11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living” Luke 15:11-13.
Some of my dearest friends and I have been reading and praying about and sharing our thoughts about The Prodigal Son story in Luke 15, through the eyes of Henri Nouwen, and recently I have been considering the text above when the younger son left home. And of course “leaving home” is what you and I do with the Lord whenever we sin. All of us have left home, or more specifically, we have all left God or our parents or people we love, and we can disguise our brokenness that betrays our misery that lies behind us when we leave someone we love, especially God. We can disguise our leaving in such ways that we appear ok, or our leaving we describe in such ways that leaving looks beautiful. But when we leave God, or the people we love, we are broken, lost, unattached, alone, and convinced that we can make it on our own. To leave is to convince ourselves of a story we have created that legitimizes a most foolish, dastardly, and deadly decision to head out alone and face the storms alone.
But The Prodigal Son story is about more than just leaving, however. In the heart of the story stands the son’s request to his father: “Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.” It is an insulting and hurtful request filled with the most selfish, hurtful, and offensive shove any son could ever give his father, because it presupposes the son’s wish that his father is dead.
Like the son’s leaving, so is our leaving God a most offensive act than what we first believe or feel. And when Luke says that the son left for “a distant region,” he is implicating the son in a horrific crime, for the son isn’t just heading out to have a little fun, but he is telling his father that he despises and no longer needs the way of life his father established for his sons out of pure love.
Our sin, our leaving God behind, does just the same thing. We tell God that we no longer need Him or love Him. Leaving behind God for a distant region is our way of telling God that I can make it alone without Him forever, for as long as I need to go. It is our way of telling God how useless is all that He has given us in our life. We no longer need Him, nor do we need anything He has ever given us. Our “leaving home” is our sin, and it is the most foolish, free decision we ever make. And yet the irony of this story is painful, because what makes this story so difficult to embrace is that we believe when we leave home that we can get from God just enough what we need to survive on our own. So the most beautiful gifts we have ever received from God, the very love of God, we no longer need, except just enough to take with us as we leave home.
I have left home - left God - so often that it is no longer a physical, historical moment in time, but an inexplicable moment when I tell myself and God that I no longer need Him. Leaving God at home is my telling God, that once again, I can can pull myself apart from Him, pull myself apart from His love and His life, and His care and protection of me. Leaving home is my telling God that I can find another home, a better home. Yet when I leave, I realize how far I must go to find another home. Ironically, home is where I hear the voice of God and feel His touching love. So when I leave God I leave everything!
Jesus has His home with His Father, and that is where we all have our home.“Praying to His father for His disciples, Jesus says: “16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth” John 17:16-19. These words reveal our only true home, and so when we leave home we Jesus Christ and His heavenly Father!
How sad that I have left home over and over again. I have searched for love in all the wrong places. The Prodigal Son is me, and he is you, the Prodigal daughter. Oh how sad that I have become deaf to the voice of God whenever I have left home. And when I return, not on my own, but through the grace of God, it always occurs when I am in touch once again with the Voice who comes to me to forgive me and to remind me again how much He loves me. This Voice calls me once again to “Follow Me! Remain in My Love! Do not seek My Love among those who have left home.” Each time I leave home and return home I realize how much I am loved, and that, so ironically, the Voice of God gives me the freedom to leave home.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
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