[AI translation] I have deliberately not read the well-known story of the prodigal son, because for today's Sunday I only want to talk about the first half. To put it more precisely, what happens to a man when he is separated from God. God willing, and we are alive, I would like to continue next Sunday and tell the joyful part of the same story. That is, what happens then and how it happens when a person from far away finds his way back home to God. So now, through a sad story, let the Word of God speak to us, so that we may recognise ourselves as that boy is moving away from home and going down the slope.For a long time I thought that Jesus, with the figure of the prodigal son, was speaking of the great sinners who, turning their backs on the church, on God, actually throw themselves into the arms of sensual pleasures, into the vices of the world, and become dissipated, physically, spiritually and materially paying the price for the waste of their lives. I then felt myself at a sufficient distance from this bad boy who had so shamefully mistreated his inheritance. But I realised that this sad story was for me and for believers like me, for all of us who are sitting here in church, so beautifully and so decently. It is sad and incomprehensible, but we all have the same instinct that drove that boy away from his home to a far-off foreign land. There is no greater blessing in the world than that there is a God who cares for us, loves us, protects us - and there is no greater foolishness in the world than that we do not need it, that it is burdensome to us, that we should always be doing something else; we are a nuisance to be under his care, we are paralysed by his law, we want to be free of it. Why is it not good for us to be at home, near God? Why don't we feel comfortable with Him and with Him? Why do we always want to get away from Him, this Father, who always wants only good for us? Why is it that we are always more attracted by the force that is visibly bringing us to destruction? What terrible instinct of flight is at work in us, always driving us away from home, out into the far-off foreign land? How is it that we human beings are often so intent on rushing to our own ruin that we cannot endure the bliss of peace with God, and long more for the unpeacefulness of a life away from Him? What mysterious law of heaviness is it that always pulls us downwards more than upwards? Is it not something unnatural, this constant desire to be away from the Father? The pair of swallows must almost forcefully throw their young out of the nest when it is time to fly, and man is eager to untie his wheels from the Lord God, to do something other than what God says and wants!
Perhaps you have not yet recognized this ancient instinct in yourself? Well, let's take a closer look at this boy. How did his falling away begin? "And the younger said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the wealth,' and he divided it between them." What's behind this news story? Distrust of the father. He does not tell him his plans, he does not discuss his troubles with him, he does not have an intimate filial relationship with his father, he does not pour out his heart to him, but demands: 'Give me, Father, what is due, what is due in this life, give me good health, and then I will know what to do with it. Give me happiness, family joy, give me a job, a sufficient income, a way out of trouble, give me strength, bread, rain, sunshine - always give me what I need, and then I will do my own thing, I will live my own life as I please. - Don't you see that this is rebellion, this is not filial love?! I'll manage it independently of you, I'll make my own life out of what you give me, I'll make my own life as I please.
Well, isn't that so? We read that not many days afterwards he moved far away into the country. "Far away in the country" - oh, the spirit with which we relate to work and people in our everyday lives, but very "far away" from the spirit with which we sit here in church before God! The spiritual "country" we live in out in the world is oh so far from the country of God's kingdom! In fact, our lives are lived in that "far country" for us too, far from God, apart from God's will. So which is your true self: the one who lives there, in that far country, full of hatred, envy, secret desires, fears, angry tempers, anxieties, unrest, irresponsible, not caring what the consequences of this prodigal life will be, or the one who falls down before God here at the Lord's table? The movement that the prodigal son made: out into the distance and back to the father's house, we make week by week: we are in a shuttle between God and the distance! But how long do you think it can be done? Will the Father not get tired of it and close the door?
The sad story goes on: 'And after he had spent all, there arose a great famine in that country, and he began to be in need. Then he went to see a citizen of that country..." Here is the tragicomedy of the separation from God: the prodigal son goes away, wants to be free from the father's care, and soon finds himself under the dominion of someone else. The one who could have been a son at home, but was not needed: in a foreign land he becomes a servant. He goes to live with someone. That is always the case. For man always belongs to someone: either to God, or, if not to God, then to one of the "citizens" of the land, that is, to some idol. There is no neutral state of suspension, no neutrality in which man can be absolutely his own master. There is a German proverb that says: if one drives God out of the door, substitute gods will come in through the window. Whether the substitute god, which the man who is independent of God serves and under whose tyranny he is terrified, is called drink, money, tomorrow, competition, office boss, cancer, it is all the same. But it is always the case that a man who has moved "far from God" to a "country far from God" is "taken away to a citizen of that country". So: worse off! But he thought that this would make him free, if he would make himself independent of God, and look what he has become! After a short time of pleasure, slavery! This is the constant law of the spiritual life.
