Jesus is the one we learn how to be a Christians from. He knew His audience and taught us how to recognize our audience too. We just have to be paying attention.
Jesus used parables because they speak to people in different ways. Not everyone will be able to connect with a direct story, analog, direct speech, or other methods of communicating. I am a direct person. I am not good with poetry or hidden meanings. I have to study to learn what the meaning means. Other people do not appreciate the direct approach and may feel that people like myself come across harsh, as a know it all, or just have not interest in what we have to say.
We are not Jesus. It does not come naturally for us like it did him, but we can learn. He can try. Can can fumble around, but at least we are willing to do something new to make other people see things from a different perspective.
Jesus worked to connect with everyone because his message was about love and sin. He wanted everyone to identify with being a sinner, but still being loved. The parodical son is probably the most famous parable that Jesus ever gave. It touches on arrogance, being spoiled, anger, jealousy, being lost and found. It is about celebrating what could have been lost forever, but found unfailing love in the end.
The youngest son was spoiled, arrogant, impatient, and more. He didn't have a lot of good qualities until he was broken. He finally saw his own sin for what it was and faced reality. He went back home as a beggar to find healing, to find redemption. He did not expect to be welcomed back into the family. He had lost that right by how he left. He understood it all and yet he returned.
The oldest son was faithful, true, always there, but judgmental. He had a hard time with forgiveness. He could not see the redeeming qualities of his brother. He only saw someone unworthy. He allowed anger to cloud his heart. He was jealous of the love that his father showed his brother. He allowed bitterness to consume him to the point of resentment toward his father. He did not recognize that this was sin and rejected his family because he felt unloved and overlooked. This motivated him to be disrespectful and accusative. It came down to the fact that he felt entitled and self-righteous.
The father represents love and forgiveness. He allowed his youngest to go off and live his life. He allowed his son to fall and be broken with hope that he would one day return. He recognized all that the oldest son did and he would inherit everything, but when the youngest returned it was time to celebrate. What was lost (bound for hell) found salvation. He found redemption.
The feelings of all of them are understandable. We can all learn from all three. We can all probably connect with each character at some point in our life. Yet it goes deeper. The characters represent us, but they also represent the supernatural world and how it works. The father is God. That is probably the most obvious. The older son can represent Satan or just all that Satan embraces. The youngest represents the opportunity of salvation for anyone willing to go for it.
In the world we live in the brothers represent our sinful nature. No matter how we may look in society, we still have a sinful nature. We can embrace the law as an excuse to be judgmental or we can embrace faith to take the law and turn it into love. The point is when we read God's Word we need to pray over it to see what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us or point out to us on this day. Introspection is a gift. Being broken can be a gift because when you heal, you are stronger than you were before.
Sin will cost you everything. We need to be aware of out sinful nature and chose to have a heart like Jesus instead. We need to chose to be forgiving. We need to see that sin is toxic, corrosive, and destroys your heart by making it desperate as it is being pushed further and further from God. The only way to true freedom and peace is through surrender and redemption to God. Both sons wanted the same thing in life, but they took different paths to try to get there. They both had to come to the reality of their self-worth and their worth to the father in different ways.
Luke 15:11-32
No comments:
Post a Comment
This Blog is open for discussion. Please share your thoughts.