Welcome Home

Jesus has been hanging out with ne’er do wells. In fact, he had such a reputation for welcoming them that tax collectors and sinners were coming to him. The Pharisees, the keepers of the law, are shaking their heads and grumbling. They’ve never seen anything like it. He’s a great teacher. But, his disciples are a rag-tag group of fishermen and his friends are cheaters and sinners and those sell-outs to the Romans, tax collectors. In response Jesus tells them three parables. The first is the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd leaves the 99 to look for and find the one sheep who is lost. Then calls together friends and neighbors to party when the one is found. The second is the parable of the lost coin. The woman with 10 coins loses one and starts cleaning; she even lights a lamp (burning expensive oil in the night when she could just wait until day) searching until she finds the one coin that is lost. Then she calls together friends and neighbors to party when the one is found. And the third is a difficult parable to name …some call it the Prodigal Son, others call it the Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother, sometimes it is called the Parable of the Elder Brother, some see it as the parable of the Waiting Father, others call it the Parable of the Loving Father, I think since it is the third of the lost parables, maybe it should be called The Parable of the Lost Kids.

A man has two sons…and he loses them both. We know the story well. The younger son comes to his father and asks for his inheritance. Why? Maybe he had always been a strong-willed child. Maybe he and his father had a strained relationship, and he felt justified in being disrespectful by asking for his inheritance as though his father was already dead. Or did he see that he and his older brother would never live together in peace and decide to try to make a life for himself even though he wasn’t his father’s eldest son? Did he just want to get out while he was young and make a life for himself? We don’t know why…but we do know that whatever his motivation, his execution was lacking. He squandered all that he had in dissolute living. We don’t know what he did, his older brother guesses that he spent his money on women, but whatever it was it was immoral and he was broke.

He rebelliously took his inheritance of his father, rebelliously ignored the purity laws and morals of his faith, thinking that the grass is greener, and found himself starving while he fed unclean animals in a muddy pig pen. And there he hits rock bottom, and Luke says, “he came to himself.” My father’s servants have it better. I will return and ask my father to be one of his servants.

Meanwhile, the older brother was given his two-thirds of all that his father had, and he kept right on working. Rev. Dr. Alan Culpepper points out that “we can feel the resentment in every phrase he speaks…{he is} trapped in the system of merit and reward.” Notice the correspondents in the story. The younger brother hits rock bottom as he works as a servant feeding pigs, while the older brother thinks more and more highly of himself as he works like a servant on what is now his farm. The younger brother comes to himself and comes home, the older brother is full of himself and refuses to go in.

Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes wrote about the characters:
“The prodigal is willful, foolish… self-centered… and indulgent. He comes home only when he has nowhere else to go. The [older] brother is petty, spiteful, jealous, self-righteous, and rather lacking in imagination. I think we should pity the poor father, who has to live with this conspicuous vice [of the younger son] and the even more conspicuous virtue [of the older son]: perhaps he should have run away,” said Gomes, “and left the place for the two of them to fight it out.
He didn’t, though, because the story is about him, and we know he won’t run away…. We know of his character, his nature, because of what his sons say and do.
When he is at rock bottom, the younger son tells us the character of his father. He didn’t expect the fatted calf, because he knew his father’s justice, so he came seeking to be a servant. But he knew enough to know that his father would be there to receive him. He knew… that his father’s nature was love.
The older brother knew his father’s justice, too. And he comes to complain based on his confidence in his father’s judgement. And he knew that his father loved him…and so he expected that his works would be rewarded.
This is the heart of the gospel and of Jesus’ message [says Gomes]: no one is too far gone, too low, too abased, too bad to be removed from the unconditional love of [God] … and no one is too good, too dutiful, too sanctimonious, for that love. It is the nature of the Father to love.”

Perhaps this this parable’s title should really be the Parable of the Prodigal Parent. Because prodigal means spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant, having or giving something on a lavish scale. The father is a prodigal in that his love is extravagant and more excessive than either the younger brother’s loose living or the older brother’s moral rectitude. The father is excessive in his pursuit of welcoming his children home. (Willimon)

Luke says the younger son set off for home rehearsing his speech. But, he didn’t get to give it. His father saw him while he was still far off. He hadn’t stopped watching the horizon, hoping against hope that one day his son, the one who treated him as good as dead, took his inheritance and left, one day he might return. And when he saw him, he ran and threw his arms around him and kissed him. No time for words, no room for awkwardness between them. To be sure, the son starts his speech, but the father is already calling for the servants to get a robe, a symbol of honor, and a ring, a symbol of authority, shoes, because only servants don’t have shoes.” (Barclay)

Feasting, prodigal, extravagant, lavish feasting – for my sons are home!

But then the older son comes in from the field and refuses to come into the house. William Barclay says of his reaction to the party, “His whole attitude shows that his years of obedience to his father have been years of grim duty and not of loving service. His whole attitude is one of utter lack of sympathy. He refers to his brother, not as my brother, but as your son.” And the prodigal father, doesn’t stay inside enjoying the party, but comes out into the lonely darkness with the righteousness and rigidity of the sanctimonious older brother and begs, “Come in. Come in to the party.” (Willimon) “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”

Perhaps the title of the parable should be “Who is the Prodigal?” The prodigal younger son, who extravagantly squanders his third of his father’s wealth searching for greener grass? The prodigal older son, who judges himself worthy of lavish rewards for his dutiful working in the fields? Or the prodigal parent, who extravagantly loves and freely welcomes them both home?

The story doesn’t have an ending. So, I conclude today with a thought on who the prodigal is from Henri Nouwen. Nouwen says Jesus is the prodigal, younger son. “…Jesus became the prodigal son for our sake. He left the house of his heavenly Father, came to a foreign country, gave away all that he had, and returned through his cross to his Father’s home. All of this he did, not as a rebellious son but as the obedient son, sent out to bring home all the lost children of God…”

Wherever you have been, whatever you have done, God’s prodigal, lavish, extravagant love says, “Welcome home, children, welcome home.”

This sermon is based in part on:
Peter J. Gomes, “It’s About the Father: The Prodigal Son,” in Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living, San Francisco, Harper San Francisco, 2003
Henri Nouwen, “The Return on the Prodigal Son”
William Willimon, “When God’s Story is Your Story,” Pulpit Resource, March 26, 1995
William Barclay, “Luke” in The Daily Study Bible Series