We heard in today’s Gospel reading the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and I am sure most of us have read and heard it numerous times. And we all perhaps have lost count of the sermons we have heard on this parable. You may be wondering what on earth I can say on this that is new or unique. I cannot answer that question, however. But I can trust - we all can trust - the Holy Spirit to teach us all things (as promised in Holy Scripture). So, even if this may seem to be “covering old ground,” let us listen together to see what God has in store for us this time in our brief sojourn through these sacred verses.
Now, the Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of three parables in the 15th Chapter of Luke, spoken by Jesus, one after the other, to a crowd of publicans and sinners, in the presence of Pharisees and scribes. In effect, a trilogy of parables, each dealing with the same theme, but each also revealing different, yet complementary aspects of God’s Truth and Wisdom. The purpose of these three parables, this trilogy, if you will, was to illustrate particular traits of the Kingdom of God, namely God's mercy, God's desire through Christ for the salvation of sinners, and the joy in Heaven, and in God Himself, over the salvation of just one soul. Now, the Pharisees could not understand how Jesus could be a righteous teacher and have fellowship with sinners, and they did not know, nor did they likely want to know, the true nature of God's mercy and His love for mankind. (After all, once you have built a system, and have mastered it to reside at its top - like the Pharisees - it is difficult to hear and accept that, despite your assiduous application of every imaginable element of scripture, at least in your own mind, you somehow got it all wrong; they did get it all wrong, and in each age since, the “Pharisees” within the Church, and the “pharisee” hiding in the secret counsels of our hearts still get it wrong).
So, Jesus gave them (and us) three consecutive parables - one on the lost sheep, another on the lost coin, and this one on the lost son. Notice how Jesus in these three parables covers the several ways of being lost - wandering off like a sheep, being lost by happenstance of conditions as in the lost coin, and willfully abandoning wisdom and prudence as did the Prodigal son. In the first two, Jesus draws particular attention to the commitment and diligence of the search for the lost, and in all three He describes the joy of finding with the concomitant desire to share that joy with others. These are things we can understand from our own experience.
In the first two parables Jesus explains that likewise in heaven there is such joy over the repentance of a sinner. In the Prodigal son parable, we see the joy of God represented in the joy of the father over his son's return; and in the exchange between the father and the obedient son, we see that we are called to share in God's joy over the repentance of each sinner (which God knows is not easy for us to do). Truly, all three parables are needed to see the full illustration Jesus is presenting. And we get all three in the course of the Trinity season.
So, what do we tend to do with this parable of the Prodigal son? Hardly are the traits of God's mercy, and the joy in heaven revealed for our understanding, than we proceed to seek other understandings. Like Pharisees we begin to analyze how the Prodigal son came to his senses in repentance (or whether he was merely acting in self interest), or we ponder whether the son who remained faithful and obedient was a despicable Pharisee, a self-righteous priggish and dull young man, or a hardhearted hypocrite. We look for all sorts of symbolism and analogies, and we try to stretch the metaphors of this parable to cover all that we wish to know about the kingdom of God, or to bolster what we already believe about it. But in trying to see more in this story, we end up seeing less, and we miss what is truly remarkable about it. That the Prodigal son in being so unwise and reckless would suffer and be driven to humiliation is no surprise. That the older son would have difficulty understanding such heavenly joy over the Prodigal son's return is hardly remarkable - we are so apt to be just like that, but - and here is the remarkable part of this - God is patient with us, and explains the cause for gladness: "for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found." That is truly remarkable... you see, this is about the restoration of humanity to God!!!
All too often the human tendency is to employ key features of scriptural passages to the furtherance of a favored theological or social view. In the case of the Prodigal Son Parable, the older son becomes a vehicle we can use to denounce either liberal or traditionalist evils (depending on your point of view). But the scripture is clear in this matter, for the father (representing our heavenly Father) says to the older son: "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." Hardly a condemnation of Pharisaical hypocrisy (and we see in scripture the Lord doesn't hesitate to overtly condemn Pharisaical behavior). The purpose of this parable is not to condemn the hollowness of obedience without love (as an act of pride), or the hypocrisy of those who are well behaved for the sake of appearance. While those are evils truly extant in our culture, they are not the focus of today's Gospel reading, the purpose of which is instead to convey these lessons:
• the virtue of humility, (this allows us to cast aside the pride that keeps us from coming back to God, or to whatever redemption, whether to Him or another person, that He places before us)
• the hope in the ready love of the Father, (this allows us to continue to rise up after every fall in the course of our life, which is truly one protracted moment of accepting Christ)
• and the joy in Heaven when we come to God, and in all sincerity exclaim in our bruised and tormented hearts,"O Lord, please accept me; I need you!"
