These brothers. I’d like us to look at them through this fictive lens. Consider that they are twins—identical in every way except they seem to be nothing at all alike. 

Brother #1, the older son, did everything right—stayed with the family business, worked hard, honored his parents, followed all the rules to the letter, became a good citizen and an upstanding man of God. Or so it seemed. 

Brother #2, the younger son, did everything wrong—left the family business, cashed out his inheritance, dishonored his parents, broke all the rules with wild abandon, became a foreigner in a foreign land and, in fact, a paid slave of another master, a downtrodden reprobate. Or so it seemed. 

Again, our manmade biblical headings betray the Bible. They say something like, “The Prodigal Son” or “The Lost Son.” 

Here’s the revelation. Both sons were equally lost—one in desperation in the far country, the other one in deception in the family home.

The Father ran to the son who had been lost in the far country. Notice how the son responded:

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (v. 21)

The Father also went to his older son, who refused to see his brother, even to come into the house. Notice how this son responded:

But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” (vv. 29–31) 

The condition of the older son and brother’s soul is now revealed—equally lost and still no idea of it. 

There are some among us whose life and story mirrors that of the younger son. Those are the ones who write hymns like: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” There are many more among us who thankfully never had to experience the desperation of slavery to sin in the far country. Sadly, though, they have lived their lives in the quiet slavery of an assumed salvation built on their apparently good life. 

It’s why we need a better understanding of sin. Sin is not bad behavior, and righteousness is not good behavior. Sin is sickness. It is like cancer. Because of the fallenness of our forbearers, everyone is born with sin cancer. Some smoke two packs of cigarettes a day and wind up suffering the awful symptoms of lung cancer. Others suffer a more silent and apparently symptom-free colon cancer and by the time it is detected they are already destroyed and there is no presenting cause. The two patients are like twins—identical in every way except they seem to be nothing at all alike.

Perhaps that’s the biggest deception of all. We think we are sinners because we sin. We don’t understand that we sin because we are sinners. Our sins are the symptoms and they can be great or relatively mild. It matters not. The sickness is capital “S” sin itself. That’s the cancer and it will kill us all. 

But there is a cure. And it has a 100-percent cure rate. His name is Jesus. But you’ve got to know you are sick to ask for the cure. 

That’s the big problem with the idea of a prodigal son. We are all prodigals—lost sons and broken daughters—every single one of us. We were born that way. 

So which kind of prodigal are you? 

PRAY

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, to reveal our real condition whether we feel it or not, whether we think we’ve got the record of a sinner or not. Open the eyes of our hearts to know and understand and perceive our true, deep sickness, which is sin. And, even more so, Lord, open our eyes to break free from the deception that we don’t sin. We’re all prodigals. And we all need to be found and rescued and set free. Come, Holy Spirit, and apply the healing blood of Jesus to our sin cancer and make us whole. In Jesus’s name, amen.

JOURNAL

What questions does this entry raise for you today?

SING

Today, we will sing “The Old Rugged Cross” (hymn 236) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.

For the Awakening,

J. D. Walt

John David (J. D.) Walt Jr. is the Sower-in-Chief for Seedbed and the pastor of the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas. 

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