Where’s the turning point in the parable of the two sons (Luke 15:11–32)? Is it the moment when the young rebel “comes to himself” in the pigsty?
That’s certainly the way the story gets preached. We are encouraged to put ourselves in the sandals of the brat and, likewise, to resolve to make good. In this kind of preaching the prodigal is his own savior, and the listener is urged to follow suit: Clean up your act, prepare your sorry spiel, and return to the Father’s service. This makes it focused on us rather than God, which is what most of us do in our spirituality – make it about us.
But what actually determines the prodigal’s fate? What is the decisive moment for his life? Is it “coming to himself” in the pigsty?
Of course not. He could have devised the greatest repentance plan known to man and still been rightly shunned by his father. The key moment is the father's embrace. The real change in the prodigal—both his change of status and of heart—happens in the arms of the father. That’s where repentance occurs.
Imagine yourself in those arms. You may have been sorry before, but now you loathe yourself—yet you can’t escape his love. You had thought you stank in the sty, now you feel your stench to the core—yet you are held close. You had composed a repentance speech, now your awareness of sin overwhelms—but you’re enfolded in grace.
True repentance occurs in the Father’s embrace. And this is where our ongoing repentance happens. When we sin, do we put ourselves in the pigsty with the long journey home stretching ahead of us? Or do we consider ourselves in the Father’s arms? There’s a big difference.
I remember speaking with a man about his extramarital affair from years earlier. After he spoke about the horror of his infidelity, I said, “Do you realize that, in the midst of that evil, Jesus was rejoicing over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride?” He paused for a long time and said, “That makes it a hundred times worse!” I said, “Yes it does. A thousand times worse.” We think we manage to sin away in a corner somewhere. But the truth is that our sin has effects and some that are quite large.
We might say that we stink like pigs when we sin; but we smell like pigs in the arms of our Father, and that can make a big difference. Repentance has little to do with our resolve, but rather has a lot to do with the Father’s love.
When we sin we are not alone in the sty. We are there in his arms—reeking and held fast. It’s a thousand times worse if we think about our sins while in His arms, but it’s also a million times better.
God bless,