This is drawn from a post I made on another forum. It concerned a painting by Rembrandt, the "Return of the Prodigal". The most significant figure in the picture - rather than the prodigal son himself - could be seen to be the son who stayed at home and "fulfilled all righteousness". He looks on upon the reconciliation between the Father and the prodigal with a certain degree of incomprehension. It just seems to me that sometimes the "christian life" becomes not a self-emptying/sanctification, but often a transformation back into the incomprehension of the son who stayed at home. The "choice" for God, the "seeking" for God, have become "works", works which are then thrown in the face of those who have made no such choice, who have not sought with quite the same degree of endeavour that we ourselves have made.
