The Prodigal Father Loves His Lost Sons

Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 10, 2013

The Prodigal Father Loves His Lost Sons

Luke 15:11-32

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The word “prodigal” isn't found anywhere in Luke 15. Yet it is so closely tied to this parable of Jesus that we need to understand what it means.

The basic idea behind prodigal is spending everything. But as we'll see, it all depends on whom everything is spent—yourself or someone else.

The younger son spent everything on himself, so we could call him prodigal. But the most prodigal person in Jesus' story is the father. And the son who seems to be hopelessly lost is the son who never left home.

The younger son fits the popular profile of a prodigal. He recklessly wasted his entire inheritance soon after running away from home. He wasted himself on women who loved him as long as the money lasted—but that wasn't love. He wasted himself on the best booze and food that money could buy—but it didn't stop him for nearly starving to death. He wasted his father's generosity. But he wasn't the worst of the bunch.

His brother was worse. He stayed home to make sure he got every last penny that was coming to him. He believed in keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. And he had no worse enemy than his own father. His father has wasted a huge chunk of his money on his worthless brother. In those days the oldest son got an extra share of the inheritance—he would have gotten 2/3 and his younger brother 1/3. But when the younger brother cashed out his father's stock, you don't hear the older brother complaining. He knew what his brother was going to do. Young men with handfuls of cash almost always make the same choices.

But when that no-good brother returned, the older brother howled when he was welcomed back by their father. This was a huge problem because it had legal implications. By demanding his father's money early, the younger son legally had become a non-person to the family. But by putting a ring on his son's finger, the father was raising him back to legal life. He was dead and now was alive again. And now the shares of the re-divided inheritance would be substantially smaller.

From the older brother's point-of-view, his brother had ripped him off and their father allowed it. This is why the older brother was in a fierce rage at his father's kindness. It wasn't his moral outrage at his brother's lifestyle; it had cost him money.

You can see this kind of anger in another of Jesus' parables (Matthew 20). There's a man who owns a field and needs workers for the day. Early in the morning he hires some folks in the marketplace. But he wants more help. So he heads back to the market and hires more workers. He does this several times through the day. Jesus continues:

About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ (Matthew 20:6-15)

That poor prodigal father. He had spent everything he had on his sons. He spend it all on a son who went on a journey of self-discovery and squandered his father's gift. He spent it all on a son who was a self-righteous miser who only cared about himself.

The world and my sinful flesh see the Father in heaven, who sent His only-begotten Son to die on the cross, and we say, "Prodigal! What a waste! We don't need to be saved! We don't need Your forgiveness. We don't need You and Your death and resurrection!”

This parable exposes the heart of God: He is a prodigal God who for you spends everything—His only Son, Jesus Christ.

But His spending was not reckless or wasteful. It is spending that saves. The spending of His Son's blood saves you. The reckless splashing of Holy Baptism saves you. The countless Holy Suppers He prepared for you to eat and to drink saves you. The many times He ran to you and hugged you and made you His son through the Holy Words of His pastor saves you.

We are His lost sons. We try and find our own ways to happiness. Sometimes we try self-indulgence and self-discovery; other times we try self-righteousness and self-improvement. But our ways always end with ourselves miserable and alone.

But for the sake of His only Son our prodigal Father runs to us before we can say a word and He forgives us and He gives us His Son, His Way, His Truth, and His Life. We were dead; He's given us life.

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen.