A son who strayed

From today's reading:  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.  Read Luke 15:11b-32

In today's gospel, Jesus tells the last of three stories about being lost and found again.  The first story is about a lost sheep.  The second is about a lost coin, and the last one is about a lost son.

There are actually three levels of being lost here.  Jesus starts off with a simple lamb who strays away - the kind of straying away that, I’ll have to admit, a lot of us do.  It’s not unusual for young people to stray away from church and from God during their late teen years.  I’m one of those.  It’s not so much that we are being rebellious – in my case it was that I just had other things to do and – sleeping in seemed good on a Sunday morning.

Out of these three parables, the one that really makes sense and is easy to identify with is the second one about the lost coin:  The woman who sweeps the whole house until she finds the lost coin.  Turn that into your billfold or purse or car keys and we can easily relate to searching frantically and rejoicing and being totally relieved when we find it.

But in the third parable, the son is another matter.  In this parable, the son's leaving is a willful act.  In this parable, the younger son doesn’t just stray away, but he asks for his inheritance – an act tantamount to saying, “my father is dead – I have no family.”   This was the ultimate rejection. 

 Notice that the father doesn’t go running after the son.  The son should know better – he has the ability to reason.  The father lets him go.  I don’t care how convinced you are that something is Biblically, fundamentally, or socially wrong – telling someone, hounding a person about it, is not going to convince them that they are wrong.  

One of my students in Huntsville complained that this young man is not remorseful and doesn’t deserve to be taken back.  But the father takes him back anyway, and this is the message to the scribes and Pharisees – the father cares for all people - even the ultimate sinner who has rejected him.   The father doesn’t lecture him, he doesn’t scold him, he doesn’t punish him in any way.  He simply wraps his arms around him and takes him back.  

And then we come to the elder son.  In our second lesson we are told that God is reconciling thge world to himself.  The elder son represents those of us who never stray, who want to see justice and revenge in the world.  The father goes to the elder son and loves him just as he loved the younger.  He lets him know that he is loved also and invites him to come in.

And whether we are the younger son who has strayed away with a frivolous mind, or the older brother who has stayed at home with a hard heart - We are all invited to come into God’s kingdom - to be a new creation in Christ – and eventually the old will pass away and the new will flower and bloom.   And in the meantime, God will cover our sin with the righteousness of Christ until we are brought home to stay.