The Fourth Sunday in Lent - March 10

The Younger Son, The Elder Son AND The Father
 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The Gospel story we just heard is probably best known as the parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s a very familiar story. Studies show that Biblical illiteracy is rampant, but I hope that all of you know it backwards and forwards. And probably you have a sense of what it means for you.

If you put yourself in this story, which brother do you identify with? I’ve said before that I identify more with the elder brother. The one who worked had and followed the rules and wanted the world to be fair.

But in this story both brothers are blind to their father’s love. They put barriers between themselves and the love their father offers them. For the younger son, I guess it’s mostly pride. “I can make it on my own. I don’t need or want anyone’s help.” The elder son certainly harbors resentment and perhaps just a bit of envy, too, towards his younger brother. These sins distance them from their father and his love.

Regardless, to both sons, the father is compassionate, faithful, loving, generous, forgiving. These traits have led some to call this parable the parable of the “Faithful or Loving Father.”

We have a tendency to interpret Jesus’ parables allegorically. In an allegorical interpretation, each person or thing in the parable represents or symbolizes some person or thing in the real world. There is a direct one-for-one correlation. An allegorical understanding of this parable casts each of us as either one of the sons, and sees in the father a representation of God.

This allegorical interpretation is helpful and reassuring and there is nothing wrong with it. Jesus’ parables, however, offer us more. They offer us a world, an entire world in which God’s grace is present and active, and they invite us to imaginatively inhabit that world. And in the world of this parable, where God’s grace is vibrantly active, there are people, regular human beings, who act like the father. In a world inspired and motivated by God’s grace, there are people (not just God) who act like the father.

I’m also reminded of something I once heard a therapist say. He said we are all of the people in our dreams. Not just the one that appears to be me. All of the characters in our dreams are us.

The younger son is us. The older son is us. And, the father is us.

You may or may not feel much like the Father. Remember, though, that Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, self-satisfied religious leaders. It’s hard to imagine that they would have identified with dependent children. More likely they saw themselves as the father. Maybe Jesus was trying to highlight the contrast between their actual behavior and a more faithful example of behavior.

This past week in the Lenten class, I talked about the idea of being specially elected or chosen by God. In that class this discussion was part of a consideration of the idea of predestination. The idea that just some people, and not others, are specially elected for salvation. But the idea of election has a much broader meaning in the Scriptures. Often it refers to being chosen by God for a special purpose or responsibility. Not chosen to some special status; but chosen for a special calling.

You remember the scene of Jesus in the temple when he takes the scroll and reads... The Lord has anointed me for… The Lord has particularly anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to bring recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free.

There are Christian thinkers who would say that the church, the Body of Christ, is elected or chosen by God for a special purpose. To bring the good news into the world. To make real God’s love and forgiveness. We are chosen for a special role in the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

The father is compassionate, generous and forgiving. Even to sinners like the younger son and the older son. The father shows compassion, generosity and forgiveness regardless of whether or not they are deserved, regardless of what is fair. Regardless of merit. The father is compassionate, generous and forgiving even with people for whom it might seem difficult if not downright inappropriate.

So this parable comforts, comforts us sinners with the reassurance of God’s unconditional love for us. But maybe it also can inspire us. With God’s grace we can be more like the father. We can serve as witnesses to this world of God’s unconditional love. We can be the means of bringing God’s grace, God’s compassion, God’s forgiveness into our world.

In all of the discussions I’ve been a part of concerning this parable, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone say that they naturally identify with the Father. But we fail to appreciate the power of God’s grace in our lives if we imagine that we can never be like the father. We sell God short. We deny the power of God’s grace working in us when we say that we cannot be like the father. God has anointed us to bring love, generosity and forgiveness into the world.