4th Sunday in Lent
“... now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found”
Reflection
Longer than any of the other parables of Jesus, and perhaps the most known and loved, is the so-called Parable of the Prodigal Son. Found only in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus masterfully reveals the expansive heart of the Father, in contrast to the littleness of the hearts of the Pharisees. There is an insight to be gained from each of the three central players. The younger son demands his inheritance early from his father, essentially saying, “I can’t wait around here for you to die,” then completely squanders it. He finally returns home to the father, not from contrition but desperation. Then the older son, seeming at first to be a model of faithfulness and obedience but harboring resentment towards his father and showing his pettiness as he worries about a goat when actually everything the father has is his. Finally, we have the father, patient and enduring, watching and waiting, going out to both of his sons that they might return to his house and realize who they truly are as his beloved children. Many messages are in this parable, but the most foundational, prominent, and indisputable of them all is that we are loved, not for what we do, but for who we are. The father did not love the younger son less despite his sin, and he did not love the older son better because of his obedience. Both were loved, as a result, of the relationship with their father; their identity as his sons. Our Lenten disciplines, indeed, our entire approach to the Christian life, will be barren without a relationship with the Father, realizing who we are as His beloved son or daughter. Lent is not a self-help program but a return to the Father. While this is called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, where “prodigal” means wasteful, reckless, or excessive, it could also be called the Parable of the Prodigal Father who loves so extravagantly. Let us run to His arms, sorrowful for our sin, but filled with confidence in His great mercy and love, and willing to begin again in obedience and faithfulness to Him.
Discussion Questions
Which person in the parable do you identify with the most? Why might that be?
Have you ever experienced being loved just for who you are not what you can do for someone? If so, who was it in your life that showed you that love?
Is there anything preventing you from “returning” to the Father this Lent to receive His love and mercy?
