The Prodigal Son, Luke 15, is a well-known parable that Jesus proclaims regarding the audacity of twosons toward their Father. Although this parable deals with sons and is written from a masculine point of view, it is meant to be read for its teaching. Jesus’ parables are not masculine or feminine in content. They are grace-filled toward the repentant sinner and full of woe to the prideful, unrepentant sinner.
-The Prodigal Son is a parable rich in showing God’s love for the repentant sinner.- (For a conscientious and accurate commentary see John MacArthur Jr. A Tale of Two Sons.)
I’d like to look at this parable from the point of view of a shrink-wrapped believer. Shrink wrap is a great invention…we use it to hold things together…it tightens around what it’s covering when heat is applied and it is see through. If you will…it is a nice display – showing off its uniformity and it is thankful that it is what it is…a beautiful display of it’s ‘inner beauty’. It believes its stunning arrangement…maybe in a beautiful basket…is just what everyone wants to see. Ah! Self! you are stunning! If there is a tear in your covering others come to your listening ear desiring your repair back to your former beauty – thinks shrink-wrapped Self. Your desire is for yourself. I think you get it. Something this parable teaches is God’s love for the shrink-wrapped.
Parable:
- a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson
- a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like.
(Dictionary.com)
The two children (men…but…children) in this parable are preoccupied with SELF…but not with their true self…their shrink-wrapped self. We become preoccupied with SELF when we are feeding a void that we can never fill. The prophet Jeremiah called that void a cracked cistern. Yeah…mankind has wrestled with the Me Generation since the beginning of time…nothing is new under the sun (said Solomon)…
So this parable, among other things, teaches us something important about a misguided sense of identity. Unless we have a knowledge of the truth about our identity we will not be satisfied in the ‘already’ or the ‘not yet’. The already being our secured salvation and satisfaction in Christ and the not yet being our future home in heaven.
For women this very often is played out directly from the words of the curse and stems from our sin nature. We can easily misunderstand God’s teaching when our desire is not for his glory but for our felt injustice.
This is a tactic of the enemy.
We know its true that the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour… 1Peter 5.8 We know he would work to blind us to what we are taught…’did God actually say?’ Genesis 3.1b He is a proactive manipulator. One of his manipulative ways is used over and over. He takes the Words of God and twists them. And like the sheep in the fold we fall prey over and over.
We can be fixated on our role and not our soul. When we focus on this rather than how to glorify God in our identity our focus is on SELF and not the words of God. Our preacher said Sunday, “Offering ourselves up and asking that we be saved doesn’t work. It’s about surrender and repentance.” We become shrink-wrapped. We want our desires to be met for our good and our glory.
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Because we are image bearers, men and women have received the same stature. I think this was made clear by Sunday’s sermon: We are created to hear from Him, to mirror Him to others and we are blessed by him.
*Do not be concerned with what you cannot do…be concerned with what you have been given to do. We are one in the task of image bearers. Unity comes in the working out of those images. We bear the image to reflect the unity of Christ and the Church. In the Old Testament our male and femaleness points to this; in the New Testament these reflect it.*
If you have trusted Christ for your salvation – confessed your sin and recognized Him as Lord and consciously work to obey His statutes and commands you live in the ALREADY. As you glorify Him in your life’s witness – naming his name (see Acts 4) you live in the NOT YET.
The older son was preoccupied with a desire to be recognized, his own version of the ALREADY. He had the position of first born. His father loved him greatly. The younger son was preoccupied with a desire for the NOT YET, taking matters into his own hands for what he would receive ‘in a little while’. Jesus spoke to Peter regarding this very issue: ‘When Peter saw [the disciple whom Jesus loved], he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what it that to you? You follow me!”‘ John 21.21-22 Peter you are loved even now – Keep your eyes fixed on Me and all that you are and will be will manifest itself!
Luke 15 is a great illustration of how a shrink wrapped identity distracts you from your true identity. Each brother was given a life to live out under their loving father. Agreed that this analogy breaks down…in the Hebrew culture the younger would have received a lesser inheritance. But when we think in terms of desire and perception and the curse ladies we can believe a lie that we have received the lesser inheritance. BAM! Lies from the enemy creep in…like the older brother we
turn our hearts from honoring and obeying our Father to desiring what our brother has received.
“Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Gen.3.16b
These distractions are a basic tactic of the enemy. The enemy hates the family, God’s plan for his image bearers, and all that flows from that.
In the younger son’s desire to have what was his, he missed the great love the Father had for him. It wasn’t until he suffered and was under great distress that he returned to his loving father’s arms.
Ladies, our God loves us beyond reason or interpretation. We must help one another to recognize when we let the distractions of our sin cause us to be shrink-wrapped by desires that we can overcome with a Word.
Jesus
There is power in that name. Read Acts 4. Say His name aloud to yourself when you feel challenged by your spouse. I think you’ll see something interesting. I think you’ll see what is really happening in your heart, in my heart: Our desire is for our glory when it needs to be for God’s glory. Don’t stop there keep reading – read Philippians – live out unity; read Ephesians – live out your identity! But please don’t listen to your shrink-wrapped self-talk. The Lord will not reveal Himself to you there – it is only by the Word – LOGOS.When we let our desires or our emotions lead our will we will make a poor choice most every time. We heard this Sunday: ‘If we truly are those who follow Jesus – what does that do with our behavior?’ Let your identity in Christ drive that – Let your mind inform your will which then leads your emotions.Where do you get the raw material to inform your mind? Jesus…the Word! Your Bible.
This centuries old hymn by Martin Luther speaks volumes about how to deal with the enemy both without and within!
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing: For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing: Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth, His name, from age to age the same, And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us: The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him.That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth; The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth: Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,His kingdom is forever.
Martin Luther 1529
We serve a God rich in mercy and mighty to save. He LOVES that which he created more than we could ever know. When we trust Him, that we can be found safe in our identity He gave us we will be given His peace. A peace that passes all understanding.