This is a modern day adaptation of Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15.  I wrote this to incorporate in a message for my middle school students and thought I would pass it along.

There once were two brothers who lived on the rich side of town.  Whatever there was to be had, they had it.  They were the first to get the newest video games, the most expensive Mac computers, and the most coveted car in the high school parking lot.  They had it all.

One day, the younger son got to thinking about how much money his dad really had.  He began to imagine what he could do with not just the little trinkets that his dad had given him but with his whole half.  He knew that one-day down the road when his dad finally died he would end up with half of the family money.  So he got to thinking, “Maybe, I could work my way into the money now.  It is mine anyway so I should have it when I want it.  It is my right.”

So the younger son went to see his dad.  He angrily told his father: “I know that when you finally die and are out of my life that I will get half of your fortune.  I know that you only give me small trinkets of what is truly mine because you hate me and do not want me to have all the stuff and fun that I am entitled to.  So, I want you to fork it over now since you are not looking like you are going to pass away anytime soon.”

The father was shocked and amazed at his son’s greed and hatred, but he decided to give in.  After going to the bank and getting some things together, the father reluctantly gave his son his half.  This caused the father not just financial hardship but also personal pain and loss over the son who had abandoned him and taken his acts of love on him and saw them as acts of hatred.  He mourned the loss of his son so much more than the loss of his money.

The son immediately took off and began living the high life.  He built himself a huge house, many cars, and gained many “friends.”  He became a celebrity just because of his wealth and the crazy ways that he spent it.  When MTV’s “Cribs” showed up at his door, the son knew that he had made it big.  The life that his father had robbed him of had finally become his.  He was who he was entitled to be.

Like many overnight celebrities, however, the son’s empire came crashing down.  He had spent money so quickly that he had lost count of it.  His credit cards became completely filled up along with his closets, garages, and house.  When the bank came to collect, the son realized that he was out.   What the son quickly found out is that his dream was over.

He now found himself out on the streets in the city that he once was the king of.  He was now a poor beggar with nothing but the clothes on his back.  His friends had quickly found someone else with money and connections to hang out with.  He tried to get a job but because the economy was so bad there were no jobs to be found except that of a garbage man.

The son now found himself doing the smelliest job that he could have ever imagined.  He was so snowed under in the money that he owed the bank that he could not afford to pay for food or a place to live.  He began to scrummage through the bags, which he was paid so little to pick up.  He would find random half eaten fruits and every once in a while some week-old leftovers.

The son quickly began to think.  His dream of riches, fame, and popularity had quickly turned into a situation that was so bad that he could not have even imagined it.  His life had become this way because of his hatred and rebellion against his father.  He began to see the brokenness in his life and he began to mourn.  He knew that he was a horrible son and that he had treated his father in a very hurtful and mean way.

As the son began to think about his father, he wondered what life was like at home.  He could imagine his older brother sitting around the table with his mom and dad having a warm home-cooked dinner.  He began to be able to taste the flavor of his favorite cookies that his mom used to make him.  He began to long for home.

He wondered if he could ever come back to the table as a part of the family again.  He knew that if he had been in his dad’s place that he could never have him back.  He began to wonder.  Was there any hope to be found?  Maybe, he could just ask for the week-old leftovers before they hit the trash.

The son decided to drag himself home to see if there was any hope of some leftovers.  He quit his job and walked to the interstate and stuck out his finger towards home.

Through the kindness of several truckers, he made his way back to his hometown.  He walked from the interstate exit near his house to the neighborhood.  After convincing the gatekeeper to the neighborhood that he was not a criminal, he began to make his way down the familiar neighborhood streets.

He finally arrived at the street where he had lived for so many years in a time that seemed so long ago.  He could begin to see the big tree in the front yard that he and his brother used to play in as children towering in its place at the end of the cul-de-sac.  He was getting closer.

The house slowly came into view.  The son’s legs felt like they were about to snap in two as he got closer to the house.  Part of him wanted to stop and rest but he knew that he had to know what would happen.

As the son got closer to the house, he saw his dad in his usual chair in front of the plasma TV in the living room.  Just as he glanced into the window, his dad looked up from the TV and caught a glimpse of his son.   The father immediately got up from his chair.

Many things began to run through the son’s mind.  He is going to get his gun to shoot me for taking advantage of him.  He is going to go get the paddle that he used to use on me as a child.  He is going to grab the phone and call the cops to get this trespasser off of the property.  But before these thoughts could finish running through the son’s head, the front door swung open.

