I talked about self-destruction of the prodigal son. Yes, I describe his misery as self-destruction. People may want to talk about other factors including unkindness of people, selfish nature of man, God’s unkindness to mankind shown by natural disasters, and so on. Or, they would like to say, “if people were kinder and more compassionate to him, or if there was no famine at all, he could have enjoyed his life more. However, all these arguments come only from the blindness of sinful mankind. In fact, at the very moment when the prodigal son felt that he had lost everything, he came to a true realisation he should have known a long time ago. He was still his father’s son. His ‘real self’ began to come out when he was in that critical moment of thinking of death. Luke 15:17 says, “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”

Aha, he came to himself! Paradoxically speaking, it means that he was not himself until he hit the lowest point of his life. Only then, he remembered his father’s house. On the one hand, he had lost everything and then he remembered his father and his house. As his father later said, he was lost, but now is found. His ‘lostness’ led him to the path of return. What he remembered was not just his father and father’s house, but he remembered who he was, his father’s son. As soon as he realises and reclaims his sonship, the first step of return was made. The ones who have not seen their depravity, corruption, rottenness, and unrighteousness can neither see or fathom the glory and majesty of God, nor appreciate the glorious salvation by God. Apostle Paul describes himself (before his conversion) as blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious (1 Timothy 1:13). He was a chief sinner (1:15). We have a heavenly inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 1:11) and citizenship in heaven (Philippians 3:20). The prodigal son re-found and reclaimed his true identity when he lost of everything that had brought him to that point. There was a moment when he hoped to be treated at least like pigs so that he could be satisfied with pig feed. However, the unkindness of man, loneliness, and ‘lostness’ in the foreign land helped and motivated him to live rather than to die. He lost all confidence of himself.

When he remembered and began to think of his father, he gained strength to go back. If there was one change made in his heart, it was that he saw the value of his sonship, a privilege which came not by his merit. There was nothing he had contributed to his sonship. As now he reclaimed his sonship by calling his father “father,” he did not have anything to bring to his father but himself. The remembered his father’s love. It was not his father who had sent him away, but he chose to leave. When he had to choose between the path of death and the path of life, he chose the path of life. Deuteronomy 30:19 says, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” The message of such comes from the Bible. However, it often comes through the events in our lives. It is an unchanging truth that there is nothing that can satisfy us in this world. No relationship, no program, no community will satisfy our souls completely. There are moments of brokenness in our hearts for various reasons. It is because we are broken by sin and alienation from God and because the world we are living in is also a broken world. There are many people who are standing at the crossroads and needing to choose one path or another. Judas Iscariot knew that he made a grave mistake. In the darkness of his soul, he chose to take his own life. He could not fathom the truth that he could not redeem himself even with his own life. In contrast, Peter denied Jesus three times and knew that he made a terrible mistake. He cried and came to the Lord again with repentance. Some people do not take their own lives like Judas but leave their faith and return to the world. They choose a path of spiritual death. 

When he made up his mind, he planned for his return. “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, ¹⁹ And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” (Luke 15:18-19). There was no doubt or question in his mind that his father would receive and welcome him. There is no guise or pretence in his return plan. There was nothing to brag about in him. I am sure that lots of thoughts went through his mind. He probably remembered how he had treated his father, how rudely he spoke to him, how pompously he left home, and triumphantly he began his journey to go to a foreign place. If we carefully look into the whole events in this story, we could easily find that there was nothing different in his father before and after the son’s return. He was consistently loving and loyal to his son. Everything that the son suffered was self-inflicted. Th prodigal son wanted to change his identity by leaving his father’s home. He wanted to show off that he could do anything he needed and wanted to do. He planned to give him a new identity as his own man. He had lived as an outcast in a foreign land. 

His heart must be filled with some unknown anxieties on his return. He had not seen his father for some time. When he left home, he was rich. But, now he returned with empty hands. Having squandered all his father’s inheritance, he may have wondered if there were any place for him in the father’s house. No one had honoured or respected him in the foreign country. Now as he regained his sense of belonging, he was sure that he could not and should not take the honour of a son of a great man. He started to prepare himself mentally to accept a new and changed status at his father’s house. He was sure that he was not worthy to be called “a son,” but “a hired servant.” But still being a servant at his father’s house was better than being a wanderer in the foreign land. 

There is repentance behind his changed attitude. He did not fully know of his father’s love yet, but he knew that going home and asking his father for forgiveness was the only and best choice that he had. He was ready to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee” (v18b). This sounds simple, but it is the greatest confession he could make before the father. He confessed his sin before him. The greatest barrier between God and man is none other than sin. God sent His only Begotten Son to redeem the sinful mankind, but man loves his darkness more than his Saviour and still dwells in sin. Or, man may know that he needs changes. Instead of casting himself to God and becoming His child, he wants to do something by remaining as a hired servant. He still believes that there must be something he could do to receive God’s favour. What he has to do is to let God be God. The prodigal son did try to negotiate or to compromise something to make it possible that he could return home. He called his father, “father,” and there was no change in his relationship with him. However, he could not but ask his forgiveness, and thus he confessed his sin, and then he confessed his unworthiness. 

Man was made of the image of God but left Him. Return, return, is the voice of the Lord. The Son who came down from heaven said to the most serious and capable man of Israel to be born again, if he desired to enter the kingdom of God. Repent of your sins and believe on the Lord who paid the penalty of your sins. I’ll continue….

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