TIN MỪNG CHO NGƯỜI TRẺ: A Tale of Two Sons
There are two sons in this story. The younger son wants his freedom. He is tired of working on for his father. He wants his independence. His father is wealthy, so the son basically says that he wants his inheritance now.
The older son is dutiful and obedient. He does what his father asks of him. He is probably tired of doing tasks his little brother was supposed to do.
The father gives the younger son what he asks for. Imagine your parents giving you a huge sum of money – like a hundred thousand dollars. You can go live how you want. You can buy whatever you like. But if you are not careful, you will run out of money more quickly than you expect.
That is what happened to the younger son, who is called the prodigal son. He just spent the money on whatever he wanted at the moment. And it ran out pretty quickly, so he ended up feeding pigs, and was paid almost nothing. He was so hungry that he wished he could eat the pig food. Eventually, he decides that the people who work for his father are better off than he is, so he decides to swallow his pride and go ask his dad for a job. You know what happens then. The father welcomes him back and forgives everything. He throws a giant feast for him. He is treated even better than before he left.
Now the older son doesn’t like this one bit. He is pretty mad at his dad for welcoming his brother home. Why are there no consequences for wasting all of that money? He feels like his little brother, who really messed up, is being treated better than he ever has been. So he complains about it.
These two brothers show us two dangers we can encounter along the path of discipleship.
The younger brother is an example of just doing whatever we want. He tries living independent of his father’s love and guidance. So we can also think we can just ignore God’s commands and do whatever we want. Without a loving relationship with our heavenly Father, we will stumble, fall, and suffer. And as we develop that relationship, we realize that we never want to walk away from him, even if it means giving up some of our freedom to do whatever we want.
But we can also be like the older brother. He is dutiful, but he is also lacking in love for his father. He is obeying because he thinks it will result in a reward later. This can also be a problem for us as Christians. If we are only following God’s commands out of duty or obedience, then we are also in trouble. Our relationship with God becomes based on expecting a reward instead of on love.
It is not wrong to want to go to heaven, but that should not be our primary motivation. If we are truly disciples of Jesus, we will serve and obey God out of love, not because we are expecting something in return.
So the parable of the prodigal son shows us that either freedom or duty, without love of God, can be an obstacle on the path of discipleship.