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Across the Pastor’s Desk by Don Rose

Perhaps one of the most familiar and well known of all of the parables that Jesus told is the parable often known as “The Prodigal Son.” In fact, so well known that it would appear that there is little new that might be said about it. But as is so often the case with that which people think that they know, this parable may be more surprising and refreshing than most might think.

To begin, the story might better be titled in reference to the father than to either of his two sons. Although the two scenes of the story feature first one son and then the other, it is the father and the father’s actions that drive the story from beginning to end. It is the father who exhibits extravagant love for both sons that becomes the focus of the story.

From its context in the gospel according to St. Luke, the story is not so much about wayward sinners in need of repentance and restoration as it is about self-righteous believers who struggle to accept the reality of God’s love offered to those whom they consider to be sinners. Many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day believed that if Jesus did in fact represent God’s presence, he would have been more careful about those with whom he associated. Jesus would have avoided sinners, lest their very presence would somehow diminish his ministry to the world. The leaders failed to recognize that those whom they rejected were the very center of Jesus’ concern. As a result, those leaders were at odds with Jesus and could not bring themselves to rejoice in him whenever repentance and restoration were manifested. 

Similar misunderstandings still continue today among the people of God. God rejoices when any are restored as children of the kingdom. Would it not make sense for God’s children to rejoice as well? Remember that the party in the story was not for the son, but rather to celebrate with the father that his son was returned. The relationship was not restored because of what the son had done, but rather because of the father’s love. The extravagant, unexpected love of the father becomes a sign of God’s love for God’s children. As God rejoices when restoration takes place, so God’s children are invited to share in that rejoicing. 

Unfortunately, the older brother was in as distant a place as his brother, though he was closer to home. Having cut himself off, he, too, has lost sight of what it means to be family and to know the love of the father just as his brother did. As the father went out to the younger son in love and welcome, so he goes to the older son in a similar way with love and welcome. The reader is left to wonder how the older brother will respond. More importantly modern hearers are left to consider how they will respond when the Father invites them to rejoice when the lost are restored and the kingdom advances.

Don Rose is a pastor at Mansfield and United Lutheran churches.