in our ears. In the meanwhile, we lose the voice of the Father.

What has caused you to leave your home with God. Home could be represented by your church community, your Bible study and fellowship groups, or any church/Christian ministries. Why have you left home? Over the years I have met people who have left their churches, fellowship groups, Bible studies, ministries, or have become lukewarm, indifferent, or negligent of the things of God. What has brought them down from zeal of God? Some had anger, resentment, jealousy, lust, greed, antagonisms, rivalries, or desire for revenge, immaturity, self-centred minds, love of the world, rejection, and many others. Sometimes we, like the prodigal sons, have experienced falling back into old sins, our old nature. A problem behind leaving home is that leaving will never be a solution for the prodigal sons and daughters. Instead of looking outside, we need to look inside to know the reasons why we are rejected, hurt, and no one seems to care about us. We do not want to be put aside, disliked, or blamed. While we are focusing on such, we are leaving the Father’s home and wandering and finally residing in a far country. 

The prodigal son must have asked himself where he belonged. He was at home with the father, but he was not content with it. His mind constantly wondered to know where his real home was. The more we read our minds and decipher them honestly, the more we know that we are preoccupied by the world more than by God. Our interests, pleasures, and pursuits are more of the world than of God. Our character and even personality are conforming to the world more than God. A little criticism makes us angry, and a little rejection makes us depressed. A little praise lifts us up, and a little success excites us. I often think of the Lord’s commands. Probably three most frequently mentioned commands are to love, to forgive, and to be holy. The fact that they are commanded implies that they are not easily found in us. The Lord reminds us again and again that we do not belong to this world but to heaven. Paul exhorts, urges, and commands us not to be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our mind. He reminds us that we are servants of whom we obey. We often follow the infirmity of our flesh and yield ourselves to uncleanness and iniquity, by which we are their servants. We are famished in darkness and long for pigs’ husks. We are the prodigal sons. We are constantly exhorted to come to the Lord Jesus and to be made free from sin and to become servants to God and bear fruit unto holiness. Paul also speaks to us to stand fast “therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” 

Probably, “addiction” is another word that describes the prodigal son. He was addicted to a thought that he was entitled to take his father’s wealth for his own use and to withdraw it even while his father was still alive. He was addicted to material gain. Money was all he wanted. He was addicted to a thought that he could be happier somewhere else other than home. He chose a faraway place for living. He was addicted to pleasure. His wealth was not what he had worked for but given him. He squandered everything in the name of pleasure. There was no consideration of his father’s and brother’s hard work to earn it. These addictions blinded his mind and caused him to lose his proper senses. He made a series of misjudgements, which was consequential, and he fell into misery. Likewise, we, prodigal sons, become victims of our own addictions, which make us carnal, followers of the flesh, with blinded minds, and deceived. One of the characteristics of “addiction” is that it will never satisfy the addicted. Have we not seen and heard of drug addicts? Are they happy and satisfied by their addictions? How about alcoholics? The world is leading us to some forms of addictions because it is the nature of the world. What the world offers is always conditional like if you have more education, if you achieve higher scores, if you have a better job, if you are wealthier, if you produce more, if you are more beautiful…. These “ifs” the world requires and demands make us constantly pursue something, which does not know its end. Ironically, those “ifs” enslave us, because they suggest the goals we are not able to get to. We try, fail, and try again, and life is wasted. The prodigal son tried to get out of his misery but couldn’t do it alone…. I’ll continue….

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