Coming Of Age: Two Sons And Three Choices

The older son in the story is the stereotypical adult pleaser, the
overachieving honor roll student who lacked one vital trait. 

In one of my occasional "Sunday School with Grandpa" zoom sessions with two of my grandsons, I began by asking each of them yesterday how long it would be before they reached their 18th birthday. 

For one it was just over six years and for the other less than four until they would reach that milestone and become fully responsible for their major life decisions. 

While making it clear that I would not recommend their taking advantage of all of their new adult rights, that they could then legally leave home and find their own place to live if they wished, could enter into binding legal contracts, could get married without their parents' consent, could access "adult content" material of all kinds and make all their own medical decisions.  

We then read the Luke 15 "Prodigal Son" story, with the younger grandson reading the part of the prodigal in the story and the older one reading the part of the elder son (no similarities intended). It was an opportunity to talk about how the father in the story represents a compassionate God but who is quite unlike any real patriarchal father in Jesus's time, along with our reflecting on how two sons from the same family chose completely different paths as they became of age.

The younger one, who may have felt he could never compete with his older brother, chose to reject all of the values he had been taught. He not only demanded his share of the family estate, but turned his back on his Jewish family and his family's faith, and wasted all of his father's inheritance in alien Gentile territory. 

The elder son, representing good self righteous people like ourselves, refused to join the festivity and complained of unfair treatment in light of his father's extravagant celebration of his rebellious son's return.

A third choice I recommended would have been for each of the sons to choose to embrace the faith and values of their "Abba" and live a life of joyful, regret-free integrity, but also to demonstrate their father's unconditional (agape) love and amazing grace.

My prayer is that all of our children and grandchildren will choose that third way.

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Here's a link to another recent post on this favorite parable 

http://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-most-outrageous-story-jesus-ever.html