Carry on Wayward Son

Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.
13"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.


A lot of times a person goes missing! You hear it on the news almost ever week. It always brings up questions, as to there whereabouts and what they are involved in. Sometimes it is because people have been kidnapped or abducted and other times it is because they running, trying to escape the life. Some can not handle the pressure and some cannot handle the resonsibility. In the parable of the prodigal son, a father has given permission to a Son to leave home and do whatever he wants. Now the ironic thing about this parable is that is absolutely disrespectful to the father. He in essence is saying to his father, "I wish you were dead". When I first heard this I thought, wow how disrespectful can one be? But sometimes maybe we do the same thing. Our family instills in us values and morals but we totally go against what they have taught us to do. Some parents work two jobs to put us through college and then we party our study time away. They give us money and we buy things that we have been forbidden to buy. Are we not all prodigal in some ways? Have we not all gone astray and do we not all feel like a prodigal? The great thing is that we do not have a heavenly Father that holds grudges and sins against us but welcomes us back at anytime. This week we will examine the prodigal and how we are welcomed home.