GOING NOWHERE!
A regular occurrence in Pickering Market Place. Unfortunately!
This ancient Market Town wasn’t designed with motorists in mind, so when too many of them want to traverse its Market Place there is gridlock.
The number of older residents means there’s a higher than average number of disabled drivers for whom double yellow lines are a parking space. Add to them delivery vehicles and those who think the highway code is for other people, and scenes like this become a daily event.
For all our intelligence, ingenuity, and technology there are times when we get stuck.
Jesus’ Parable about the LOST sheep, coin and son in Luke’s Gospel chapter fifteen inform us that its our choices that get us in trouble, and that only when we are ready to admit we’ve come to an end of ourselves can our mess be untangled.
The sheep was lost because it was silly, the coin through someone’s negligence, but the boy is lost because he chooses to get far away from all who love and care for him.
Luke 15:14–16 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
He’s fallen out of the good life, into a world where pigs eat better than he does! He’s in a jam!!
Back in the Market Place, there was a lot of maneuvering going on, and some even had to go into reverse.
As drivers acknowledged their mistakes, one by one the mess was unraveled and order was restored.
We don’t know how long the boy in Jesus’ parables was stuck at the end of his line, but we do know that when ‘he came to his senses’ he could see the way out: –
Admit He Was Wrong, Go Back Home and Cast Himself Upon His Father’s Mercy.
Jesus calls it ‘repentance’ – A change of heart that results in a change of mind and then of direction.
Matthew 4:17 (NKJV) From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Luke 5:32 (NKJV) I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Luke 13:3 (NKJV) I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
To repent is to change your mind. However, this only defines the word, not the concept, for you need to ask, Change your mind about what? … If repentance is understood to mean changing your mind about your sin—being sorry for your sin—this will not necessarily save. There are plenty of criminals in and out of jails who are repentant in this sense. They are sorry for making certain mistakes, but this does not mean they give up a life of crime. People can be sorry for their sins without wanting to accept the forgiveness of a Saviour. But if repentance means changing your mind about the particular sin of rejecting Christ, then that kind of repentance saves, and of course it is the same as faith in Christ. C. C. Ryrie Repentance isn’t feeling. It is turning from sin to God. One of the best definitions was given by a soldier. Some one asked him how he was converted. He said:“The Lord said to me, Halt! Attention! Right about face! March! and that was all there was in it.” D. L. Moody
The Way Out of His Jam was to turn from the tangled mess he’d made of his dead end life and go home!
Believing his father would receive him, he’s ready to consign himself to the most menial tasks necessary – To his great delight and benefit – When he reaches home there’s a welcome and he’s embraced as a long lost son.
This Is Jesus Message for All of Us –
Left to ourselves we get get into such a jam that there’s no way forward, someone has to give way – and when you do you will find the relief and freedom of forgiveness and restoration to the family of the God and Father of all mankind.
Luke 15:21–24 (NKJV) And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.