The children and their amazing cardboard box dens at Easter Holiday “Kingdom Club” (Photo by I-Lee Millward)
It is probably the most famous story that Jesus ever told.
A son demands from his father his share of the estate (in Jesus’ day, an insultingly shameful and selfish act), goes off on his own and loses it all in a reckless life of wasteful self-indulgence. He comes to his senses only when he has nothing else to lose, and decides to come home to throw himself on his father’s mercy.
Actually, the story isn’t original to Jesus; it was a very common morality tale told to young men to teach them respect. Of course everyone knew how the story ends. When the son returns to the family home, he discovers that the bridges have been burned. The father sends word that the son has been disowned, and sends his older brother to round up some mates to (literally) kick the lad out of the village.
Except that Jesus changed the ending. In Jesus’ version of the story, as the son shamefully staggers back to the village, the father races out to meet him, to welcome him home and throw a lavish party to celebrate the return of the prodigal son.
Consider just how much shame, insult and rejection the father has to bear in order for there to be any chance of leaving the door open for his son to come home. To Jesus’ hearers, the father does the unthinkable and takes upon himself the burden of guilt which rightly belongs with the son.
Things become much more personal to us when we realise Jesus wasn’t changing the ending of a well-known story simply for the fun of it. His new version helps us to understand his death and resurrection as the very means by which God the Father leaves the door open for us to return home to him, instead of abandoning us to our own fate.
So the story poses a pressing question to all of us: isn’t it time to come home?
Rev Ian Rumsey, Vicar