He saw his father with arms wide open running out to hug his son.  The prodigal son had returned and found that his father was there to love him and welcome him back into the family even before he could get out the words “I am sorry.”

“Christ’s blood is heaven’s key.” – Thomas Brooks

“The cross is God’s truth about us, and therefore it is the only power which can make us truthful. When we know the cross we are no longer afraid of the truth.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The cross means this: Jesus taking our place to satisfy the demands of God’s justice and turning aside God’s wrath.” – James Montgomery Boice

“Man of sorrows! what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah, what a Savior!”
- Phillip Paul Bliss

“What shall I say to the commendation of Christ and His Cross? I bless the Lord He has made my prison a palace to me. And what am I that He should have delt thus with me? I have looked greedy-like to such a lot as this, but I still thought it was too high for me when I saw how vile I was.” – Isabel Alison (excecuted for her faith on January 26th, 1681)

“I wish that our ministry – that mine especially – might be tied and tethered to the cross.  I would have no other object to set before you than Jesus only.”- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The heart of Christianity is Jesus Christ.  He is God who became flesh, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross.  Jesus was very mission guided.  His mission was to come and die.  Jesus came to be the mediator between a righteous and holy God and a sinful people.  His mediation, however, was not a mediation handled with words, but rather it was a mediation in which Jesus bore the sins of the people and took upon Himself the wrath of God on behalf of the people.  This is the story of undeserved and unfathomable grace given to people who did not deserve it.  This is the gospel.  Leading up to Good Friday, we will reflect on this amazing truth through some statements from Christians throughout the centuries.  May you be lead worship and adore Jesus and to seek a deeper relationship with Him as we journey to the cross.

We so often get consumed with holding onto stuff that we should surrender to Jesus.  It is so easy to get caught up in holding onto our past failures and sins.  Satan finds it fun to bring these back up again and again in our minds.  He reminds us that we have done ___________ and therefore who are we to serve God and minister to people.  He brings up not only the sends of the long ago past but the failures of yesterday.  He focuses our minds on our walk with Christ as being a time of continual failure and sin.  He then plants thoughts into our minds and hearts that Jesus is looking down on us with a frown and that we will never measure up.  This is true in one sense that we will never measure up to the holy standard of God.  This is why Jesus came to be adequate on our behalf.  This is one thing that we so frequently hold.  Another think that we hold is our successes.  We look back on our resumes and accomplishments and decided that we can do it on our own.  We think that we are smart enough, good enough, and strong enough and that we do not need God.  In both of these times you have full hands which inhibit you in two ways.  The first way is that they keep you from letting the Holy Spirit hold your hand and walk you along this journey of faith.  Your hands are either so full of your failures that you do not think His hand is there or so full of your successes to think that you do not need the hand that is offered.  The second thing that they do is they keep you from reaching out to others.  Your hands are so full of your own failures or successes that you do not have a hand to reach out to others around you in love and be the hands and feet of Jesus.  So it is really important where you have your hands and what they are full of.  This was inspired by the following video.  I hope that this is both a challenge and encouragement to you.

Click here to see the video clip.

This post was written in the spring of 2007:

A few days ago, I was listening to one of my friends share with a group of high school students at Hoover High School’s First Priority.  He was sharing about Satan being the ruler of this world which is something that I have heard spoken upon millions of times over the course of my life growing up in church and a Christian school.  This time, however, he had a new perspective that I had never thought of before.  He was talking about Satan using culture to get our focus off of God.  He said that media tells us who to worship, what image we should shape ourselves into, and how we should live.  I had never thought of worship in this way before.  We constantly worship people, images, clothes, music, friends, and the list goes on.  We worship anything that we put before God on the throne of our hearts and lives.  All of our sin tends to flow from misplaced worship.  When we take Christ off of the throne of our hearts and lives and replace Him with something else that we deem more of a priority that is when we begin to fall back into sin.  When the Word and my relationship with Jesus take a backburner to something else, that in when I am falling into sin.  When pleasing God, worshiping God, and serving God are my focus, I am in tune with the Holy Spirit and His daily leading of my life.  When I drift away from that as I so often do that is when I am going to live a life that does not reflect Christ.  I am reflecting what is on the throne of my life whether that be my ego, my friends, my desires, or my Savior.  It is a daily decision to follow Christ.  The question is: Who will I worship today?