A Homily for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity
Jesus said, A certain man had
two sons.
--Saint
Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons.” We are accustomed to call this morning’s parable the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and so it is. But we must remember that Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons.” The prodigal son is only one-third of the story. His third of the story is one of the “lost and found parables,” like the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin.
The story of the prodigal son is a familiar one to us, and we understand where we fit into that story, just as we understand where we fit into the stories of the lost coin and the lost sheep. The prodigal son is the person who has erred and strayed from God’s ways like a lost sheep, who has followed too much the devices and desires of his own heart, who has offended against the laws laid down by his father. There is no health in him.
Taking his presumed inheritance, he has anticipated the death of his Father and so rejected his Father’s authority. His Father is as good as dead, so far as the prodigal is concerned. And off he goes to a far-off land to waste his inheritance on fast cars and loose women and all the material goods this world seems to offer. And then, falling on hard times, he finds himself working for a living, indeed, working hard for not too good of a living. He finds himself slopping hogs and envying the hogs.
At some point, the prodigal decides to turn his life around. He picks himself up, dusts himself off, and goes home. He tells his father that he has sinned against both heaven and his father, and is unworthy to be called a son. But his father is nevertheless overjoyed to see him and cannot treat him as anything but a son. The very idea that the prodigal might ask to be taken on as a servant, which had been the prodigal’s intention when he set out for home, is not even mentioned.
So where do we fit into the story? We see ourselves in the prodigal son. We have all erred and strayed like lost sheep. We have all followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have all offended against God’s holy laws. There is no health in any of us. And so, we are all the prodigal son. And we have all been welcomed home, we have all been reclothed and invited back into the family circle, to feast on fatted calf at the family table.
But there is a second story, also. Remember, Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons.” And the second story in this morning’s parable is the story of the second brother. Just as the story of the younger son finds parallels in the parables of the lost coin and the lost sheep, so the story of the older son finds a parallel in the story of the labourers in the vineyard. We recall that in that parable, the workers hired at the eleventh hour were paid the same wage as those who had been hired at the first hour. And those who had borne the heat of the day grumbled against the goodman of the house.
We saw ourselves in the younger son, the prodigal; but do we see ourselves as well in the older son? When the prodigal returns, his older brother is out working in the fields. He does not even notice that his brother has come home. He is tending to business, he is doing what needs to be done. He says, and we have no cause to doubt, that this is how it has been for his whole life. He is righteous in his own sight.
When the older brother is told that his father has killed the fatted calf so that he can throw a dinner party in honour of the younger brother’s safe homecoming, the older brother is angry and will not go in. Is his anger unreasonable? In the ordinary course of things, supposing it to be true that the older brother has stayed at home, worked on the family farm, and never been given so much as a baby goat so that he could have a party with his friends, we might find the older brother’s anger eminently reasonable.
But the father’s rebuke of the older son is even more reasonable. The prodigal, a son and a brother, was lost and is found, was dead and is restored to life. Whatever else one might have to say about it, this is a source of joy. In the presence of such joy, resentment is out of place. For the older son to sulk and to try to put a damper on his father’s joy is an offense against his father. He demands justice—his version of justice—when his father has offered mercy.
The parable ends rather abruptly. We are not told whether or not the older brother accepted his father’s invitation to come in and join the party. It is up to us to furnish the conclusion. At one time or another we have all seen someone we know get off too easy, we have all seen ourselves passed over while another enjoys the rewards that should have gone to us. Perhaps we have given in to anger, resentment, or self-righteousness. And if we have, then we are all the prodigal’s older brother.
And there is still a third part to the parable. Remember, Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons.” This morning’s parable is also the story of the father.
We suppose, and rightly so, that the father in the parable represents God. But we must not forget that the fatherhood of God is the type and paradigm of all human fatherhood. It is our special privilege to call God “Father” (or, indeed, “Papa”) and to address him not using the formal pronoun “you,” but the old fashioned familiar pronoun “thou,” the pronoun once used within the family. God the Father, through his Son, has sent his Spirit into our hearts, to cry out. “Abba, Father.” And Jesus himself taught us to pray saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” It is the title he himself has chosen to signify his relationship to us.
Many here today are themselves fathers; and all of us have had a father. This morning’s parable bids us reflect on what is meant by a father’s love.
We see a father’s love in permitting the prodigal to leave the family home and farm, even allowing him to take a portion of the family property that the father had worked to produce and preserve. The father must have known that it was folly, that the money (and quite possibly the son) would never be seen again. The father’s love is manifest in allowing his son the freedom to fail, just as God has given us all free will, so that we can choose whether or not to abide in his household and obey his commandments.
We see a father’s love in receiving the prodigal when he repents of his folly and returns. It has been a costly lesson, not least for the grief and sorrow and uncertainty that it has caused the father. And yet, when he beholds the prodigal yet a long way off, he runs to meet him in the road and welcomes him home with open arms. The prodigal has squandered a large part of the family fortune, and yet the father is himself prodigal in his reception, bestowing robes and rings and fatted calves. The father’s love is manifest in his unquestioning acceptance of his repentant son, just as God accepts us, miserable offenders that we are.
And we see a father’s love in the reproof of the older son for his uncharitableness toward his brother. We hear the love in those words, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine,” and in his disappointment that his son demands justice rather than mercy. His words to his older son are simultaneously loving and chastening, because sometimes that is how real love speaks. And we see a father’s love, too, in the desire for reconciliation, not only of his children with him, but of his children with one another.
Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons.” A certain man was a father, and as a father he loved his children even when they were unlovely and unloveable. He loved them when they were foolish and when they were petulant and when they were ungrateful; he loved them because they were his children and because he was their father.
As we reflect on today’s Gospel lesson, let us be grateful to God for the love of our earthly fathers, expressed in all the ways that it is expressed. And let us be grateful, too, for the love of our heavenly Father. And if ever you should wonder how much our heavenly Father loves us, remember this:
God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son,
to the end that all who believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
5
August 2007
See a list of the deacon’s homilies.