In the fifteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus tells a little story. It’s about a father who has two sons. He is a man of affluence and station. His boys work on the estate. One day, out of the blue, the younger son asks for his share of the property that will come to him when his father dies. He wants his inheritance now. He’s tired of waiting for the old man to die. What he does is appalling. It simply was not done, ever, in that culture. It is unthinkable. What his father does is equally unthinkable. He gives his son his inheritance, a substantial sum of money representing the boy’s share of the estate.
The young man takes the money and runs, far away, and has a great time: wine, women, and song; lives it up until the money is gone, all of it. He comes back home broke and his father throws him a party .
What a story! How absolutely stunning. Fred Craddock, one of the well known theologians, translates the story into the vernacular of a small, rural Georgia town. “He what? He threw a party for the rascal? I can understand letting him back in, but after what he did he ought to come through the back door and eat in the kitchen for a while. He ought to be put on probation, a trial period, maybe work off some of the money he took from the old man. That boy ought to learn a lesson or two. But a party? Where’s the lesson in that?”
It is all about the amazing grace of God . God loves us. There is nothing we can do to persuade God to stop loving us. There is no disappointment so great that God will stop loving us. There is no far country we can go to that God’s love does not follow us.
Dr. Willy L Mafuta, Ph.D, Th.D
Senior Pastor,
Hopewell United Methodist Church, Hopewell, NJ 08525