(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Prodigal”,
originally shared on March 26th, 2025. It was the 352nd video for our YouTube Channel, Streams
of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my
wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
What has three main characters, two Prodigals, and is found in only one
Gospel? And is about you? Today, we’re going to find out.
It kind of sounds like it
belongs in the Old Testament, it contains such sweeping themes and starchy
drama, but it is a parable told by Jesus and is only found in the gospel of
Luke.
It’s called the Parable of the
“Prodigal” Son because of the son’s excesses. “Prodigal” means excessive,
wastefully extravagant, spending money recklessly, lavish. It has the same root
word as “prodigious”, as in “rotund President Taft had a prodigious waistline”.
A “prodigy is someone who is exceptionally talented.
Here’s the setting, in Luke
15:1-3,
15 Now all the tax
collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And
the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes
sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable:
A parable is
“an earthly story, with a single heavenly meaning”, as my Confirmation pastor
told me. Note that is has “a heavenly meaning”. It’s not an allegory; it
isn’t full of symbols that all stand for something. It usually has just one
meaning.
Now we jump from
verse 3 to verse 11. Wait, what? Why?
Because there
are two other parables stuck in-between: The Parable of the Lost Sheep and The
Parable of the Lost Coin. Spoiler alert! All three are about what the Pharisees
(and a key person in the parable) see as God’s prodigal generosity.
Jesus says that
in a parable about something else that’s precious and that can be lost, in Luke
15:11b-20a. We’ll start with the opening verses, in Luke 15:11b-12,
“There was a man
who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to
his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’
So he divided his property between them.
Did you hear
that. The younger of two sons goes to his father and says in effect, “Dad, I
can’t wait for you to die. I’m young. I want to enjoy the money you’re going to
leave me while I can. I want to live large. I want to have fun. I want the
money now.” (Arrrgh!)
And his father
says, “Yes”!
What would you
have done if you had been this father? This is the first taste we get of the
father’s prodigal generosity.
We speculate
that my great-grandfather, Terje Berkedal, came to this country because Norway
practiced primogeniture during the time in Norway called “the hundred-year
hunger”. Primogeniture meant that all the parents’ property, the inheritance,
was left to the oldest son, who would then take care of the rest of the family.
That kept the farms from being divided into properties too small to support
anyone.
But it assumed
that families all got along, and that older brothers would be benevolent and
competent managers. That may not have been the case for my great-grandfather,
because he left Norway for the United States and never looked back. He never
wrote back, either. He cut-off all ties and our family in the United States didn’t
know who our family was in Norway until the Internet Age.
When I and my
family went back, we were the first people with the family name to visit Norway
in about 120 years. Our family in Norway hadn’t known that we existed!
Our relatives
showed us the book of our family history, and next to our common relative’s entry
it said in Norwegian, “We think he died.” It’s regrettable but understandable
that he left for greater opportunities, as many people from Norway and from
other countries have done over time.
This parable, however, tells about a young man
who didn’t want opportunities or even to support himself. He wanted to indulge
himself with his father’s money. And he did.
The parable
continues with verse 13,
13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had
and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in
dissolute living.
His older
brother would later accuse him of spending his money on prostitutes. Maybe he
did. Wine women and song. He was living in prodigal excess. He got wasted.
Literally.
The movie
“Anora” won the Oscar for “Best Picture” this year. It’s about what the
director euphemistically called “a sex worker” but who most of the world would
call a “prostitute”, which is a person who “prostitutes” themselves, or makes
of themselves a commodity, and sells themselves for money.
Jesus was
often criticized for hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors, and what
today’s text calls simply “sinners”. Jesus said in Luke 5:32,
32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to
repentance.”
Who else would
he hang out with?
The young man hung
out with prostitutes also, but not, apparently, to seek their wellbeing.
And then the party ended. He hadn’t made good
in a distant country. He was played-out. We see the consequences, starting in verse
14,
14 When he had spent
everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to
be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to
one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the
pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself
with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him
anything.
Didn’t he have
any friends? You mean all the people he partied with were nowhere to be found
once his money ran out? I’m shocked! Shocked!
So, he gets a
job with someone who owes him nothing, with whom he has no kinship ties, and he
becomes a caregiver to pigs, about the lowest job a child of Israel could
imagine. And the pigs eat better than he does! What kind of job doesn’t pay
enough to buy pig food to eat? Sounds like he’s back in slavery in Egypt. He
was living in prodigious humiliation.
But…then, he
sees the solution in verses 17-20a,
17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my
father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of
hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I
will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I
am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired
hands.”’ 20 So he set off and went to his father.
How
many of our children, or the children of people we know, have found themselves
in that same far country. Have cut all ties for a life of drugs, alcohol,
unfettered sex, sex for money, even crime, and what the parable describes as
dissolute living, life without morals or restraint, who think they have found
“friends” who care for them? And then they didn’t?
How many people have finally hit the bottom
and remembered that there is a way back? That they still have someone who really
loves them.
Parents long for that. So does God. And we,
the Church, see not only individual sons and daughters going down the wrong
path, but whole cultures.
Could we not describe our culture as one
that has squandered its inheritance in order to seek temporary personal
pleasure, be consumed with toys and tied to materialism, power, and outward
appearances? One that has lost its way in the distant country of absence from
God?
Do we not work and long for its return to
God, the One who loves them?
