The Parable of the Prodigal Son
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON – Luke 15:11-32
This deep and beautiful parable of Christ is read on the 3rd Sunday before Lent as a part of the Church’s “School of Repentance” over the course of the four pre-lenten Sundays. The parable is Jesus’ own characterization of His Father and our Heavenly Father. Whatever other portrayal of the Father you may encounter in ‘religious’ writings or preaching, THIS one comes from the very lips of His Son, His Word who reveals Him perfectly to us. This is the definitive portrayal of the Father. Because, of course, the father in the parable represents God the Father. His forbearance, granting of freedom, and unequivocal forgiveness represent the qualities of God the Father. He is NOT the angry vengeful God of Puritan diatribes and guilt-pandering pharisees of various religious stripes.
The prodigal son pridefully seeks ‘his’ inheritance from his father. The father accedes to this undeserved demand and gives his son the freedom to go his own way. The son disdains his father, his home, and all it stands for. He goes to a “far country” and squanders all of his patrimony. He ends up in the mud as a swineherd, hungering for the food the pigs get. Hitting bottom, he ‘comes to himself’; humbled he decides to go back to his father even to become just a servant in his father’s house. This is not to be.
The Father, who has grieved for him, has never forced him to come back -out of respect for his son’s freedom; now the father runs out to meet him. The son falls down, confessing his sin and asking just to be taken back as hired servant. The father has no word of reproach, no expression of grievance or hurt, no warning about future behavior, no conditional acceptance. Instead the Father pulls him up, embraces him, loves him as He always has. He puts the ring of stewardship on his finger, clothes him in a rich garment instead of his rags, and orders a banquet to be held. Unequivocal forgiveness and love. This is how The Son of God characterizes His Father and His Father’s mercy.
We should always have this image in our hearts when we approach God in repentance. It should be a gateway to knowing the joy of our beautiful, gracious Father’s extravagant love.
- Fr Tom 1/31.23