By Doug Redford
Prodigal is not one of the most commonly used words in the English language. Perhaps the only time a person may hear it used in their lifetime is in the description of the wayward son in Jesus’ parable: the prodigal son.
The word prodigal means extravagant or lavish. It is used to characterize the lifestyle that the younger of the two sons in the parable chose when he took his father’s inheritance money and left home. Luke 15:13 says that the young man “squandered his wealth in wild living” (New International Version). Most of us know the young man’s path from this point on: when he ran out of money and friends, he ended up in the pigpen. There he realized how desperate his situation had become, and he determined he would return home where he expected to be treated as the reprobate he saw himself to be.
But to his astonishment, his father demonstrated a love and warmth that can only be described as prodigal in a good sense: lavish and extravagant, sparing no expense to show the son that all was forgiven and forgotten. Thus did Tim Keller write of a Prodigal God, including in the preface to his book these words: “[In this parable] Jesus is showing us the God of Great Expenditure, who is nothing if not prodigal toward us, his children. God’s reckless grace is our greatest hope, a life-changing experience, and the subject of this book.” We could say that the prodigal son’s wild living was surpassed by a prodigal father’s wild loving. And we must not overlook the older brother’s walled living, demonstrated by his utter disdain for the “hero’s welcome” afforded to his younger brother. The older brother’s walls separated him from both his father and his brother. The father chose to forget and forgive; the older brother chose to remember and resent.
Heavenly forgetfulness is part of the New Covenant promised in Hebrews 8:12: “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” This has to be one of the greatest miracles in the Bible, and we who have chosen to follow Jesus are the beneficiaries! The One who created us, who knows everything about us, everything we’ve ever done or said or thought, has chosen, because of Jesus’ payment for our sins on the cross—to forget it all.
Communion may not qualify as a “home-cooked meal,” but it is a meal that welcomes us home to our Father’s table and foreshadows what awaits when we do go home to our Father.
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.
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