A LONG WAY OFFReading: Luke 15: 11-32
Did you ever feel ‘a long way off?’ A long way off from where you would like to be, from a sense of belonging, from relationships that were important to you, from the dreams you once had, from loving that affirmed you, from someone who said ‘hello’ to you as the unique individual you are, with all that that hello implies of dignity and respect? And have you ever had the added, almost unbearable burden that it was at least partly your own actions that put you into that ‘far country’ of lostness, regret and even shame? And if that hasn’t been your experience, I’m sure you know at least one person whose life script is just that.
The young man in this story had everything – a good home, loving parents, a well-to-do life-style, but he wanted more. He wanted to experience life in the fast lane, on the other side of the track, out in the exciting world where the grass was greener, where he would no longer be bored and frustrated by the restraints of home. So he asked his father for whatever his share of the estate would be immediately, instead of having to wait until his father died. The father loved both his sons and would have found it hard to refuse. He certainly didn’t want to keep his son with him under duress, but it must have been with a heavy and a broken heart that he divided his wealth between both of them and watched the younger one pack up and a few days later leave for a far distant land.
At first all went well. The boy had plenty of fair weather friends who encouraged him in his wild life-style as long as his money lasted. But the money ran out sooner than he thought and as it slipped through his fingers so, too, did his friends melt away, like snow off a ditch! Around about the same time a great famine swept throughout the whole region. He was starving, didn’t know where to turn until a local farmer hired him to feed his pigs. To those listening to this story that particular job would have been the absolute pits! By this stage he was so desperate to stay alive that even the pig swill looked good to him, but no one gave him anything.
To date this story is one of loss and waste. Not only did the boy lose his inheritance. He lost any respect he had. He lost his dignity and his sense of self worth. He experienced rejection and extreme deprivation. And, as far as he knew, he had lost his family, his home, his identity. But, thank God, it is also a story of redemption. One day, when he was feeling utterly abandoned and despairing, squatting among the pigs, he thought of home. He, as it were, came to his senses. He realised that even the lowest workers on his father’s land were well fed. So he made the decision to go back, to face up to what he had done. He would not ask to be received back into sonship, but to take his place among the poorest hired hands.
So he sets out on the pilgrimage back. Another name for this reflection could be ‘Home Before Dark’ – home before the darkness of all that he had done blinded the eyes of the father to who he was, home before the darkness of shame overwhelmed him so that he could not find his way. We know what happened. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him. It must have been that every day the old man spent many hours anxiously scanning the horizon for his beloved son’s return, never giving up hoping, never stopping loving, always believing that one day he would come back. And then one day, away in the distance, the father saw him. There is no more beautiful picture in the Bible than this – the picture of God running, arms outstretched, full of love and compassion, ready to embrace the one who has returned. There are no recriminations. In fact, the father hardly listens to the son’s confession. Instead he orders a celebration and that his son be clothed with robe, ring and sandals – signs of honour, authority and sonship. The beloved has returned, home before dark and a great party gets under way. No stinginess here, but such generosity of spirit flowing from the forgiving heart of the father.
Not everyone, however, has the generosity to rejoice unselfishly in the restoration of another. In this case it is the older brother who has obeyed all the rules, done everything that was expected of him. He is outraged that his brother should receive such a welcome and is consumed by jealousy and resentment. Maybe it’s easier for the father to love the repentant prodigal than the self-righteous observer of ‘all the commandments.’ But the fact of the matter is that both are equally dear to the father’s heart. It’s just that the elder one has never experienced his need of forgiveness and, therefore, cannot enter fully into the heart knowledge of how much he is truly loved also. The younger can be part of the music and dancing and feasting for he knows what he has been saved from. He literally has been restored to life; lost and found.
Countless people in our community have gone off in the last years to ‘distant lands’ of wild living. That wildness may have been encouraged by the years of violence, or may simply be the seduction of the times in which we are living. Many feel lost. Perhaps they don’t even think they have anywhere to ‘go back to’. The concept of God loving them so much, scanning the horizon for their return would be utterly foreign to them. That is why Jesus had to leave his heavenly home and go to the far country, returning home by the way of the cross in order that they and we might get home before dark. But the only way many are going to know that such a return is possible that such forgiveness and celebration waits for them is if we, who by and large are the ‘elder brothers’, in other words, the ones who have believed over the years and have sought to serve, can have a heart as generous and open and loving and forgiving as the Father.