Prodigal Heart
This time of year in North America, we start to see birds making their migration south for warmer climates. It always causes me a small pang of pain in my chest at its sight. Colder weather is upon us and the unknowns of winter weather prompts some anxiety.
It is crazy that the sight of small, winged creatures in a V shape can cause such a rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts. On the flip side when winter is fading, ice is thawing, and the sight of the V is in the sky, it breathes HOPE into my soul. It is a sign that the seasons are changing, and the birds are returning home.
Last Sunday I stood with our congregation for worship. The worship team was leading an excellent set of songs, but my heart was deep in thought and quiet prayer. My soul was interceding for my adult child who has been far away in every respect.
“O LORD, have mercy! Bring back my child.” My words were few but full of sorrow and longing.”
I knew I could not be the only one in that room feeling this way. As the Holy Spirit prompted me, I began to pray for every family there who was in pain from having a prodigal child.
And in that quiet moment, the Lord opened my heart to understand Him.
He understood the deep sorrow and grief that comes from having a prodigal. He came to His own people and was rejected by most.[1] I was led to pray for prodigal Israel.
The Jewish people are very much like the story of the Prodigal Son.
They have rejected the Father[2] and left to go their own way.[3]
I left church that day knowing God had heard my prayers and shared in my grief. It wasn’t a quick fix for my troubled soul, but I felt seen and heard by One who entered into my suffering.
Scripture tells us of how Jesus felt from the initial rejection from the generation that witnessed His visitation. “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it…” (Luke 19:41).
This word “wept” in the Greek is “klaiō.”[4] It means to sob or wail aloud. These are not like my silent tears on a Sunday morning. These are the cries of one in deep pain and mourning.
Matthew describes the narrative as follows:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”
Jesus gives us a vivid picture of what He longed to provide for His people. He compared it to the safety and comfort a hen provides for her chicks.
I’ve heard a story about a farmer who took shelter during a hailstorm. Once the fierce storm had passed, he went out to the barnyard to assess the damage. To his surprise, he found one of his hens had been caught outside the shelter during the storm. Sadly, the hen had died. But when he lifted her lifeless body off the ground, he found all her chicks safely underneath. Her body protected them from the fierce hailstorm.
This is the picture Messiah was trying to convey to His people. He was offering Himself as a shield for the nation. Israel’s national rejection by that generation broke the heart of the Messiah. He wept aloud.
Thankfully there were those who recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah and the church was birthed of Jews and Gentiles during the days that followed. “He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11–13).
God understands the hearts of those waiting for prodigals to come home because He also is waiting. My prayer is for Israel to make a national return to the true Messiah – like a bird led back home from migration.
And for my own chicks, I have entrusted them into the Father’s hands and I wait expectantly.
“But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”
Written by a Life in Messiah staff
Have you experienced (past or present) the aching pain of estrangement from a parent or child? How does the Bible story of the Prodigal Son speak to your heart?
Do you wrestle with the tension caused by those who say they believe in God but cannot accept Jesus as Savior and Lord? What Scriptures would you point them to?
Consider adding a request for Israel’s national repentance to your intercession for family members who have wandered from the faith.
Endnotes:
[1] I am referring to the time when Jesus came on earth and was, by and large, rejected by the Jewish community. It is important to note that not all Jewish people rejected Him. The disciples and apostles were Jewish and believed in Jesus (at great cost). However, on a national level, the Jewish leadership and community rejected Jesus’ claims to be God. Today, Jewish people are considered an unreached people group as less than one percent believe in the Jewish Messiah Jesus.
[2] Jewish people can be found all across the spectrum of religion, from ardent atheists (secular materialists, humanists) to fastidiously observant ultra-Orthodox adherents to rabbinic tradition. Jewish prayers may be addressed to “Avinu, Malkenu” (our Father and our King). So in what sense would we say observant Jewish people have rejected God the Father? In John 8:19 Yeshua stated to Israel’s religious leaders, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” Further, He told them “I and My Father are one” (John 10:29). He also taught His disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6). Rejecting the Son ultimately means rejecting the Father as well.
[3] “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” is Isaiah’s depiction (53:6) of wayward Israel – and indeed, all mankind.
[4] https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2799/nasb20/mgnt/0-1/.