In
"The Wizard of Oz", Dorothy spent the first half of the story trying to
find a way to get away from home. While in Oz, a very strange country, she
spent most of her time trying to find a way back home to Kansas. Finally, she
learned the truth that she had always had the ability to go home anytime she
wanted to. All she had to do was click the heals of her ruby slippers together
three times and say, “There’s no place like
home.” When she did this, she went home! Going home is not always
as easy as that.
In
this parable, Jesus told the story of a young man who couldn’t wait to get away
from home. He made a very selfish demand of his father, took his inheritance and
headed to a far country to live it up, free from the restraints of his father
and his father's rules. What he found in the far country was not what he
expected. Though he found good times and new friends, his money ran out, and
when it did, the good times and good friends ran out too. He then found
himself living with a pig farmer in the far country, working day by day feeding
the pigs. He was broke and lonely, his new friends had abandoned him, and no one
cared about him! When he finally reached bottom, he came to his senses,
remembering how good things had been at home after all. He remembered that
there is no place like home! He returned home with a plan to be a servant in
his father’s house, but when he arrived he found more there than he ever
bargained for. He truly did discover that there really is no place like
home!
So the celebration began! The
father invited the servants, the neighbors and the friends of the family to a
great celebration! Yet, when the father and rest of the family and many
friends gathered together to celebrate, the elder brother stayed out in the
field, angry that although he had always been there the Father did not give
him so much as a goat, (much less a fatted calf). He may have lived in the
father’s house and worked in his fields, but he did not love the father like he
should have. He may have been home, but he was in the far country in his
heart! It is intriguing that the end of this parable is left
open. Did the elder brother ever come into the feast? Did he ever reconcile
with his younger brother? We do not know because those things are in the future.
Jesus left the parable open-ended so that the Pharisees and the scribes could
write the final paragraph.
You and I get get to write the final
paragraph to our story. How it ends will be determined by what we do with the
call of the Lord in our lives. Regardless
of where we are today, there’s no place like home! If we are in the far
country, we need to come home. The door is open, the table is spread and the
Father is waiting for all who will come!
In Jesus the Host.
Brown
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