Lent 4

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Lent 4
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 25, 2001


TEXT: Luke 15:(1-3), 11-32 –
Parable of the Prodigal Son, The Lost Son,
The Loving Father

“Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” . . . . “’Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. . . . . ‘”

ISSUE: The main issue of this parable is the incredible love of the Father for his sons. He ends up stripped naked as he gives them all he has. It tells of the incredible love and grace of God for his creation and his people. Certainly there are themes of repentance and conversion, which can only come after the recognition of the profound love of God for his people.

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This fourth Sunday in Lent is often referred to as Refreshment Sunday, or in Church of England, as Mothering Sunday. It was sort of the church’s Mother’s Day in England, and the aspect of Refreshment Sunday came from the fact that this Sunday is approximately the middle of Lent, and there tended to be in the earlier church a lightening up of the Lenten Discipline on this particular Sunday. For many years the assigned Gospel reading for this Lent 4 Sunday was The Feeding of the Five Thousand in which the followers of Jesus were refreshed by this miracle. Now that we have a three year cycle of assigned lectionary readings, this year we read another rather refreshing portion of Luke’s Gospel, The Parable of the Prodigal Son, also referred to as The Parable of the Two Sons, and also known as The Parable of the Loving Father. Whatever you want to call it, it is one of Jesus’ most refreshing parables and might also be referred to as The Queen of Parables.
This parable is set in the context of sinners, tax collectors, and other outcasts coming to listen to Jesus, and the Pharisees and teachers of the Law begin grumbling that Jesus welcomes and eats with them. So Jesus tells them this parable.
Let examine some of the elements of this rich parable so that we can best understand what Jesus is saying. Admittedly it is one of the more well known of the parables of Jesus, and one that so many of us are familiar with that we might lose the impact of the story. There are several interpretations of the Parable, and there is also an inclination to take it so seriously that it loses its power and luster.
A father has two sons, and the eldest of the two goes to his father demanding his share of the inheritance. What the kid is in fact saying is that he wishes his father was dead. To ask for you inheritance before the father was deceased was insulting, crass, despicable. However, the father caves into the request and gives the brat his one-third share of the inheritance. Obviously this is a kid that you can’t do anything with. His father must sell off some of the land to pay him. Dividing up the family property was rarely done, unless it had to be done. This kid is denouncing his family, and bringing shame on it. And so he heads off to a foreign country to earn his fortune.
Leaving behind every support system of his life, he becomes most unfortunate, as would be expected at this time. He mismanages his inheritance in loose lewd debauchery, indulging all of his appetites. In addition a famine comes upon the land, likely to be Gentile territory, and he is reduced to being a swine herder. Mind you, here’s what was a fine Jewish boy, who’d had his bar mitzvah, now wallowing in the mud with pigs. He’s sunk to the lowest point; he’s hit bottom. He is totally impure. So he supposedly comes to his senses, and remembers what it was like back home. So he decides to be repentant. He sets up his story line for returning home. He’ll tell his father he is not worthy to be his son. He will work as a paid hired servant, if his father will have him. The implication here is that if he is a paid hired servant, he might consider paying his father back. He prepares a speech of repentance, “Father I have sinned against heaven - which means God, as he is unworthy to say the name – and before you and am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired hands.” He’s now ready for the journey.
The father seeing him coming down the road runs out to greet him, and begins kissing him over and over again. The father is said to greet him with great compassion, and it was also with great protection as well. If the other fathers in the community had seen him first, they would most likely have stoned him to death. He was impure, a brat, a very bad example for their own sons. Next thing you know every kid in town might want to leave the farm. So the father is protecting the boy. As the boy starts to make his repentant speech, the father sends for a fine robe, most likely his own best robe, and sandals for his feet. Hired servants and slaves would have been barefoot, so the sandals indicated a restoration to the family, not to mention the signet ring which gives the boy full family authority. He can sign and seal the checks, and transact family business. He receives full restoration via the compassionate father for his repentance. Finally, the father orders the slaughter of the fatted calf and plans a very festive party with music and dancing. The fatted calf was intended for the older brother’s marriage feast. The whole village is invited. Father and prodigal son will live happily ever after.
However, there is the other son who has born the heat of the day, and when he hears of his fathers warm cordial welcome for the prodigal he becomes incensed. When the father comes to him to encourage him to come to the party, he dishonors his father by failing to call him by his title. He refers to his brother not as his brother, but as his father’s son. He resents the killing of the fatted calf which was to be for his wedding. He’s received not so much as a goat or sheep to share with his friends, and his father has slaughtered it for this lust loving brother. He is recalcitrant.
