11 Then Jesus said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. 13 After a few days, the younger son gathered together all he had and left on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth with a wild lifestyle. 14 Then after he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and worked for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He was longing to eat the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17

REFLECTIONS

Written by Michael Legaspi

The context of this parable is back in verses 1 and 2: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear him. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”

My 7-year-old niece recently asked me a peculiar question. She was lying down on the trampoline playing on her iPad, and she said to me, “When can I do what I want?” She was wanting to know when she could decide how long she could play for.

I think as adults, we sometimes ask ourselves that same question: “When can I do what I want?” The younger son in today’s parable wants to do what he wants with his inheritance money, right now. He wants his share of the estate, and doesn’t want to wait until his father is dead – and his request is granted (v12).

So when is getting what you want a problem? It’s a problem when your goal is wild living (v13). I don’t think wild living always means parties and drinking. I think a definition of wild living would be: living like a fool – and a fool is a person who rejects the design of God for his creation and for our lives. It may look different for each person, but wild living is pursuing your own desires – whether in finances, work, relationships, or leisure – without God in the picture. When we do that, our lives become twisted. Take a tree out of the soil and it will die, take a fish out of the water and it will die, take God out of a person’s life and we will die.

It's obvious how selfish the younger son in the parable is. But as I think about how many times I choose what I want rather than what God says is good, I’m reminded of Isaiah 53:6: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
 each of us has turned to our own way;
 and the Lord has laid on him
 (on Jesus) the iniquity of us all.”

When we try to live doing what we want without God, it will always end, sooner or later, in great need (v14). The younger son discovered, when he reached the very bottom, that no one had compassion on him.

We won’t be finishing the parable in today’s devotion. For now, try and see the heart of the younger son. What do you see in him? Some days I see myself, sometimes I see my family and friends. One thing to remember is that all of us are in GREAT NEED. Only God can fix and satisfy that need – and thanks be to God that he paid the full cost of our foolishness for you and me, at great cost to himself, though the blood of his one and only Son Jesus Christ.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael is a member of our Bossley Park Morning congregation.