Prodigal Son

All posts tagged Prodigal Son

Jesus: The Prodigal Son

Posted by Jim Thornber on April 18, 2015
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

“The younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. . .” Luke 15:11-24

Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1662–1669

Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1662–1669

When I first studied this passage back in Bible College, it was easy for me to identify the younger son as those people who have taken their God-given gifts and talents and squandered them for their own selfish reasons. I saw them as the heathens among us who didn’t know that God is waiting to welcome them home.

After some reflection (and a few years of maturity), I began to see myself as the prodigal son – wasteful with my own God-given gifts, lavish in my pride, and extravagant in the ways I used my words, even to the point of hurting others. Yes, in many ways I was like the prodigal son.

Seeing myself (and others) as a type of prodigal son is easy. We’re all selfish sinners bent on having our own way at the expense of those who love us. What bothers me (and may bother you) is to consider this: Jesus is the true Prodigal Son.

The word prodigal means to be wastefully or recklessly extravagant or lavish. Jesus recklessly and lavishly invested everything He had so that we could know His eternal love. As I contemplate this, I’m also challenged by how Jesus gave all of Himself while knowing there would not be a 100% return on His investment. Yes, in the omnipotence of God, He knew how many of us would accept His Divine sacrifice. But as a human, Jesus was spending, if not wasting, His entire self on us. True, He loves His creation; but we sure seem to have a funny way of acknowledging His gift.

Jesus the Prodigal. Give this concept some time to sink in. One day Jesus took His inheritance and His title, left the home of His Father and traveled to a distant, foreign country. He spent all He had to become a human and emptied Himself of all the previous privileges He held in His Father’s house. In the strangest investment scheme in history, Jesus prodigiously squandered His inheritance by hanging around with sinners and harlots, drunkards and lepers, tax collectors and sundry riff-raff. After spending all He had, Jesus sensed God’s abandonment (Matthew 27:46), only to return to the Father hungry and thirsty (John 19:28), fresh out of prison (1 Peter 3:19), dressed in borrowed clothes fit only for a dead man.

Another thing that challenges me about this story is that we often call it the Parable of the Prodigal Son, when we should think of calling it the Parable of the Prodigal Father. The entire story centers around the love, compassion, forgiveness, longing and hope the Father showed in reconciling with the son. Or with me, for that matter. Whatever else I’ve been wasting my life on, God knows it is Jim who is hurting, Jim who needs to go home, Jim who needs to know there is still a family ring to wear and an expensive robe to cover my nakedness. And in my first effort to return, God makes the next move and runs to meet me. I don’t even make it all the way home before I sense the forgiving arms of the Father’s embrace. God the Father is prodigal in His love.

The lesson for me is this: love is never a waste. It can never be too extravagant, overly invested or lavishly spent. At the end of my life, I want people to say of me, “Jim spent all he had to love those around him.” I may have gotten a late start in life on that road home to the Father’s heart, but it is never too late to return.

Why I Don’t Chase Christians

Posted by Jim Thornber on November 17, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. . .” – Luke 15:20

If you’ve been in church very long, you’ve probably seen more than one person leave your fellowship. And I don’t meant they left your church in order to go to another church, which happens a lot, but they simply stopped going to church completely.

What are you supposed to do when people leave and stop attending church? Not just your church, but any church? Do you call them up and ask them why? Do you quote Hebrews 10:25 at them as a proof text that we are not to “give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing”? Do you go to their house on Sunday morning and force them to go to church with a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other?

In Luke 15, often called the “Lost Chapter” because of all the things that get lost, we find some interesting reactions to those lost items. The shepherd left ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that was lost, and the woman lit a lamp and cleaned house to find the lost coin. However, we don’t read about the father leaving home to go find the son. Instead, we simply find the father waiting at home, anticipating the day the son would return, for he noticed his son “while he was still a long way off.”

Why didn’t the father go after the son? The shepherd and the woman both search for their lost items, but the father stays and home and waits. Why? Because the sheep and the coin were ignorant of being lost, while the son, “when he came to his senses” (Luke 15:17), knew the way home. This is why I don’t chase Christians: they know the way home. Continue Reading

Jesus the Prodigal

Posted by Jim Thornber on April 8, 2010
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

“The younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. . .” Luke 15:11-24

Rembrandt: Return of the Prodigal Son

When I first studied this passage back in Bible College, it was easy for me to identify the younger son as those people who have taken their God-given gifts and talents and squandered them for their own selfish reasons. I saw them as the heathens among us who didn’t know that God is waiting to welcome them home.

After some reflection (and a few years of maturity), I began to see myself as the prodigal son – wasteful with my own God-given gifts, lavish in my pride, and extravagant in the ways I used my words, even to the point of hurting others. Yes, in many ways I was like the prodigal son.

Seeing myself (and others) as a type of prodigal son is easy. We’re all selfish sinners bent on having our own way at the expense of those who love us. What bothers me (and may bother you) is to consider this: Jesus is the true Prodigal Son.

Continue Reading

A Lost Soul

Posted by Jim Thornber on September 4, 2009
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Rembrandt's "The Return of the Prodigal Son"

Rembrandt's "The Return of the Prodigal Son"

I’ve been reading Henri Nouwen’s book The Return Of The Prodigal Son (Image Books, 1994). He has a passage in the book which just wrung me out this morning. And, since I like to share Scriptures That Bother Me, I thought I’d also share some “Nouwen That Bothers Me.” Enjoy.

What happened to the son in the distant country? Aside from all the material and physical consequences, what were the inner consequences of the son’s leaving home? The sequence of events is quite predictable. The farther I run away from the place where God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the Beloved, and the less I hear that voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and power games of the world.

It goes somewhat like this: I am not so sure anymore that I have a safe home, and I observe other people who seem to be better off than I. I wonder how I can get to where they are. I try hard to please, to achieve success, to be recognized. When I fail, I feel jealous of resentful of these others. When I succeed, I worry that others will be jealous or resentful of me. I become suspicious or defensive and increasingly afraid that I won’t get what I so much desire or will lose what I already have. Caught in tangle of needs and wants, I no longer know my own motivations. I feel victimized by my surroundings and distrustful of what others are doing or saying. Always on my guard, I lose my inner freedom and start dividing the world into those who are for me and those who are against me. I wonder if anyone really cares. I start looking for validations of my distrust. And wherever I go, I see them, and I say: “No one can be trusted.” And then I wonder whether anyone ever really loved me. The world around me becomes dark. My heart grows heavy. My body is filled with sorrows. My life loses meaning. I have become a lost soul

What really strikes me is the statement, “Caught in this tangle of needs and wants, I no longer know my own motivations.” Caught between needing to provide for my family, wanting to see my book published, needing to see my gifts used in the Church, wanting to contribute to the Kingdom of God….“I no longer know my own motivations.”


But I know the One who does. And when I am done running around the distant country looking for what I want to be when I grow up, He is always there to welcome me home with open arms.

Previously posted Dec. ’08