I cannot help but think of Jesus as prodigal tonight, and his death as the fear I have for the prodigals in my own life. And I know that for some people, I have wandered very far off the path they would have chosen for me. Whatever Christs intent in embracing his own death, he left behind people who loved him deeply enough to throw away everything they had known. And whatever Christs return, he didnt come back to stay and eat and drink in the same way as before. The empty tomb and angels and guest appearances do not make up for the loss of his body, the feel of his hands, the sound of his voice. From an old sermon about prodigals: Sometimes we focus on what the prodigal was doing off in that far off land—we try to understand what is meant by “dissolute living”—is it sinful or careless or just wasteful living? But I’m more interested in the first part of the story—the point at which the son left his father and brother. It was a terrible and sorrowful thing to do, to ask for his inheritance and leave home. Family and land were everything, and the son was asking his father for his blessing to leave too early. Usually a son would stay with the family until the father’s death, and then would receive his rightful share of the land. Usually even then the son would stay and be part of the community, raising his own family there in the village. But this time he left too early, taking a piece of the father with him. And later we hear the father say, “This son of mine was dead.” Surely this is part of what our group felt that day? It was too early, too soon, we were not ready for Maggie to leave us, and she went anyway. We weren’t ready for her to take pieces of our heart with her, but we couldn’t stop her. It all happened so fast, so unexpectedly, that we had no time to prepare. And so like the father, we grieved. This prodigal friend had taken part of our hearts and left us behind, and we grieved her death. There are people in every church and every family who do this. They leave, and they take part of us with them, and they do not return.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 02:08:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015