Walking with Jesus: Fourth Sunday of Lent

For Sunday, March 27, 2022

Joshua 5: 9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Rembrandt painted a haunting picture of the Prodigal Son. Fr. Henri Nouwen wrote a spiritual classic, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, after spending days and hours reflecting on this painting while he was in St. Petersburg, Russia. I have a large copy of this picture in my living room that is my inspiration and I know it has touched many. It seems to me that the highlight of the painting is not the wayward son’s returning and seeking forgiveness for his willfully rebellious life, nor is it the grouchiness of the older son who has it all but wants to be the proud example of an exemplary son who hates the world if it isn't centered on him. The father is the key: The whole of the portrait is centered on his humble, loving, compassionate presence with his family surrounding him; his two sons present along with his wife and daughter in the background. This parable is probably one of Jesus’ most famous: His depiction of God who just plain loves us all the time, no matter what demons have control of us. Jesus came to let us know the depth of the Father’s love. The parable story is about God the Father and his love for you and me.

An important aspect of our Lenten journey is our reflection on this parable, and the painting, if we are able to study it. Simply put, our immediate thought can be, which of the two brothers can I identify with?  At different times and in different situations, we can be seen in both of them. We can see that in the arrogance and neediness of the elder son and his persistent avoidance of whatever loss of family, pain, suffering, rejection and need for compassion are missing from his life. We can see the carefree attitude of living for me ... what I want ... because it’s what I want to do to my non-understanding of the need and appreciation of the love of people who show me that God is love and life is about loving, as God loves in the young one’s life. Where are we?

Joshua, Moses’ successor, has led the Israelites to the crossing of the Jordan River at the Promised Land. His first act is a reenacting of the deliverance at the Red Sea. Scholars tell us that the journey could have taken 11 days. But the people have to become God’s covenant people. “I will be your God, you will be My people.” They became God's people at Mt. Sinai and have gone through a year of instruction about what it means to be in very close relationship with God. And they fail repeatedly. This also has been happening in our lives, and it's the purpose of our Lenten journey. God has announced to a rebellious Israelite nation that they will wander in the wilderness until their generation, so focused on Egypt, has died away … and they wander for 40 years.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that Jesus came into the world to deliver us from sin’s power, to reconcile us to the Father’s love, and to be God’s witnesses to that love. Those who live in Christ live not for themselves but for God: “For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” [2 Corinthians 5:14-15] To live for Christ means to be His ambassadors of reconciliation.

Luke’s gospel shares what has become known as the Prodigal Son. Actually, the word prodigal appears nowhere in the New Testament. The focus is on the father’s extravagant behavior toward his two sons, both of whom are lost in their own particular ways. Jesus tells us what the Father is like. You would imagine Him to be angry, even outraged, at what the younger son has done. It is an insult that the younger son has even thought of returning. The father runs to him … new clothes and huge dinner party await. The older son can’t comprehend the father’s total forgiveness and love. Does he go to the party? What happens next? The story is of God’s love always for you and me.

In The Return of the Prodigal Son, a Story of Homecoming, Fr. Nouwen writes:

• “What of the Father … why pay so much attention to the sons when it is the Father who is the center, when it is the Father with whom I am to identify?”
• “Why talk so much about being like the sons when the real question is: Are you interested in being like the father?”
• “It feels somehow good to be able to say: ‘These sons are like me.’”
• “It gives a sense of being understood. But how does it feel to say, ‘The father is like me?’”
• “Do I want to be like the father?”
• “Do I want to be not just the one who is being forgiven, but also the one who forgives; not just the one who is being welcomed home, but also the one who welcomes home; not just the one who receives compassion, but the one who offers it as well?” (p. 122)
  

We have much work left in front of us these last weeks of Lent.

Sacred Space 2022 states:

“The parable of the Prodigal Son gives me a picture of the steadfast love of God. There, Lord, you show how Your heavenly Father would appear in human form. When He welcomes back his lost son with tears of delight, kills the fatted calf, brings out the best robe, and throws a great party, it is not to please other people, but to give expression to his own overwhelming pleasure that his child has come home. You delight in me.

“Time and again God promises me goodness. I pray that my eyes may be opened to appreciate where God is working in my life.”