A party appeared out of nowhere. What could have sparked such a rapturous scene? The noise of feasting could not be missed. Such was the speed of events that the heir of the estate seemed to be the last to know. When collaring one of the servants he heard from him the last thing on earth he ever wanted to hear: “Your brother’s back!”How could this have happened? Surely, he was well-shot of the boy. Now he is back and everyone was acting as though nothing had changed. He was not about to lower himself by entering the same room as ‘he who is sullied by sin.’ No amount of pleading by his father was going to change his mind. His disposition was set:‘Look dad, your renegade son may have returned to you, but he is no-brother-of-mine! The wastrel cashed up early and headed for sin city—what do you expect? How can you take seriously a degenerate who blew family money on booze and prostitutes? And, by the way, since when did I ever get a party thrown in my honour? ’The father was listening to the ranting of his basement-dwelling ‘other’ prodigal son. The one who had everything. The one on whom he knew it was all wasted. If only he had given thought to where it came from. “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found’” (Luke 15:31-32).
John Staiger
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