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THE PRODIGAL FATHER

Headings on passages from the Bible can sometimes be helpful, and sometimes they push us in quite thewrong direction. We have known this story from Luke 15 for so long as The Prodigal Son thatwe have missedwhat Jesuswas really trying to say.

At the beginning of the chapter we read that Jesus was responding to criticism that he hung aroundw ith outcasts and sinners - he even ate with them. So Jesus tells themthree stories about peoplewho sought the lost and rejoiced when the lost was found. The shepherd, the woman and the father all spent ridiculous amounts of time and energy seeking that which was lost - in fact they were prodigal, or extravagant. So it is Jesus (on behalf of God) who is prodigal. He cares so deeply about thosewho are lost hewastes a huge amount on seeking, finding and rejoicing.

In somew ays we are the lost ones - and perhaps we have been in the far country for so long thatwe even doubt that we have a home and a father who longs for us to return. Maybe it w ill only be when we realise that the pigs are doing better than us that we remember and long for our Father’s home. He has given us everything; we have wasted it and yet stillwaits for us in love.

In other w ays we are much more like the elder brother, not realising how much we are loved, how much we have, and grumbling when someone is welcomed home who has notworked hard to do the right thing for so long. I sometimes wonder if our reaction to those who have lost their country and seek refugew ith us is elder-brother stuff.

The real challenge for followers of Jesus is whether we can share some of that prodigal love for others, especially those who are lost, reaching out for them, welcoming them, rejoicing with them even as God rejoices towelcome us home.

Robert Johnson
Fourth Sunday in Lent