Running Away from Home

(Luke 15:11-32) (Sunday of the Prodigal Son)

Did you ever run away from home? Probably not; most of us don’t. That doesn’t mean we didn’t think about it! I know I planned to, more than once. And just because you grow up doesn’t mean that the risk is over. Children! Sometimes your parents want to run away from home!

Occasionally, someone will run away from home to escape a difficult, or even dangerous, situation. More often than not, however, those who run away – and the vast majority of those of us who thought about it, but didn’t actually do it – are not running away from a painful or abusive situation. No, what motivates us in this circumstance is the desire to run away from the rules and regulations that our parents have established for us. Oh, sure, these were fine when we were young, and didn’t know anything about life; but now, we’re older, and we know what we’re doing – and who are they to think they should be in control of our lives? So we decide to leave, and get away from these unfair and oppressive rules for living that restrict us, and show no respect for us as individuals.

We see this happening in the parable of the Prodigal Son. While the elder son is righteous, and accepts his father’s authority, the younger son is rebellious, and wants to go his own way. With an arrogance born of his pride, he demands his share of his father’s estate; and, having received it, he leaves his father’s house, and departs into the world, to live life as he thinks best. And, after all, he knows what he’s doing – right?

It doesn’t take very long for him to throw away all that he had; and suddenly life looks quite different to him. The friends he had have disappeared, now that he can no longer indulge himself, and them, in wild living. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow, we die”; and on the morning after, he finds himself alone and in need. Once the son of a prosperous father, an heir to a valuable estate, he now must take a job feeding pods to swine. But there’s something good in this humbling experience: he comes to his senses, and realizes that the way of life to which his father had held him was not meant to oppress him, but rather to protect and prepare him for life. In his humility, he decides to go home; and, recognizing that he is unworthy to be considered a son any longer, he plans to ask to be considered simply as one of the hired servants.

I’m pretty sure his father expected his son to do what he did. If it had been up to him, he would have stopped his son from leaving; but, knowing that this would only have made matters worse, and would have needed actual coercion, the father allowed him to leave – but never stopped loving his son, never stopped caring about what was happening to him, never stopped worrying about his health and safety and well-being. Well, that’s what parents do, after all. So, when he found his son was heading home, his love for his son led him to run to embrace him while he was still a long way from home; and this same love led to the forgiveness of his offenses, and the son’s restoration to his rightful place in the family.

OK, so, maybe we didn’t run away from home, in the physical sense of having left our parent’s home. But, when it comes to our home in heaven, we must admit that we have, indeed, run away from home; and for the same reasons as did the Prodigal Son: We didn’t want to live by our Father’s rules. Knowing without a doubt that we knew what we were doing – and that what we wanted was just fine, despite the fact that our Father had said otherwise – we left His home, and went out to make our way in the world. But we went far away, and lived a life of sin; and we continue to do so now. But our Father’s love for us is undiminished, unchanged, unbroken; and it is His deep and genuine desire and hope that we will yet come to our senses, and repent of our foolishness, and turn away from our sinful and death-directed lives, and seek to come back to His household once more.

Brothers and sisters: We stand here today in our Father’s house. Sunday dinner is being prepared, and will be served soon: the foretaste of the great wedding banquet, the Holy Mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ’s Body and Blood. There’s a place at the table for every one of you; and God our Father desires each of you to repent, and prepare yourselves, and come to the feast, and partake of His love. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore, let us keep the feast”; to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.