An Heir Apparent

An Heir Apparent

Romans 8:14-17

            In Out of the Salt Shaker and Into the World, Rebecca Manley Pippert discusses the story of the Prodigal Son.  She refers to him as “the heir apparent” after he returns home.  His father has placed sandals on his feet, a rich robe over his shoulders, and a ring on his finger.  Pippert says he still looks terrible from his days of living and eating with the pigs, and from his long journey home, but he is dressed like the heir apparent.

            Which, of course, he is—one of two, but still an heir.  He is no longer a prodigal.  He was not received as a slave.  He is a member of the family.  He may have been a prodigal, but his father won’t let him be anything but a royal son.

            I prefer the image of a prodigal child to that of an adopted child to describe those who have acknowledged Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Paul favors the metaphor of adoption, and I understand why.  Paul was a Jew, one of God’s chosen people.  He’d taken a huge cultural step when he accepted his mission as apostle to the Gentiles, and he devoted his life to bringing them to Christ.  But for him, they were outside the family of God until they were adopted in.

            I believe that we are all God’s children—wayward perhaps, lost perhaps, but still God’s children.  We were made by God.  God is our heavenly parent.  We don’t need to be adopted into the family.  What we need is to find our way back home.

            Jesus didn’t make a distinction between Jew and Gentile.  Yes, he said he had been sent to redeem the lost sheep of Israel.  His primary mission was to fulfill the law and the prophets.  Still, he visited the region of Tyre and Sidon—outside Jewish territory.  There he healed the daughter of a Syrophoenecian (read Gentile) woman and fed four thousand people.  The five thousand Jesus fed (Mark 6) were Jews.  The four thousand (Mark 8) were Gentiles.  We know the demon-possessed man Jesus healed in the country of the Gerasenes (Mark 5) must have been a Gentile.  No Jew would have chosen to be a swineherd.

            Paul does say that God makes no distinction between Jews and Greeks.  We know he accepts the Gentile believers as his brothers and sisters in Christ.    In today’s reading, he makes that clear: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons [and daughters] of God.”  We have been redeemed from slavery and given our freedom.  Like the prodigal son coming home, we have resumed our place in the family of God. My disagreement with Paul is about the origin of that relationship.

            Let’s skip the adoption bit and look at Paul’s next statement.  As God’s children, we can say Father—literally, Daddy!  “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…”  Whatever our mode of coming into the family, adoption or return, we are in.  But wait!  There’s more!

            If we are children, then we are heirs, “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”  As long as we stay the course—remain in relationship with God—we are not only welcome at the family table now, but assured of being heirs in the age to come.

            When we think of the Prodigal Son story, we usually place ourselves on the outside looking in.  Perhaps we are guests at the party given in the son’s honor, or townsfolk looking in the windows.  Now—put yourself inside the story.  It’s you with good shoes on your feet.  It’s you wearing the royal robe.  It’s you wearing the signet ring.  Look at the story from that perspective.

You are the heir apparent. 

Doesn’t it feel good?