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The Uncultivated Son

What would happen if every time your parents teach you something and you disobey? You would be yelled at or hit, wouldn't you? For example, your mother told you that when you were on the way to school, you should walk on the sidewalk and should not take a shortcut or climb over a fence; but you didn't listen and climbed over the fence, so you were fallen down. On the way home, you mother saw scratches on your arms and legs; your cloth was tore; and so you were punished. Many of you may think that, when you accidentally made mistake and if your parents love you, they shouldn't hit you; otherwise, they didn't love you if they hit you. In fact, parents love you and do not ever want to hit you. However, since they want you to become good people, they have to have disciplines to teach you when you make mistake.

One day, Jesus told a story about a son, who didn't listen to his parents and only wanted to do things om his own way. Jesus told that there was a man who had two sons. The older son worked hard and helped his parents; however, the younger one was in reverse, lazy, didn't help things around the house, and only wanted to go play. Since the father was rich and usually satisfied his children, so the children usually got what they wanted. Even so, the younger son didn't satisfied with what he had; he always dreamed to come to the city and enjoy as much as he wanted.

One day, the younger brother came and talked to his father: "Father, please give me the will that you have planned to give it to me. I want that money right now." Since the father was still alive but his son had already asked for his will, so he was very sad. Moreover, he didn't want to divide his will to his children because they haven't grown old enough to know how to spend the money and could not move out to live by themselves yet. Maybe the son kept whining days and days, so the father finally divided his will to both of his son. The younger son had the money in his hand, so he was very happy. Several days later, he took all that money and went on his way for a trip; he had come to a strange place. The father had tried many ways to stop his son, but he couldn't; therefore, he had to let his son go.

The son happily took all his will to come to the city. There, he freely enjoyed and spent the money. He made friends with bad people; these friends brought him to the bad places and enticed him to waste his money. Maybe sometimes, this young man thought about his old father at home and knew that his father would not be happy when his father saw him to lead his life with pleasures and spent his money like that. But he thought by himself: "My father lives too far away, how he would know how I live." This young man continued to put his head into the parties, singing, drinking, gambling, … Around him there were many friends; those bad friends enticed him into the evil places.

Because of wasting his money, it was very soon that his money was all gone. The young man was surprised when he knew that he had spent all the will from his father. When his closed friends knew that he ran out all his money, they eventually distanced from him. No one came and asked him to go out any more. The young man didn't have any penny left to buy food. At that time, in this area, there was a bad famine. The young man was looking for his old friends, but all of them ignored him; no one helped him, and no one recognized him as their friend.

The young man's situation was very sorry at that time. Alone by himself lived in a strange city, no family, no relative, no friend to help him, also no money in his pocket. He had enjoyed his life ever since and didn't know what to do to make a living. It would be too embarrassing to be a beggar on the street. Moreover, everyone was hungry, so no one would help a poor man.

Finally, he didn't know what to do differently, the young man from a rich family had to be a pig breeder to live through days. To Israelites, pig was a filthy thing; to breed pig would be a low and despicable job; but this young man didn't have any other job, so he had to accept this job to not hungry. Even so, his boss didn't feed him enough, so some days he was too hungry and he ate the bean skins from pig's food, but no one let him eat that.

When he said good bye to his family, the young man wore nice cloth, money was full in his pocket, he was happy to leave. Now, his face was dirty; his cloth was tore and had bad smell; his body was very thin; he was fully disappointed, hopeless, and self-pity. Those were truly two opposite pictures. Sitting by the pigs, hungry, and sad, the young man was thinking about his family. Thinking about his loving father, happy family, he suddenly woke up and knew that he was so foolish. Because of disobeying his father, leaving home, he had to be very miserable like that. He was thinking: In my father home, the servants have plenty of food, but I am hungry here. Well, I should go home and say sorry to my father; ask him to let me be his servant in his home; that's even more happier. Thought so, the young man asked his boss to quick his current job and was on his way to come back home.

From the day his son left home, the father was very worry. Every day, he came to the door and stood there to see if his son had came home yet. He hoped that one day his son would come back and repent what he did. That day, he came to the door as every other days; suddenly, he saw from far away there was a person who was coming toward him. He was waiting, but seeing that person was wearing ragged cloth, so he thought that might be a mendicant. But carefully looked again, he saw that person looked familiar. He thought by himself, would that be my son? When that person came near him, he was surprised; the person, who wore the ragged dirty cloth, was his loving son.

With no doubt in his mind, the father ran out on the street to greet his son. He was happy to hug his loving son into his arms. Seeing his father again, the young man was embarrassed and regretted, so he said: "Father, I truly have sins to God and you; I don't deserve to be called your son any more." But the father didn't pay attention to what his son said. Able to see his loving son again, he was very happy, he hurried to take his son into the house and called his servants: "Hurry, bring the best cloth for my son to wear, wear a ring on his figure, wear shoes to his feet. Take a fat cow and cook it. We will celebrate because my son was died but now lived again, was lost and now was found." Everybody in the family was happy to prepare for a big party to celebrate the uncultivated son had come home.

God created us. He is the Loving Father; He always love and take care us. If you don't believe in Him and don't do what God teaches you, you are the same as the uncultivated son, who had left God to following to the sinful way. God's also waiting for you to repent your sins and come back to Him. Believe in God, worship Him, and obey His Words. God will forgive you and you will be His children.

If you want to be God's children, you should talk to Him like this: "Dear God, I have made many mistakes. I lied, was jealous, disobeyed my parents, and didn't worship God. Please forgive my sins and accept me as Your child. I pray in the name of Jesus, Amen." If you truly ask God like that, God will accept your words, forgive your sins, and you will become His children.

QUESTIONS:

  1. How many son were there in this story?
  2. When having the money, what did the second son do?
  3. What made that son came back to his father?
  4. Please tell the things we do that make God sad.
  5. What should we do to become one of God's children?

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Written by Minh Nguyen
Translated by Ngo Ngoc Di



© 2003 Vietnamese Christian Broadcast and its Audio Content Provider. Used With Permission.