Yet, the father pleads. “You have been with me always, everything I have is yours, but your brother was dead and has come back to life; he was lost, and has been found.” Whether or not the older brother will come in or not we do not know. We are left with that mystery.
What does it all mean? Well, many will argue that it is unfair. The father seems much too easy on the prodigal wayward son. Although we do have a way of sometimes enjoy and side with the loveable scoundrel who gets away with something, maybe betraying our own desire to get away with something. We see in the parable a theme or call to repentance and conversion. The young wayward son appears to repent, and we hope the older son will do the same, as opposed to being so rigid and bitter. He sees himself as a servant not a full member of the family. He perceives his life in the family as drudgery, and not as a contribution to the well being of the family. What you have here really are two wayward sons, one ambitious, carefree, and very self-centered and destructive. The older son is ungrateful and unappreciative of all that has been given him: the protection, education, his place in the family is unchanged. Can he repent, change in to becoming a more grateful sensitive and compassionate person; we don’t know? We may all see ourselves like both of the two brothers, depending on our fickle moods. There are things that we need to do and become as the children of God. We have all known our moments of careless, irresponsible actions and times of foolishness. We all can surely be very self-righteous and uncompassionate, and lacking in our sense of brotherly (sisterly) love.
There is something more to this parable than whether or not you and I become converted or repentant. Those things seem maybe a little too obvious, and too pious. It is thought that to just see the parable as a cause for repentance and how the bad brother comes out with a feast was not really new to Jesus’ listeners. The Hebrew Scriptures were full of stories about scoundrels and younger brothers coming out well in the end. Cain kills Abel and gets a mark of protection. Jacob steals his birthright away from his older brother Esau, and gets away with it. Joseph, a younger spoiled kid who torments his brothers with his visions of his grandeur becomes the Prime Minister of Egypt. David, son of Jesse, and last of the seven sons becomes the lustful but great King of Israel. What is at the heart of this parable is not whether you and I or anybody else repents or gets converted. It is the FATHER in the story who is the main character and is the real thrust of the parable, not the sons. Furthermore our moralizations of the parable tend to tame it. And it cannot be a parable of Jesus’ if it is tamed.
The Father in the story is surreal; in fact, the Father is almost like a burlesque figure. The whole parable if we are to understand it in its deepest meaning must been seen almost as comedians on the stage. There is this family with two lousy kids. One is always in trouble and is a spoiled brat, and the other is a righteous goodie-goodie whose going to tell on his brother. He’s do what you tell him to do, but he’ll hate every minute of it. Then there’s the father who is a pushover. He caves in to the spoiled brat and lets him go on his way. When the kid finds himself in the pigsty, he decides what he’ll do. Dad’s got plenty of stuff left, so I’ll go back and tell him (sarcastically), “Father I have sinned before heaven and you. I can’t be your son. Let me be a hired servant.” Dad’ll fall for that. This is what is often referred to as a “Soup Kitchen Conversion.” Give me something to eat, and I’ll repent. As he heads home, the Father sees him coming up the road. The Father picks up his skirts and runs down the road. Honorable, distinguished fathers did not run in these days, but this one does. The prodigal is just barely ready to make his rehearsed speech of repentance, when the Father demands that they bring him the finest robe in the house, get him shoes, get him the ring of authority, get him this, get him that, it is a great scene of abundant extravagant exaggeration of benevolence for a spoiled brat.
Is this what a Father would do? No, of course not! . . . . . . It’s what a Mother would do! Have you ever seen Rembrandts painting of the Prodigal Son? The father in the painting is embracing his son with his arms around him. One hand is a definite masculine hand, the other is the tender hand of a woman! Is God like a MOTHER? Is that what Jesus suggesting in the story? You bet that got people’s attention!
Then the Father says kill the fatted calf. Not a little sheep, lamb, or goat. But put a cow on the table! Call in the musicians and lets get the party going the son which was dead is alive, who was lost is found. Get the picture, an enormous feast is being set up whether or not any of the community comes. The father is going to sit down at the table and eat with this impure sinner and have dinner. The Father is a lunatic.
Now here’s the hooker.
Then he goes out to the older son outside, not exactly what a Father with servants would do. He tells the recalcitrant son, everything I have is yours, please come to the banquet, the festivities. Lighten up and come in; be refreshed.
Now notice this, the Father gave to his youngest son what he asked for. He offers in the end everything else to the older son. The Father in his surreal and incredible love has given everything, everything, away. He stands naked before the world. Sounds something like Jesus on the cross.