By William L. Self
Now, just for fun, I want to do what Dan Rather did. I want to interview these people, starting with the prodigal son.
Interviewer: "Why did you leave home, break your father's heart, take one-third of the family net worth? Why did you leave home and do that?"
Prodigal son: "I did it because I could."
Interviewer: "Why did you spend that money on riotous living, women of ill repute, people with bad reputations? Why did you do it?"
Prodigal son: "I did it because I could."
Interviewer: "Why did you end up in the pig farm, eating slop for your meals? Why did you do that?"
Prodigal son: "I did it because I could."
Advertisement
Then I would go into the barn to see the hardworking, elder brother. I would put the microphone in his face and ask him a question.
Interviewer: "You stayed home all these years, and you are as smug and pious as you can be. Why is it that you are that way about your brother? Why did you respond that way when your brother came home and your father rejoiced?"
Older son: "I did it because I could."
Then I would find the old man with a chiseled face, puffy eyes from crying and praying over his two boys who were sinful, and now on a walker.
Interviewer: "Why, why, why did you welcome that boy home? He made you poor; he destroyed your net worth; he broke your heart; he caused your wife to be an invalid, he tore the heart out of everything that you believed and owned. Why did you receive him home?"
The old man: (With a tear in his eye) "I welcomed him because I could."
That is God. You may have expressed your freedom and destroyed your family and friends, destroyed your business and your reputation. You may have expressed your freedom, wrapped a robe of righteousness around yourself, and felt superior to all of those who have wandered away in their rebellion. Your attitude is an expression of your freedom.
But God provided a cross and that cross is there for one reason -- because God wants us to know that salvation is difficult. If you have a flip idea that you sin, then run in and God will forgive you, and then do it over and over again -- no! Sin abounds but grace abounds more. It is a cross in the heart of God that bleeds because of God's love for us.
Why did the Father do it? Why would the Son of God die for the sins of the world? Because we are in the Far Country, and we have gone there because we could. His word to us now is to come home, to get out of the Far Country and to come back because the Father opens His arms to us. Whatever we have done, He opens His arms to us because He can and because He would.
_____________________
William L. Self is Senior Pastor of Johns Creek Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA.