Sept 2021 Message
I love adventure movies, they always have a hero. When we’re young I imagine most of us have had thoughts of being the hero at one point or another. The Bible has stories with heroes. Sampson is one because despite all he went through he still killed many of Israel’s enemies. Moses is another, his life did not go as he planned and yet he triumphed in the end and led Israel out of Egypt.
I recently reread the story of the prodigal son. I realized that his story shows us that in reference to salvation we will never be the hero in our own story. It will never be about our apology to God or our actions or confessions or even our repentance. By ourselves even our best efforts contain imperfections and possibly the wrong motives.
In the story of the lost son you will read how he had a speech all prepared to give his father. He tried to give it but it was overcome by the joyful and exuberant response of his father at his return. Whatever the motivation for the son’s return the father lavished him with undeserved and unearned favor.
Some people think that in order to have a relationship with God you need to beg forgiveness for all your life’s sins and that you need to continue to beg forgiveness. People feel they need to change their lives before they can approach God; that they need to end an addiction or make restitution for past wrongs before God will forgive them.
Remember the man crucified with Jesus wasn’t told to get off his cross and pay back for all his crimes. He wasn’t told that simply asking Jesus to remember him wasn’t begging enough. He was told “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) Notice in the parable the lost son didn’t work for years to earn the money to pay back his father for what he squandered.
Our honest desire to have God in our lives is important but it is God who is the hero in the story of our lives. It is his grace, mercy and love that is most important; if it was not then all our honest intentions might be for nothing.
Should we pray to God when we know we did something wrong, of course. But out prayer should not be a begging for forgiveness, it should be an acknowledgement that we are already forgiven by his grace. It should be a request for help and strength to not do the same thing again.
As humans our relationships and motivations can be complicated, our desire for God may go up and down as we negotiate the ups and downs of our lives but we all can be confident in God’s motivation. “This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
I pray the love, peace and blessings of our Lord are yours always.