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SS Notes, Take Two
By Moriah on October 30th, 2008
This past Sunday was our last week of looking at the parable of the prodigal son during Sunday school. We’ve already studied the prodigal himself, spent a week talking about the older brother, and then for this class we focused on the father.
One of the things our teacher started out by saying was if we remember anything from the study, let it be that as Christians, we are all called to be like the father, and our sanctification is to that end.
Fleshing it out:
- At the beginning of the story, the father gave that to the son which he did not deserve (at least yet); knowing the son would most likely squander everything
- DID NOT WITHOLD RESOURCES BUT GAVE FREELY, EVEN TO THE UNDESERVING
- He did not try to use wisdom or logic to try to persuade his son to say; did not try to change his son’s mind
- Did not go after him; he let him go (and “manhandling” someone often breeds further rebelliousness)
- Watched the son leave knowing his love wasn’t enough to make the son stay, hoping it would be enough to bring him back
- He hoped and watched every single day for his son’s return — not knowing if he would ever come back
- He waited patiently; he did not go after his son
- He was there watching when the son came back; saw him from a far off
- Side note: OUR HOPE IS NOT IN THE ONE WHO HAS GONE TO THE FAR COUNTRY; RATHER OUR HOPE IS IN OUR HEAVENLY FATHER
- When the son returned, the father RAN to the son; his love and forgiveness was apparent and overflowing
- He did not make the son grovel
- He did not make the son do penitence
- He threw a party, sparing no expense (and the father’s own celebration was more poignant because he had experienced that extreme pain in hoping and waiting)
(Another side note: So why don’t we all just become prodigals and experience the father’s love in such a meaningful way? For one thing, we would not experience the father’s faithfulness every single day – the older brother saw that and was blessed in it.
He saw his father go out and meet each new day, whispering “out there” his love for his younger son. The older brother was himself the beneficiary of all that his father had – every single day. “All that I have is yours.” Always.)
What we do each day matters: we love, we forgive, we wait… and we hope.
4 Responses to “SS Notes, Take Two”
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Thanks for sharing and pointing out that he didn’t use wisdom and logic to try to persuade the son, as we sometimes are prone to do.
While I think there is a time and place for using those things, yes – he did not use them here in this particular story/instance.
Moriah, I just listened to a man on the radio (I think it was Focus on the Family,it was on at 11:30am- 88.9fm)who has a prodigal son ministry in Wales (the country, not the mammal, hee,hee). It was very humbling and encouraging. He really emphasized how being judgemental to other Christians (about non-sin issues like men wearing hats in Church, women wearing doc marten boots) can actually cause prodigals to rebel. I just thought it was interesting that this is the second time in one day that I have heard about this exact scripture passage. Thanks for sharing.
I love this post. My son is still young, and we use every day events to instill values.
I always enjoying reading about how to apply scripture to our lives today. In the here and now.