Alan Fadling: Notes from my Unhurried Journey

[Another journal excerpt from my July eight-day silent retreat...]

AFTERNOON EXERCISE
Luke 15:11-32
continued…

The Father loved his younger son, even though, culturally speaking, his demand for his share of the estate was tantamount to saying, “I wish you were dead.” This only serves to amplify how amazing the father’s love in this parable really is.

I struck again by the similar but opposite error that the two brothers make in response to the father. They both approach the father on the basis of deserving. The younger son sees himself on the deficit side of deserving anything, and the elder son sees himself on the “you owe me” side. They are both wrong because the father isn’t going to treat either of his beloved sons on the basis of deserving or not deserving. The younger sees himself as unworthy, the elder son sees himself as very worthy, and the father simply sees them as beloved sons. He is going to treat them with love and grace.

Verse 12-13 makes it clear that the younger son’s demand sets in motion a dividing of the estate between both sons. Somehow, the elder son got his share as well as the younger son did. And it took the younger son a while before he actually took off on his prodigal journey. What must it have been like to be the father watching his baby boy making the worst mistake of his life. As a father, I would be heartbroken.

Verse 13b. The younger son seeks life in wild living. There are no other details given than that. The elder son, in verse assumes that this wild living involved paying prostitute for sex. Maybe the elder brother had heard rumors…or even news.

The elder son discovers the news that his wayward, disgraceful younger brother has come home while he in doing his duty out in the fields. This probably only serves to deepen his bitterness.a

The father prepares a feast and provides music and dancing for a younger son who had wastefully spent half of his fortune. I would have been tempted to put the younger son on probation. I probably would need to be a father of a wayward son who had returned to truly understand.

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