And this allows us to not only come to better understand the mercy of God, but also to better reveal and apply it to each other - as we are free to imagine that the older obedient son would have done with his brother. This entire parable, including BOTH sons, applies to all of us. My brothers and sisters, there is ever something in each of us that is Prodigal; but we are also the abiding, obedient son.
So, why prodigal? There is always some aspect of our lives - our thoughts, our bitterness or our focus on self, the secret counsels of our hearts - that is in need of redemption, through the mercy of God. What is left undone in your life? What redemption or restoration in broken relationships languishes ignored and un-achieved? What area in your life do you know is out of order and adrift? Or, conversely, what area in your life do you feel is ok and does not need God's help (because you "have it under control")? What witness have you failed to give, or when have you not taken the initiative to share the Gospel in word or deed, or merely by godly example? When have you not begged someone in need of salvation, to drop everything and come to Christ - "come to Him just as you are"? What indulgence, however trivial, in lust or anger continues to afflict you? These are all prodigal aspects of our lives. We are always in need of Him. Our lives are one protracted moment of returning to Him - even when we have received Him as our Lord and Savior.
And like the Prodigal son, we might be tempted to come up with a sincere plea of humility – imagining that we will say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” If sincerely felt, this is as truly humble as it is clever; but I can assure you, God will act before you get a chance to use it, or any of your best thoughts, best prayers, or best lines. Notice what happens to the Prodigal son – “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” This was before the son had a chance to declare his humility. It was solely the fact that his son was returning to the him, which caused the father such great joy. In the same way, our returning to God from whatever prodigal place we have been, or condition into which we have fallen, reveals our answer to His call for a relationship with Him; and this elicits great joy from the Father. Not saying here that it is wrong to declare your humility (and the Prodigal son did so) - but it is your response to God’s call, your return to Him, that is important. After all, He sees what is in your heart before you do.
Or we might be tempted to prepare ourselves before coming back to God (I’ve got to clean up my act; I’ve got to do this or that, in order to come back to Him). But we cannot prepare ourselves enough to be acceptable to God; and God cannot prepare us (ah, this may startle you). Christ, the Ark, is the fullness of absolutely perfect preparation and of all righteousness. When we put on Christ (as S. Paul puts it) , and when we are in Him, then we are covered in His preparation; and in the fullness of time, in Christ Jesus, who makes all things new, we are restored unto God for eternity. We wear, in effect, His perfect preparation, and then we become it. Our adoption is full, and we look like Him - when the Father looks upon us, He sees His Son, Jesus Christ. Notice what happens to the Prodigal son (who, by the way, realized he had no way to really prepare to return to his father). His father commanded, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:”
You see, the moment we fly to God, He gives us the best robe, and a ring, and shoes on our feet - for we have none of these things without Him. Christ is our robe, our ring, our shoes - indeed our whole covering. This is the mystery and the revelation all in one! For engrafted into His Church, we are also the obedient son, who must constantly learn the joy God has over others being enfolded and engrafted into the Church, whom may not have done anything to be prepared - we must let God give them Christ’s preparation; we must be instruments of that covering of Christ. And Christ wants us - every aspect and part of us; the whole self - both the prodigal and the obedient. All that we think innocent as well as all we think wicked (as C.S. Lewis once put it) - all must be turned over to Christ. Our lives are a constant labor of so doing - learning to do so. Only in that labor and learning are we able to truly call others to Christ. Only in Christ can we fully appreciate and powerfully share the good news and utter joy of these words: "for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found."
Have you known someone, whom you thought dead, only to find out they were alive? How did you feel and react? Have you lost someone, maybe a spouse, a parent, a child, whom you loved (and still love) so deeply and completely that you felt indescribable pain and loss, and sorrow and grief? – and maybe you went through a time where you dearly wished, and maybe desperately hoped for – ached for – it all to be merely a bad dream; that you would wake up and see your loved one again. Imagining the elation if that were to happen, helps us begin to comprehend the height and breadth and depth of the joy God has over anyone who returns to Him. A joy He wants us to have as well.
God puts people into your path, your life, for a reason - no matter how objectionable they might be, or, in your mind, how lost (or prodigal) they might be, that reason is real and abiding. And that reason is not to change them or even to help them change themselves - it is for you to help them be alive again!! and to rejoice with God when He gives them life. God’s Holy Spirit will take care of those changes you think they might require. Do not think of those changes, and instead, as you complete this life as St Paul taught (that is, to run the race, the whole race), hold this truth in your mind and run with it; run with it for the entire race; run with it like the wind:
“for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found.”
