March 30 2025 Lent 4

Joshua 5.2-12    Psalm 32    2 Corinthians 5.16-21    Luke 15.11-32

Jesus tells this parable in response to the angry crowd who are certain they know exactly how far divine salvation reaches and who are both inside and outside the reach of this salvation and of God.  In fact, they are so sure of their righteousness that they have built ‘invisible walls’ separating themselves from the ‘sinners’ in their midst.  And they are stunned that Jesus would ‘welcome sinners’, let alone ‘eat with them’.

Let me ask; how many of you have ‘lived the life fantastic’ even if it was for just one day, disregarding what ‘should’ be done, disregarding what you knew was the right thing to do, and then found yourself in deep water.  Either emotionally, physically or spiritually.  And then you ‘woke up’ one day and realised what you were doing, and realised the cost to you, and probably lots of others especially those who loved you, and you decided to ‘change your ways’.  How hard was it for you to change.  How hard was it for those who knew you to believe you really had changed.  How hard was it to ‘walk away’ from your previous behaviours.  And how hard was it to apologise to those you had hurt through your actions, those who had loved you despite your behaviour, those who trusted you and were let down by what you had done.  And how hard was it to forgive yourself.

This young son in the parable Jesus tells did all those things.  He basically told his father – I don’t care about you, I’m out of here, and I want all that is mine, (and then some).  What this father gave his son should not have been his till the father had died.  What this father did, in allowing his son to leave, and take his portion of his future inheritance, was so socially abnormal he risked being ostracised by his own community, as well as his oldest son.  But he did it because he loved his son.  He was willing to do all he could to give his son everything he wanted.

God has that sort of love for you, and me; God is willing to do anything and everything to provide for us all that we need, and sometimes all that we want.  Yes there are consequences for this, and we have to live with those consequences.  But God does not leave us to our own devices.  And when we ‘wake up’ to ourselves, God is ready and willing to welcome us back.  God is willing to ‘throw a party’ to show us that we are always welcome, and we will always be God’s cherished child.

Now we often give the older son in this story a bad rap.  We are tempted to say he is acting like a spoiled brat in not being prepared to also forgive his brother like his father did.  But, how ready are we to forgive others who ‘wrong’ us.  How ready are we to act as if that the wrongs they have done didn’t happen, because that is what the father has done and that is what the father is asking his oldest son to do.  ‘Come celebrate with us, your brother who was dead is alive and back home.’ 

This parable is about two boys who are ‘lost’.  And the thing is, ‘lostness’ can take on many forms.  This younger lost son has intentionally turned his back on his parent’s love and way of life, seeking his own interests and a ‘better’ way of life.  This older boy has always ‘done the right thing’, he has always fulfilled all the expectations of his father and of society.  And all that comes with a price, being the ‘good child’ can be a burden, always having to ‘deliver’, you can never make a mistake, the family honour depends on you.  This oldest boy is also lost.  Lost in alienation, he stands outside the party taking place in the house.  And the thing is, there was probably always a celebration waiting for him too, but he was so busy being ‘the good child’ he missed the opportunity to accept it.  Grace and celebration was there for him, but he couldn’t put down the burden of ‘goodness’ to see it.  And yes, the father is right, everything the father has now belongs to this oldest son, the younger boy has lost all rights to any inheritance, or property, when his father dies.  This younger son may be able to continue to live on the property, but all the property and everything it produces belongs to the older son.

One boy needs the grace of restoration, the other needs to accept the grace of imperfection, and just accept himself, let go of goodness for a while and let his father love him, bathing him in the love he thought he had to earn.  May we allow ourselves the liberty of being ‘imperfect’ knowing that God’s love is always there, grace and mercy are always there, all we have to do is be willing to accept it.