Lent 4: God's abundant Grace

By most accounts, one might consider the younger son in today’s parable an entitled, obnoxious, pathetic, emotionally stunted man-child. When we meet him, not only does he have disregard for his father, he seems rather indifferent to his father’s very life: “Father give me the share of the property that will be mine” i.e. mine when you die. And of course off the younger son goes with this money, and being the emotionally stunted man-child he is, he spends all of his inheritance on hoarding things for himself, including prostitutes, likely committing all sorts of those deadly sins like lust and gluttony.

Of course the younger son here should remind us of several other people in Scripture beginning with Adam, who first takes all the bounty of God’s house, God’s provision for him, and loses it by succumbing to the temptation of gluttony: consuming more than he needs, more than God has set out for him. Or perhaps of King Solomon who takes many foreign wives, bending himself to their gods and their customs, so that he comes to worship the idols of money, power and lust, rather than following God’s will in leading the people of Israel. And of course Solomon ends up losing his capacity to rule most of the tribes of Israel as a consequence; but worse than that, they are scattered like the lost sheep we hear about in the two previous parables in Luke. 

Earlier in our chapter in Luke this morning we hear that God will go after each lost sheep, or the single coin that is lost, allowing those who are not lost to make their way. And here we should understand that God goes out of his way to draw back to him those who are struggling most, who have gone astray perhaps because they’ve been harmed by churches, or feel excluded, or because they have been unable to develop the capacity to trust that anyone can love them, especially God or the people of God. So they follow Adam and Solomon in turning away and trying to chart their own way forward. Repentance is not on their minds. 

God says, I want those people back. In fact, the 99 sheep of the flock, together, in the wilderness - that church or those Christians who remain steadfast in the faith - may experience God’s absence for some time. He expects that they will stand firm in their faith together, following him, worshipping him, seeking him, doing his works, so that on his return, that lost person might be welcomed and helped to feel comfortable enough to experience God’s work in transforming them as part of a community of people.

So when we get to our parable this morning, the prodigal son, we are presented with a summary of this whole story of Scripture: God’s provision, the temptation to having more than what God provides, which leads only to more and more consumption of food, the dehumanizing of other people to fulfil one’s desires, losing one’s purpose and meaning in life. In doing so the man-child was literally and spiritually starving so much that he was willing to hire himself out into a task that simply did not fit with who he was - mainly feeding pigs - whose pods “he would have gladly eaten.” And yet he cannot even eat these for they are for the pigs which were to be fattened to be eaten by someone like his father and older brother, with whom, of course, he could have remained. In other words, God gives those who pursue their own way over to the fruit of their own choices. In this case, the fruit is non-existent; there aren’t even pods for him to eat. 

Were this a movie, at this point we would be on the edge of our seats yelling out: your father is seeking you, you damn lost sheep! Go to him. Admit you have lost your way; return and seek his mercy; return and seek your place, your family, your tribe; ask and you will find, seek and you shall receive. Let go of all the things you covet that get in the way of finding him, and he will embrace you with open arms. For this is what the Father does when his children return.

So it is that when Jesus overcomes that temptation to go his own way and seek more, he maintains everything that he needs, an unbreakable, eternal relationship with his Father. No slavery to sin. No working fields where he cannot plant, sow or eat, the fruit of the labour for which God made him. No watching the pigs eat while he starves. 

It is in this Son, Jesus Christ, that we sit down at the feast of the 5000, the full nets of fish, at the Wedding Feast in white gowns, purified in Christ, where the manna from heaven, the grace of God, pours out so abundantly that not only can we eat our fill like the woman who feeds Elijah from her miniscule oil and flour, we can share it with those all around us. We do not have to act like the jealous and self righteous and haughtily judgmental older brother upon his repentant younger brother’s return. We can embrace not only those whom we like, but even our enemies whom we think defy God. We can embrace the way of the Father, who loves every one of his sheep with such abandon that he goes after each of us, seeks us, wills us, does not coerce us and welcomes us - the younger son - so we would not become like the older son filled with comparison and envy. We can instead take up the way of Christ, in his self giving for others, even enemies, so that every person, even the lost, might know of God’s love for them.