Joshua 5:9-12 • Psalm 32 • 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 • Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
"Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to[Jesus] . 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, 'This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.' 3So he told them this parable: 'There was a man who had two sons. 12The 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. 13A 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. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But 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! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20So 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. 21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22But 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. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. 25“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But 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. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But 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.''"
Most of us have probably heard this story from Luke before. Can you count how many times you’ve heard it? 20, 30, 40? We’ve heard it here in church plenty, but this is a story we also hear praised and referenced and retold on the screen, in literature and through countless pieces of art. And it’s because it’s a great story! No doubt about it. But is that all it is? As someone has appropriately asked, do we hear this and think to ourselves that we know what it already means? Or, do we hear this story and think we already know what the main point of the story is? How easy it is to come to this familiar parable, and not to be surprised by it any more.
One of the reasons so many of us are no longer surprised by this parable or other parables of Jesus is the titles we give to them. More accurately, we hear these stories and focus on the titles that our Bibles give to Jesus’ stories. I am sure that in every Bible you find, you will probably see the parable you just heard with the title above it saying, “The Prodigal Son”, as if that is what this story really about! The truth is this parable could also just as easily and justifiably be called, “The Parable of the Prodigal Father”, or “The Parable of the Reluctant Brother”, or “The Parable of Wasteful Son”, “The Parable of the Forgiven Son”, “The Parable of the Forgiving Father”, “The Parable of the Disobedient Child”, “The Parable of the Obedient Child”…you get the idea! Depending on whose perspective you take, this parable can mean so many different things. But the title we give this story can easily turn this into a story that we tell about ourselves—and about how we should not do what the younger son did and waste his inheritance; or how we should not complain like the older brother. What if this story is a story that Jesus tells to us, and isn’t about us, but about God? What if we took seriously that Jesus came to make God known to us in his actions and deeds, and also his words and stories? What kind of God would we hear about in Jesus’ parable? What kind of God would we encounter?
What kind of God do you hear about in Jesus’ story? As Jesus tells this story to the Pharisees, his words reveal a God who desires a relationship with us that is not based not on keeping track of anything—of what we’ve done right, or what we’ve done wrong. Jesus’ words reveal a God for whom keeping score is unimportant. When it comes to what counts in our relationship with God, the only things to count are un-countable: grace, mercy, forgiveness, love. Jesus’ words reveal a God who doesn’t keep track of how much we have squandered and not taken care of; a God who doesn’t keep track of what we’ve done or not done. The parable reveals a God who still runs out the door to greet and embrace us before we can even get our pre-planned words of confession out of our mouths. Jesus’ words reveal a God who does not keep track of whether it’s the “right time” to pull out all the stops and celebrate a lost, wayward child coming to seek a place at God’s banquet table. Jesus reveals a God who does not hold our jealousy against us. And Jesus reveals a God who keeps no record of what belongs to us, and to God, because for God all that belongs to God belongs to us.
And…Jesus words do not just reveal what God does not keep record of. Jesus’ parable shows a God for whom gaining a relationship with us means everything, and when it comes to that relationship…there’s no score to settle. With both of the children in the parable, the parent cannot let what they’ve both done right, and what they’ve both done wrong, come between welcoming them both to the banquet table. Even the younger child who squandered everything and has nothing left to give except an apology still gets a welcome that doesn’t wait for him to get to the door, but runs out to meet him, robe him, put a ring on him, put sandals on him, and make the welcome complete with the putting on the table the most expensive item on the Mediterranean marketplace menu: fatted calf. Even the elder child who stuck around and was a slave to his own obedience to his parent, who kept track of everything he had at the cost of working up jealous, righteous anger in his soul—even he still hears the invitation from his parent: to “come to the banquet, for all is now ready…’you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.’” (15:31) Jesus reveals that as much as we distinguish and judge others to be sinners and saints, God does not make such distinctions, but invites us to dine with each other at a table as siblings, free from keeping track, free from judgment, free to love, free to serve. At this table we get to celebrate and rejoice, because we who were lost, we who were dead—we have been found, and we have come to the table where Jesus reveals God has set a place and made room for us.
As we keep our disciplines this Lenten season, temptations challenge us. Temptations challenge this prodigal God who Jesus reveals to us. Our temptations tell us to exploit this prodigious grace, extended to us by God, which is a more radical welcome than we care for or want to believe. Our wish for everyone to know the same welcome we have felt stirs up intolerance in us for everyone who doesn’t make space at the table, as we think we do so well. We can go to the other extreme, too, and exploit God’s welcome like the younger child in the parable, who binges so much on his parent’s wealth, he becomes enamored with what it is he’s been given, chooses not to steward his inheritance, and forgets who it is who gave him his inheritance in the first place.
In the end, despite temptation, despite exploitation, God’s welcome prevails. All that God does and continues to do, is what God does at the end of Jesus’ parable: recognize that at the table of the Lord, God is not keeping track of who has been there before, or who deserves to be there, but continually invites us back, to be fed, and be filled; to be with saints, to be with sinners, to be with elder and younger brothers and sisters; and to be with Jesus. God’s prodigal table looks like this table, and our tables, and any table where one more space is made for a lost brother or sister. We may have squandered what we’ve been given. We may be slaves to everyone else having to do things our way. But it’s God who invites us all to a fatted calf feast, the fatted Jesus-lamb feast—Jesus lamb that is more than worthy to be given to us, today and always. God’s prodigal tables have room for us all; not to indulge in but to share.
We’ve heard a story today we’ve all likely heard many times before. But don’t the best stories always sound like we have heard them once again for the very first time? We’ve heard a story today that reveals who God is to us—a God who does not keep track of rights and wrongs, a God who will do anything to be in relationship with us, a God whose prodigal table welcomes everyone to the celebration feast of Jesus. We have heard a story today whose ending is still waiting to be told through the tables that we set, and which God can turn into prodigal tables, where the best feast is offered for those Jesus loves. Today, God has prodigaled us into this feast story that will continue to surprise us with the graciousness of words that have themselves fed us, with enough left over for more. Amen.
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