“The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’”
Luke 15:12
In Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, the younger son gets his money and goes to live as far away from his father as he can. But he squanders his money, and then Jesus says, “A severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need” (15:14).
So, he got a job feeding pigs, and the pigs were fed, but he was hungry. Then Jesus says, “He came to himself.” The son reasoned, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants’” (15:17-19).
The son said, “Just give me my money! Let me live my own life!” There was real hostility there. Apart from God’s grace, this is our natural condition: “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God” (Rom. 8:7). We shake our fists at God. It’s been like this ever since the Garden of Eden.
But then the son came to his senses, and he thought again about his father, My father’s hired servants have more than enough bread. And he thought again about himself, Here I am starving to death (15:17). This is a moment of great honesty, This isn’t working. I’m starving to death, while my father’s men have food to spare. What am I thinking?
That’s where repentance begins: Why am I living at a distance from God? Why am I fighting Him? What am I trying to prove? He changed his mind and then he was able to move, “And he arose and came to his father” (15:20). Repentance is a change of behaviour that flows from a change of mind about God and about yourself.
Do you need to think again about God the Father? About yourself?
