It's Time To Go Home

It’s time to go Home

Luke 15:11-24

The Parable of the Prodigal is one of many parables Jesus used in His ministry. He used this particular parable in addition to others while He was addressing the publicans and sinners in the presence of the Pharisees and Scribes. Now Jesus begins with the introduction of a certain man and his two sons and the younger of them said, “father give me my portion of the goods”, meaning father cash me out, I think its time for me to go.

Now what was the son telling the Father because you are not entitled to the inheritance until the death of the Father. So the son is saying Father as far as I’m concerned you are dead. And the story tells us that the father honored the son’s unusual request.

The parable goes on to say that the son went off into a far country and wasted his inheitance He squandered his money with riotous living. He was completely wasteful with his spending, if he saw it he bought it, or if he thought about it he did it. The world is mine because I can buy it; money has given me power, freedom and peace. He must have thought to himself that it can’t get any better that this, that’s why I left home in the first place, because I knew this was the life for me.

A characteristic of the younger son was that he was feeling judged at home with his father, he was tired of living with his rules. He was felling trapped, like he had no life, restrained from doing what he wanted to do.

The son was fed up with living under his father’s rule so he said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ I can just hear the younger son now saying, “I have thought it over and I have made up my mind, I just need my money and I will be on my way, you wont have to worry with me anymore, I can’t live here under your rules, its just not working out here between us and I need my space. "This is how I’m going to live and I am going to decide the standard." He wanted so desperately to just get away from his father. Now if you’re like that this morning, you may come to church out of habit, because you feel you are being obedient, what ever but your real intention is to get away from the Father. Looking at your watch hoping that the prayer is not too long, that the preaching is not too long, and choir please don’t sing the 12 minute remix of “This little light of Mine” You are saying to yourself I need to get away from the father so I can do my thang on my time.

Does this sound familiar to anyone this morning? “I’m grown, I need to do my own thang.” It’s hard as a parent sometimes when you think that you are doing the best you can, providing for your child, giving them the best that you can, and all of a sudden you are faced with a dilemma. You know you child is asking you for something that you know is wrong, you know that your child is going to fail so what do you do. Do you tell them no and they will continue to resent you, or do you go along with it hoping that they will learn a lesson or come to their senses before it is too late and you lose them for good. It is a tough decision but the father in our parable decided that he would not restrain his son, rather he would grant him his unorthodox request in hopes that he would come to his senses.

So he divided his property between them. Now let call your attention to the division, now since the father had two sons and in Deuteronomy 21:15-17 it states that it was customary that the oldest son would receive a double portion of the inheritance so from this we determine that the younger son received one third of the estate. But it is still assumed that the father was very wealthy so the third was a very large portion.

In verse 13, as soon as he goes off, he squanders his wealth with riotous living. He was doing his thang, what ever he pleased. Free without restraint. The concept of freedom in the world is doing whatever you want. So according to the world, coming to church and reading the Bible is restraint, because freedom is doing whatever you want. But the Bible says that when you do what you want, you’re actually in slavery. You’re in the slavery of sin, we are born in sin and shapen in iniquity therefore it is in your nature to sin. Without restraints you will revert back to your born nature, which is sin.