Lent: Day Twenty-Three

Tax-collectors and people with notoriously bad reputations flocked around Jesus so that they could hear him speak. But the lay-ministers and biblical scholars complained about it, saying things like, “This guy is accepting of unsavory people and low-life scum and he even eats with them!”

So Jesus told them this story: Then he said, “Once upon a time, there was a man who had two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Father, why don’t you drop dead right here and now and let me have everything that you’re going to leave me in your will.’ So the father divided up his property among his two sons.

A couple of days later, the younger son gathered up all his belongings and left home. He moved to a far away place where he squandered away everything he had by trying to live the high life. He spent like a drunken sailor and didn’t save anything for a rainy day. So when a severe famine hit the region, he found that he wasn’t able to survive on what little he had left. So he got a job with a local pig farmer, who hired him to take care of his pigs. Nobody gave him any food, and he was so hungry that the pigs’ slop started to look good to him.

Then he had a moment of clarity. He said to himself, ‘My father’s employees have more than enough to eat; and yet, I’m letting myself starve to death. I’ll go back home to my father and tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like any other employee.” So he picked himself up and went back home to his father.

“His father saw him coming while he was still off in the distance and felt sorry for him. He ran out to greet his son, hugging and kissing him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But his father said to one of his servants, ‘Hurry up and get my best suit and let him wear it! Bring some jewelry and a new pair of shoes and put them on him! Go and slaughter the fattest calf we have! We’re going to have a party and celebrate because my son was dead to me and he has come back to life! He was lost, but now he has been found!’

“The party was going on when the older son came home after a hard day’s work in the field. He heard the sound of music and dancing as he was nearing his house, so he called for one of the servants and asked what was going on. The servant told him, ‘Your brother has come home and your father has slaughtered the fattest calf he had because he has his son back safe and sound.’

“The older brother was ticked off and refused to go inside the house. His father came out and begged him to go inside. The son replied to his father, ‘Check it out! I’ve worked for you all these years and I’ve never once disobeyed you. I’ve done everything that you ever said to do. But you’ve never once slaughtered so much as a young goat or thrown a party for me and invited my friends. But when the son who swallowed up your life’s savings on prostitutes comes home, you slaughter the fattest calf you have!’

“The father said to him, “Son, you’ve always been here with me. Everything I have belongs to you. But now is the time for us to celebrate and be ecstatic because your brother was dead to us and he’s come back to life. He was lost and now he has been found.’”
(As Luke Tells It, The New Peace Treaty: A New Translation of the New Testament)

The son essentially tells his father to drop dead and give him what's coming to him. The father obliges his son, giving him what he wants: material wealth and a life without his father around. God does not force Himself on us, but will ALWAYS respect our free will. Often we tell God "Get off my back" or "Let me live my own life the way I want to live it" and God, the loving Father, lets us live without Him.

The story was inspired because "religious" people were shocked and angry at Jesus for spending time with those who weren't religious enough. Jesus hung around with sinners--Roman collaborators and low-life scum. Yet, they misunderstood Jesus. Jesus extends the love of God to all. No one has been shamed or shunned out of hell, but many have been loved into heaven. Jesus did not come for the righteous--they didn't need Jesus--Jesus came for those who were notorious and sinful--they needed him most of all. Do I need Jesus, or do I merely need my sense of righteousness that allows me to feel superior to others and makes me blind to both their need and humanity?

The story illustrates the true nature of forgiveness. It is more than simply saying “I forgive you”--It is going forward to meet the person who has injured me, putting my arms around that person and holding him or her close to my heart. Is there somebody in my life who needs my wholehearted forgiveness?

The father in the story represents God. God says that He is always with me, and that all that God has is mine. Do I have the courage to accept that God is always present with me? Do I have the ability to hear God saying to me "All that I have is yours"?

Reviews

[icelandicblue]

No bridge shall be burned for the prodigal son. I like your modernization of the parable. You pose the lesson it teaches quite eloquently. It is an important one.