In the story of the prodigal son, the son found himself destitute and in great need and came to his senses.  He concluded that the servants in his Father’s house had it better than he did, and he would return and be content with being a servant.  He did not expect that he would be owed anything from his Father.  After all, he had left his Father and been gone a long time, living in ways that dishonored his Father and went against who he truly was.  The son’s only expectation was to humble himself to his Father by acknowledging how wrong he was and offering to be a servant to improve his dire situation.

We all know the story.  The Father ran out to meet the son because all the Father ever wanted was a relationship with the son.  The Father ignored the humble plea of the son and restored him to son status.  But we cannot disregard that although the son returned in desperate need to a Father he knew had more than enough to help him.  He returned in humility of heart, prepared now to live as a servant, knowing that even servants in His Father’s house had it better than he did.  He did not think he deserved to be a son any longer but would be satisfied with being a servant.

I’ve heard many present this story in such a way that when they were done, the Father is depicted as being overly needy of the son’s attention and perhaps may have been trying to win his affection back.  It would not be fair to the story to ignore the actual condition of the son’s heart upon returning.

There’s no prodigal son story that depicts the son returning as though he were doing the Father a favor by doing so.  We do not have a counter-story that shows us what the Father’s response would have been had the son returned in pride with unrealistic expectations.  If we ignore the humility that led the prodigal to realize how much better off he might be back at his Father’s house, even as a servant, we may think the Father’s reaction would be the same under any condition a son might be seen returning.

What if the son returned home in pride with many expectations, and if they were not met, he got offended and accused the Father of wrongdoing and left once again, expecting his departure would punish the Father and make the Father come around to meet his expectations?

This is what I would call a placebo-prodigal.

The church has experienced many placebo prodigals during its history.  Many families, I am sure, have as well.  You may have had such an experience, and the enemy has used it to accuse and condemn you falsely.

Perhaps you are a parent who has a prodigal.  Perhaps you thought that prodigal was coming home with a desire to have a relationship after realizing that the relationships they had forged out in the world only took advantage of them and that their way of life had not produced the peace, joy, and prosperity that they thought it might. They could see how a relationship with you would be better and that your way of living had produced better results.

But you later discovered that they had returned with the idea that by just showing back up, they were doing you a favor, and they expected you to jump through hoops now to keep them around.  They returned with a silent list of expectations. You discovered you were not meeting those expectations after they became offended and began to accuse you of wrongdoing towards them and departed once again.

I want to help those who get these devotionals and have experienced what might be a placebo prodigal son or friendship in their life.  You deeply desired a relationship again but were unaware of the lack of humility and recognition of the worth of such a relationship with you on their part.  You put yourself out there hoping things would be restored, only to be accused of wrongdoing for not meeting their unspoken expectations.  Don’t beat yourself up, and don’t allow the enemy to condemn you falsely.  I encourage you not to allow a placebo prodigal situation to ruin the idea of receiving prodigals back and prevent you from discerning true prodigal situations in the near future and avoid the beauty of seeing real prodigal relationship restorations.  Good, healthy, right relationships will always be valuable treasures worth our investment.