There is a line in the Robert Frost poem,
“Death of A Hired Man” that goes, “Home is the place that, when you have to go
there, they have to let you in.” 😊
That’s the place that the prodigal son came
to. That’s all he believed he could expect.
His father’s hired hands were treated well.
He could repent. Maybe his father would give him a job, and he could at least
live, not as a son but as an employee.
“He came to himself.” Isn’t that a beautiful
and poetic way to put it? He remembered who he was. He remembered who he had
been created to be. There was a core there that his poor choices hadn’t worn
away. He came to remember who loved him. He came to himself.
The son was prodigal in his excessive and
destructive living, but he was still a son. He would now throw himself on the
defining mercy of his father.
If you were the father, what would you do?
Would you have good news or bad news for the
son
There is always a way
back to God. That is the Good News. So far, we’ve learned how. Now, we
are going to find out why.
The parable
continues with Luke 15:20b,
20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was
still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and
put his arms around him and kissed him.
Here’s the
second sign of the father’s prodigal generosity. Grown up men don’t run in most
cultures, unless they’re playing soccer or something. It’s undignified.
I studied in
Rome, briefly, on the way back from a semester in Israel when I was in college.
Jogging, or running, outside of a track was just starting to be popular in the
United States. Some of the guys in our student group and I would run outdoors
when we had some free time, and people would look with astonishment that
someone who was not a child was running outside and wearing running shorts in
public. Little kids would point and laugh as we ran by. We looked ridiculous to
them.
The father
forgot all of that. He laid aside his dignity and composure to run to
his son when he saw him return. He was not filled with disappointment or
bitterness; he was filled with compassion. He put his arms around him.
And he kissed him, a common form of greeting among close friends and relatives.
The son tries
to get out the speech he had prepared, but he doesn’t get very far, starting
with verse 21,
21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your
son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves,
‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his
finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the
fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for
this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And
they began to celebrate.
I played drums
in jazz bands in college and seminary, mostly. One of the tunes we played was a
standard, “The Return of The Prodigal Son” by tenor saxophonist Stanley
Turrentine. I guess you could say that it’s a medium tempo mix of blues and
joy, the sorrow of the son and the joy of the father. But it sounds like a
strut. That always bothered me because that’s not how the prodigal son
returned. He returned with his life in tatters and his head hanging low.
But he
couldn’t finish his repentance speech before his father was organizing the
“welcome home” party, making the son the honored guest, presenting him with the
symbols of his status as a son. And they began to celebrate!
But not
everyone was happy. The parable continues with verse 25,
25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came
and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He
called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He
replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf,
because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then
he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead
with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen!
For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never
disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I
might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this
son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you
killed the fatted calf for him!’
The older
brother was angry. His father was throwing a huge party to celebrate the
prodigal son’s return. The older son wouldn’t have it. He’d been the rock
steady one. He’d done everything that was asked of him, and he never got even a
little shindig, much less a big celebration. He doesn’t even refer to the
prodigal son as his brother. He only refers to him as “this son of yours”, who
had devoured the father’s property with prostitutes.
The fatted
calf was reserved for major events, like an honored guest, a wedding, or the
birth of a child. The fatted calf was the best of the best the father had to
offer. It was an extremely generous gift. It was an expression of excessive
love from the prodigal father.
The older
brother refused to join the celebration.
His father
didn’t begin to ask him to come in. He began to plead with him to
come in. More prodigal generosity from the father.
Cultural
behaviors change all the time, and it’s likely that there will be another great
awakening and a return to the Christian faith in our country at some point. I
wonder where people like me will be when that happens. Will we rejoice with God
that the prodigals have come home, or will we be resentful of God’s celebration
like the older brother?
The father in
the parable loved the older brother, too, and wanted him to know that the
relationship with the family that the father had given him was still valued.
And notice that the younger brother’s actions are not without consequences. We
see it in the conclusion of this parable, starting with verse 31,
31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always
with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we
had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has
come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
The father
tells the older son that all that is the father’s is the older son’s.
It’s not going to be divided again with the little brother.
But something
precious has been restored. A relationship. The older brother refers to the
prodigal son as, “this son of yours”. The father refers to him as “this brother
of yours” and the father gives the reason for the rejoicing: “this brother of
yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”
The
relationship with the father has never changed for either son; he loved
them. The prodigal son could live like it didn’t matter, but the reality
of it was still his, because it wasn’t his to deny.
We are created
for a living relationship with the one true living God. We may reject that
relationship and go to the far country of self-indulgence, personal pleasure,
indifference, and the acceptance of the world. But God never gives up on us.
There is a way back. God has made a way in Jesus Christ at the cross.
What far
country are you in today? What far country is someone you know and love in
today? What far country is our culture in today?
Many
liturgical churches have sung a Gospel Acclamation during this season of Lent
that is different than the one that is sung during the rest of the year. It
comes from the middle part of Joel 2:13, and it goes,
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
Who do you identify with in this parable. I
think that Jesus wants us to identify with the prodigal son, to know that we
need a savior, and that God, in Christ, gave His life on the cross to be our
Savior.
God, the
prodigal father, continues to love us excessively and has shown us God’s grace
by paying the ultimate price on the cross. He welcomes repentant sinners, our
debt is marked paid in full! We live our lives in response to that love, freely
given.
The story of
the prodigal son is our story. The story of the prodigal father is God’s story.
Open the door to your heart and receive the excessive love of the prodigal God, given for you and for all people, and share the good news!
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