Why Do Men Rebel?

Rebellion

The parable of the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke is one of the seminal Biblical tales. In it, the father of two healthy sons divides his wealth and property equitably between them, and later willingly allows the younger son to ramble on and go traveling in his youth. The older son remains at home with the father. The younger son sows his wild oats and has a grand time gallivanting, but eventually runs out of money. Before he runs home to his father, he seeks gainful employment as a pig feeder, one of the lowliest positions that he could have imagined, especially given the scriptural admonishment against eating swine. Eventually the young man returned home hoping to seek solace in his father's home. The father welcomes his estranged son with open arms. He is so happy to see him, in fact, that he slaughters a fat calf for a feast in his honor. The older son becomes insanely jealous. He asks his father why, even though he spent years toiling away on his farm, that he never once slaughtered a calf for him. Angry and incensed, the older brother exclaims to his father that throughout all the many years the younger son rebelled, he remained stalwart and steadily working at home. And yet the father shows favor on the prodigal one. Empathetic and kind, the father embraces the envious older son, reminding him that he sincerely loves him. In response he tells his eldest: "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. / It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found," (Luke 15: 31-32).

The story of the prodigal son is one of redemption in spite of sin. As Edwin Louis Cole notes in his book Courage, the parable of the prodigal son teaches readers that men rebel because it is in their nature to rebel. Men rebel mainly because of free will: we rebel because we can. Part of the spiritual learning process entails making mistakes and later realizing our errors and repenting.

Youthful and ignorant, the prodigal son inadvertently sinned against the father. When he "came to himself," or came to his senses, the prodigal son for the first time realized the nature of his sin and rebellion (Luke 15: 17). Repentance and humility are therefore the essence of the parable. Preventing sin entirely is next to impossible, as human beings are inherently prone to rebelling against the father because of the nature of free will. Only through awareness and mindfulness of the tendencies toward rebellion can we possibly avoid rebellion against God. However, no matter how pious and well-meaning a person may be, our actions may be ignorant and sinful.