I read somewhere the other day this curious expression, "a God-free zone". Well, it means that we don't want to be totally independent of God, only partially. Yes, we all have these God-free zones in our lives, areas from which we exclude God. Whenever we take an area of our life out of God's influence in this way, and such a God-free zone emerges, what happens is not what man expected, that he would dominate this area by himself, by himself alone, but that as soon as I squeeze God out on one side, substitute gods will come in on the other side and occupy that area. Let me illustrate this with a very general and typical example: the sexual area of our lives. There are very many people who take this area of their lives out of God's control, and say that satisfying sexual impulses is not a moral issue, but a purely physical process, no more God's business than if I am thirsty I drink a glass of water. Man believes that if he makes this area of his life God-free, he will finally be free of the inhibitions, the shackles that bind and restrain him. Behold, one can now do what one wants with oneself, one is free at last! He is free from God. But is he really free? What is happening? The instinct which man thought he would now be able to satisfy freely is not satisfied, but satisfied. This instinct grows tyrannical in him, becomes unleashed, becomes a destructive tyranny, overwhelms everything. It takes man to a place where he does not want to go: total sexual chaos. Behold, when one takes his instincts out of the power of God, his instincts become gods.
And in the same way, if you take your material goods, for example, out of God's will: money immediately becomes god, or the same thing happens with your family, your talents, your health, your illness, your time - everything! Everything can become a god that you have not set aside to serve the one living God. What happens to every prodigal son is that as soon as he moves to a far country, he goes to live with someone. A servant, of course! It's a bitter end to this downward slope. "And he sent him into his fields to keep swine... And when he was come to himself, he said, "How many of my father's servants are filled with bread, and I am starving to death" (Luke 15:15b, 17). That's what the substitute gods do when the true one is abandoned. This is what he gains: degradation to beasts, food for swine, hunger, war, unhappy lives, family tragedies, ruined destinies, hell on earth!
And for all this man is willing to blame God: why does he allow so much trouble, suffering, hurt, wickedness to ruin his life? Sometimes we almost want to take God to court, so that we can give Him our opinion so thoroughly. And God seems to allow it. In the book of Micah, there is a passage where it is said that God is calling the people: Well then, make confession against me, accuse me, tell me in peace, what have I done wrong? It is said of Picasso that he once painted all the horror, the senselessness, the horror of war in a terrible picture. And it happened that during the occupation, a German officer visited the painter, caught his eye on the horrific picture and asked in astonishment: 'Haben Sie das gemacht?' (Did you do that?) The painter is said to have looked at the officer sternly and replied: 'Nein! Das haben Sie gemacht!" (No! You did that!) And I can imagine the fire in Picasso's eyes at that sentence.
I wonder if the Almighty God would not say the same to us, when we would point to the ruins, the misery, the suffering, the many tragedies of this world and accuse Him: 'You did it, Lord! He would point back at us: me? I have told you not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to covet, not to love others! Have you made your lives hell and blame Me? But I am not the cause: 'Nein! Das habt ihr gemacht!" (No! You did that!) And even the Lord God sometimes flashes in his eyes some fearful fire! But there is something else there too: a tear, like the tear in the eyes of Jesus when he said that in Jerusalem no stone would be left unturned. Yes, God is grieved for the prodigal man! He suffers for him! Oh, how terribly he suffers! And therefore the prodigal son is not yet lost! That is why his situation is not hopeless even there, in utter bankruptcy! For there too the Father loves him, there too he counts him as his own sweet child.
We will talk in more detail about the return of the prodigal son, but for now I will just say that today the door of the Father's house is still open, today you are still welcome home, and so am I. In fact someone came after us from the Father, another son came after us, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ. He is the most faithful image of our heavenly Father in heaven, who suffered for us, through whom the Father says: I still love you! I'm still waiting for you at home! I forgive you everything, come!
In the cruel hustle and bustle of this life today, oh, how many of us do not even have time to realize what a young man once expressed: "I am lost and I do not know where. Well, you will find yourself, you will find all the joy and happiness that you have ever longed for in your most beautiful dreams, if you see the image of the suffering heavenly Mother, Jesus on the cross, and believe what it tells you, that He still loves you.
So come home, the door is open, Our Father is waiting! Don't be afraid, don't be reluctant, don't delay, come home!
Amen
Date: 15 November 1959.
Lesson
Mik 6,1-8