In the story of the Prodigal Son the emphasis is almost always on the…well, the prodigal son.
Thus the name I suppose.
Only we gave that story that name—not Jesus. And, as the story kicks off, 2 sons are mentioned not one. Take a look for yourself,
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons…
See? I wasn’t lying. And here’s the problem with throwing all the focus of the story onto the one son…
It’s really about God.
That’s right, the story is about what an awesome, forgiving and loving God we have, not on the slick ingenuity of the young runaway to come home again.
Honestly, the kid was starving and pretty much out of options. Ingenuity?
More like common sense.
But here’s the real danger with focusing on just the younger son who took the money and ran—-you risk coming to the conclusion that what he did is the only way to miss God.
But there are a lot of ways to miss God’s best for your life—more than one way to miss the boat.
Sure, the prodigal represents selfishness and rebellion. He’s the obvious sinner who needed to be broken and repentant. But what about his legalistic, overly opinionated, unmerciful brother?
That dude was pretty quick to run down a list of all the great things he’s done. But, as you come to the end of the story only one thing he did is crystal clear.
He missed God.
There’s more than one way to miss the boat.