Year C, Lent 4 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
This
Gospel reading is one of the most well-known parables in the Bible and also the
parable that responsible siblings everywhere love to hate. It’s often called “The Prodigal Son” which is
somewhat of a misnomer. The word
prodigal doesn’t appear in the text, but it refers to the behavior of the
youngest son who wasted his father’s money living recklessly. Later the older brother accused him of
wasting his money on prostitutes, but those are just accusations of an angry
brother. There is no point in adding on
more sins to those of the younger brother.
If we focus on the sins of the sons rather than the love of the father,
we miss the point of the story. More
recent biblical translations refer to this story as the “lost sons” or the
“loving father.”
When
considering the parable, a good place to start is the first three verses. These verses show us why Jesus is telling
this story. Jesus didn’t just tell
stories because he liked telling stories. They were often in response to
questions or even comments that people around him made. This story is a reaction to the comment that
the Pharisees and Scribes were making. They said, “This fellow welcomes sinners
and eats with them.” I think we often
read this and think, oh, sinners like me…these weren’t people who did something
horrible, they were just regular old sinners.
But what if these people who Jesus was eating with were cruel or
violent? Would you want to share a meal
with someone who sold drugs to children, someone who trafficked people? It’s quite possible that these were the kind
of people Jesus was sharing a meal with.
This is not to say that he was condoning what they did. No doubt, he
encouraged them to change and be better.
We
can better understand where the Pharisees and Scribes were coming from if we
imagine these sinners as those people who are hurting others…who are actually
causing harm to our world. Consider the
reaction Trump got when he had dinner with a Nazi sympathizer several years
ago. It was a pretty strong reaction. Now,
I am not comparing Trump to Jesus, but we definitely judge people based on who
they spend time with. Jesus was becoming
kind of high profile by that time which meant that who he chose to dine with,
sent a message.
It was in reaction to those comments
that Jesus told this story. The reason
that people are now calling this story “the
parable of the lost sons,” is because there were two parables that came right
after the comment from the Pharisees and Scribes, but before Jesus told the
story of the lost sons. The first story
is of a shepherd who has 100 sheep. One
wanders off and the shepherd goes after the one and leaves the 99. Jesus concludes that parable by saying, “there will be more joy in heaven over one
sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no
repentance.” The next story is a woman with 10 silver coins who loses one and
goes to considerable effort to find that one.
She rejoices with friends and family when she finds it and the story
concludes with, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner who repents.” These two parables
show the importance of the lost being found and repentance.
Thus
it would make sense that the next parable would also be focused on those who
are lost. The youngest son is literally
lost in a faraway place. They had no
idea if he would ever come home. They probably assumed that he wouldn’t. But what about the older son, was he
lost? In many ways, he was. Despite the fact that he obviously has a very
loving father, who came outside to beg him to come in, he said that he had worked
as a slave for him. That is the way he
saw working on a farm and land that he would inherit. That’s an important point. While the younger son had a small portion of
the inheritance, the older son would inherit all the rest.
Despite that future inheritance, we can
understand why he was resentful. He had
done everything right while his brother insulted his father by asking for his
inheritance early (which, at the time, was akin to wishing your father dead)
and then wasted it. Then instead of
being reprimanded when he came home, he was given a party. Did the older son
get a party? Nope. The way he saw it,
his father had given him nothing. The
way his father saw it, he had given him everything. He said, “all that is mine is yours.” The
older son just wanted a little recognition for being responsible and
loyal. I think many of us can appreciate
that. But the problem with the older son
is that his need for appreciation had built into resentment, so much so that he
couldn’t even refer to his brother as his brother. He called him, “that son of yours.”
You know what they say about resentment— it’s
like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. The older son was lost. He wasn’t bad or wrong, but he was lost. Remember who was listening to this story--
the Pharisees and the Scribes, the very people who had dedicated their lives to
the faith. Had they gotten a little caught up in the rules and judging people? Sure
they had. Many of them were still good
and faithful people. I imagine it drove them crazy to see this obviously holy
man hanging out with notorious sinners instead of them. They were a little lost
themselves. But notice that Jesus wasn’t
telling them they were bad…he was just telling them that there was room in his
heart for both sets of people, but the place he was going to put his energy,
was with the people who really needed him and were most receptive to him.
In the end, this is a story about the Father’s
love for both sons and God’s love for us.
We are all lost in different ways. We might be someone who has walked
away from our faith and are afraid to return, or maybe afraid of a church that
has wounded us. We might be the one who
has remained committed to our faith over our whole life, but we’ve gotten a
little too comfortable, a little too complacent. Maybe we are upset with the
changes that we see in the church, especially when they come from those new people
who just showed up. It doesn’t matter
what way you are lost, if you are here or watching online, there is a part of
you that wants to be found. Whether you
can admit it or not, you want to be found by God.
While the parable about the sheep and the coin
both mention repentance, the parable of the lost sons doesn’t. We don’t know if
the younger son was sincere in his repentance or if he was just hungry. The
father ran to him before the son could get a word out. I bet it was a lot easier for the younger son
to repent when he saw that his father still loved him. We also don’t know what the older son did?
Did he go inside and greet his brother or did he stay outside and stew? By leaving the story open ended, Jesus was
challenging the Pharisees and also challenging all of us. Can we let go of our
resentments and anger and accept the love of a God whose love doesn’t always
seem fair? Can we admit that we are lost and wanting to be found. I hope so, because what this story tells us
his that God always meets us more than half way. God never stops searching for you.
