Luke 15:11-32
Most Christians are familiar with Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. Some prefer to call it the parable of the lost son: The New International Commentary on the New Testament calls this story the ‘”Gospel within the Gospel”; William Barclay in The Daily Study Bible Series calls it “The greatest short story in the world.” This wonderful story has been read by children and adults alike countless times and it never ceases to inspire us.
A quick look at this parable reveals the story of a hasty young man who wasted his inheritance with lavish living in a foreign land. Matters are made worse for this “lost son” when a severe famine comes to his new homeland, and he begun to be in need. Desperate he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. Hungry and humiliated, he decides to go home to his father. And he does it with a simple plan. As soon as he sees his father, he will tell him: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.” For the first time-readers of this story, this is the point when they say, “good you deserve what is happening to you, I hope your father will slam the door on your face.” Anyone who reads the story for the first time assumes that this is the villain, the “bad son” of the story.
But there is more in the story, much more. The ending of this story is not how it should be, or how it’s expected to be. His father is a loving father, who has been waiting for his son ever since he left, and when he sees his son coming back, he runs to him, hug him, and kiss him; we do not even know if his son had time to tell what he has planned and maybe rehearsal on his way home. Immediately the father starts planning a welcoming celebration. ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
If the first-time readers are not intrigued yet, soon they will, because the story will have another twist. The older son enters in the scene. This is the one who has not wasted his father’s money; this is the one who has worked hard in his father’s farm; this is -we could say- the obedient son, “the good son.” Those listening to Jesus must had said, this of course must be the “hero” of the story. But, as always, Jesus surprised everyone. The good son is disappointed to see his father happy and he does not want to be part of the celebration. You see, this “good son” is willing to work as a slave; he is willing to obey, but he is incapable to love what his father loves; incapable to forgive as his father forgives.
It’s impossible to understand and to feel this parable if we do not pay attention to its context. This parable its Jesus’ respond to what the Pharisees said about the “sinners” and tax collectors who had gathered to hear what Jesus had to say; Jesus shared this parable in another classic meeting between him and the religious leaders of Judea. Seeing the crowd, the Pharisees and religious teachers began talking about the kind of company Jesus was with, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them, they said.
This wasn’t the first time they had criticized Jesus and his disciples for associating with those they considered to be off-limits. Sometime earlier, during a banquet given for Jesus by a tax collector named Levi, a group of Pharisees questioned Jesus’ disciples. The Pharisees asked, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and “sinners?” Jesus responded: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:29-31).
Repentance was a word Pharisees could not apply to themselves, but to others only; repentance was a word they could not understand; pharisees could not apply the word repentance to them because they did not have need of repentance, because they were not “sinners”; they were born as God’s people, therefore, they were automatic saved and holy and consequently, unable to understand God’s amazing and transforming grace.
I said before that this parable is also known as the “lost son” parable. But if we see closer, both sons were lost. One in a foreign land and the other in his own house; one was lost in a lavish life and the other in a selfish life. The difference is that one came to his senses and realized his father is a good person who treat good even his workers; the other one could not see this; he was afraid of his father. He was afraid of even taking a little goat, even when everything was his. The younger son was willing to appeal his father’s mercy; the other one was upset to see his father’s mercy.
Today I want to share two lessons this parable has for us. First, repentance means an absolute reversal of status. When the prodigal son came back, he was trying to be a worker. However, his father made him a family member again. The father’s acceptance of the penitent son is total because he never ceased being a son. His father always waited the return of his lost, but still son. This is God’s grace. This is why God always pursues sinners, because even when we are lost, we are still his children. We read in 2 Corinthians that “if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself though Christ…”
This reconciliation Paul talks about in 1 Corinth -in the parable of the prodigal son- is represented by the robe, the ring, and the sandals. The father of this parable has given back to his son the same status he had before; he is not a worker, he is not a servant, or a second-class son. His relationship with the father has been restored. Now, this prodigal son has a great challenge: leave behind his past, everything he did and start fresh as a new person, as if nothing has happened. That is hard, because Satan the enemy of our souls is an expert reminding us of what we have done; this is his way to stop us from moving forward.
If anyone here relates his or herself to the son in the parable. If you have done something that even when you know that you have been forgiven, you are still carrying it, and still see Satan’ finger pointing at you stopping you from taking your place in God’s family, tell Satan, the accuser that you are a new creation; show him that you do not do what you did before; show him you are not who you were before. That you do not practice your old habits anymore; that you do not talk as you did before; that you do not go to the same places you went before, and when he reminds you what you did, tell him: yes, I did that, or yes I was that…but Jesus has made me new; he has made me holy. Jesus paid in full for me in the cross and now I am not just a sinner…I am a sinner who has a Savior…a sinner with a second change… and keep moving forward.
Second lesson for us: we must rejoice when a penitent return. Reconciliation involves not only God and the person who repent, but also a community. The older son came back and complained to his father. He said: ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’… The “good son” was separating himself from the “bad son.” I love the father’s answer “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” We have to celebrate because this brother of yours…They were brothers not because they agreed to be, but because they had the same father. My brothers and sisters; my sisters and brothers you know how many troubles we can avoid within Christianity if we understand this simple principle. So many people in church believe they are better than others because they have not done what others did. Our status before God does not depend on what we did or did not, but because of God’s grace and mercy, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
The story of the prodigal son is left hanging. The elder brother is left to see what his father was doing. We do not know if he came in to celebrate or not. In literary terms, this is an open ending. What will he do? I wonder if this is Jesus’ way to get us into this story. The older brother did not like what the father was doing, and he decided to stay out. However, the story has an open ending, we do not know if he finally came to his senses and came in and was part of the celebration.
As in the parable we have to opportunity to celebrate God’s mercy to us and others; we have the opportunity to be part of the feast or stay out upset of what God is doing in the life of those “who have wasted our father’s inheritance.” Do you like what the father is doing among us? Would you like to come and celebrate and be part of this? Or would you like stay out? You decide the ending of the story.