From the tavern to the pig sty

In less than 550 words, the Master Teacher Jesus narrates a powerful redemption story.

^{This story has a hero, a villain, a seemingly unimportant character with a critical role to play, an underdog and the one who reports the big news. This story has a painful beginning, a long wait, the climax and the thought-provoking ending. This parable is found only in the Gospel according to Luke and is never lost even among around 30 parables.}

^{At different points of my life, I have been able to relate to the 5 different characters mentioned: The father who made a decision to let go of something he could not keep forever, the son who sought out his own path, the unimportant character of the son’s employer who was critical in God’s plan, the older brother who resented being the responsible one and the servant who carries the great news!}

^{This story stands out poignantly, because even if you do not relate to anyone in this story, it still has the potential to be the story of all of us.}

^{1.       We are all deeply loved by Our Father and let go to express our own free will.}

^{2.       We all start out sinning with no awareness of it, are eager to be happy and successful in what we do, mess up (some of us mess up really big time) and have to find ourselves in a ‘rock bottom’ place, before we can find our way home.}

^{3.       We all have social relationships with so many people whom we don’t bother to get to know or care about, even though God can use us to play a critical role in their lives.}

^{4.       We can all be bearers of good news and still manage to say it in a way that sounds like bad news to the listener.}

^{5.       We all have ‘what ifs’, ‘but whys’ and ‘oh, whens’ that leave us thoroughly unprepared to handle God’s scandalous grace.}

^{And the most mysterious thing of all is that while God is chalking out my salvation story, He can simultaneously have me play a critical role in someone else’s salvation story. I don’t have to be all finished and polished to be used by Him. I only have to be willing to play the part he assigns me at any point of time.}

^{This morning,  Jesus showed me something new in this story, the critical steps the ‘prodigal son’ and indeed most of God’s lost children have to take in order to make the long journey from the tavern to the pig sty.}

^{Of course, the journey began in the safehouse of God Himself, a safety we must inevitably leave, if even for a little while, to truly appreciate what a faithful Father we have. Why did the father give his son his inheritance prematurely? Just because he asked for it? (Luke 15:12) Even though they both knew it was sinful for the son to make such a demand, (Luke 15:18) a demand that screamed: “ I can’t wait for you to die, old man!” Was the father too old to fight back for his own rights and his son’s salvation? Or did the father know that He would never win his son back unless he let him go, even if he had to pay the heavy price of half his wealth for it?}

^{The son’s journey truly began when the father let him go. Whether we struggle to let our children walk without staying right beside their baby steps or whether we struggle to watch our adult children choose a life of sin, we have to accept that the son’s journey would never have begun until the father let him go. And being freely let go of the father’s protective custody and will, the son could find his own wobbly spiritual feet and take steps that he would have to face the most serious consequences for. So, this son chose to gather what was not lawfully his yet, travelled far away from his father’s presence and guilt-provoking gaze and squandered all his ill-gotten gain in what would have been a fast, giddy-headed, delirium so strong that his father’s tears caused him no pain.}

^{And then the most important part of his journey began: from the tavern to the pig sty. In all the prayer requests I’ve heard for lost souls, I’ve always heard that clarion call to pray for their safe return. But when it is they themselves who are the only ones who can choose to start a journey back home, I think we must pray they make the trip from the tavern to the pig sty well.}

^{You see at the tavern, there’s still the high of the liquor, the company of the farther-fallen and the money to support all the delusions in the world. But when the tavern owner has to kick the son to the curb because the money has run out, the son is propelled into the most important part of the journey.}

^{When the money runs out, the bottle runs dry, the ‘friends’ run far.}

^{When the money runs out, the famine can hit hard enough, the hunger pangs felt strong enough.}

^{When the money runs out, the shame sends him job hunting, the workplace becomes a place of God’s greatest work.}

^{When the money runs out, he could reach the pig sty, that glorious place where the stench all around is not as repulsive as the reflection of one’s own sin.}

^{It is the journey from the tavern to the pig sty that becomes the most holy space of God’s handwork: the space that God can speak without any interruptions, the space where the lost can listen to the sound of their own conscience again. And there in that filthy place, that most sacred space, God could flood the son with his scandalous grace. It was not the poverty or hunger that got the son to admit he had sinned. No one could get him to admit that. It was God’s grace in the pig sty that showed him that he had willingly given up so much love and willingly chosen so much sin. It is God’s grace that brought him to the great ‘coming to his senses’. For some it takes greater sin and much greater consequences to reach this ‘pig sty’ place. Blessed are the ones whose eyes are opened to see our own sin, whose hearts are open to admit our own losses and whose minds are open to give ourselves the just consequences.}

^{Those of us who have already walked that long road home in tense anticipation of the father’s reaction, can pray for those still sitting in the tavern:}

^{Lord, bring them quickly from the tavern to the pig sty.}

^{Lord, let the filth of their own sin be overwhelmed by your scandalous grace.}

^{Lord, keep the ring, robe and fatted calf ready for the perfect time of their arrival.}

^{Lord, let your servants go out with great joy to announce the salvation of the lost without putting off those who have never begun this great journey at all.}

^{Lord, bring them quickly from the tavern to the pig sty.}

^Amen.