March 27, 2022 – Fourth Sunday in Lent
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Luke 15:11-32[1]
The fate of the
younger son in the first part of this parable is something most of us
recognize. Though we may not have run off with our inheritance, we have
squandered our resources and found that we have spent everything. How many of
us have lost ourselves in dissolute living? I have been drunk, smoked
cigarettes, and I even have a tattoo. I have felt lost and far from home. Some
of us have turned our backs on our family, our homeland, or even our religious
upbringing.
The younger son
comes to such a state of disgrace that he goes to work feeding pigs. For a Jew,
pigs are unclean; not only should you not eat them, you shouldn’t even touch
them. He has become thoroughly wretched. When he finally comes to himself,
recognizing the condition he is in is worse than the life of his father’s hired
hands, he prepares to return home to humiliate himself in order to survive.
For addicts, it
is called hitting rock bottom. We might call it the dark night of despair. It
is that feeling of being so lost from who we are supposed to be that there is
no further to fall. When the depth of our failure, our greed, our sin has
extinguished all the lights, then we can most clearly see the light of hope and
grasp for the lifeline God has held out for us all along.
In that culture,
the response of the Father is unexpected. The son who has squandered his
inheritance has brought shame on the family and should have been disowned. And
yet, this father’s love has never burned more brightly than when the son
returns. The father’s response to the prodigal’s return reveals the heart of
this parable, the grace of God. As the father runs to greet him, we see the
parent who has never given up hope, who kept looking to the horizon for any
glimpse of the return of lost child.
The prodigal
comes prepared to debase himself, to beg, not for forgiveness, but merely for
the chance to become one of the servants. He rehearses what he will say, that
he has become unworthy to be called a son, unworthy to be loved as part of the
family. Before he can speak a word, however, his father has already embraced
him. Hearing the speech of unworthiness, the father is having none of it. The
finest robe, a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet. Even more, we
will feast and celebrate; “for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he
was lost and is found!”[2]
Such depth and
breadth of love, compassion, and grace is offered by God. In this moment we see
God’s deepest desire for us, God’s dream for all of us to return, to live
again, to be found. We humans were made to be in loving relationship with God,
each other, and all creation. We break our relationships; we fracture our
connections and distort our view of one another. We lose ourselves in frivolous
pursuits, seeking pleasures, riches, and accolades, while forsaking who we are
and who we are meant to be. Yet God never gives up on us. God never loses hope.
God never stops searching the horizon for a hint of our return.
It is a
wonderful image of God’s love for us, but the parable doesn’t end there. We
pull back from the scene of a party starting up to find the older son out in
the field. He has remained faithful. He stayed by his father’s side; he HAS
worked like a slave for his father all this time. If we’re honest with
ourselves, we probably identify more with this child. We’ve been the good ones,
we’ve been going to church for years, staying out of trouble, doing good
things. Father never threw a party for us! Our jealousy and resentment keep us
from being able to celebrate the return of our lost siblings.
This older son
illustrates how we sometimes feel like we are being mistreated, neglected, or
pushed aside when the undeserving have good things come their way. We’ve always
been responsible; why does the irresponsible one get celebrated? We’ve always
worked hard; why do the lazy ones who don’t want to work get things handed to
them? I did it the right way; why do they get away with doing it the wrong way?
We are worthy of God’s grace; why do the unworthy get it served on a silver
platter?
This is where
the parable shifts perspective, from the viewpoint of limited resources to the
viewpoint of abundant grace in God’s kingdom. The father comes out to the older
son to plead with him to join the celebration. Rather than scolding the older
son, or defending the younger son, the father shifts attention to his own love
and abundance. We are not running short of love, compassion, and grace here. “All
that is mine is yours.”[3]
The thing is, this isn’t your brother’s party; it’s mine. I am celebrating the
return of one that I love, one I thought was lost forever yet has returned.
This is the
good news of God’s kingdom. We human beings get lost, do things we shouldn’t,
we bring shame upon ourselves and our families. We get jealous and resentful of
others and of our place in the world. But God reaches out to us anyway; God
seeks to reconcile our relationship, to celebrate when we return. The father
absorbs the shame of the younger son’s disgrace, allowing him to return. The
father seeks to pull the older son away from his jealousy and resentment, to
draw him in to the celebration of love.
The parable is
ultimately not about the younger son and his sin. It is not about the older son
and his resentments. It is not about who deserves punishment and who deserves
accolades. It is about God, and God’s endless love, God’s continual search for
the lost in order to welcome them back home. God’s grace has no measure. When
God gives grace to another, it doesn’t mean there is less for the rest of us.
It means there is more. The parable is that mercy abolishes sin, abundance
overcomes limits, and wayward children are welcomed home by loving parents.
This chapter of
Luke began with the Pharisees and scribes grumbling about Jesus eating with
sinners. It ends with the story of a father’s welcome of a prodigal son and a
plea to the older son to join the celebration of the goodness of the father.
The Pharisees and scribes, and all of us, are left with the question: will you
keep standing out in the field burning with jealousy, or will you come join the
welcome home party for the sinners?
Amen.
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