The Forgiving Father:

Luke 15:1-2, 11b-32 Year C: Lent IV

Today’s gospel is one of the best known parables in the Bible. Jesus has gathered around him a group of tax collectors and sinners to listen while the ever watchful Pharisees and scribes once again grumble about the company Jesus is keeping.

As we’ve heard in the reading, the younger son asks to receive his inheritance while his father is still alive. Such a request would have been interpreted as disrespectful as if the younger son wished his father was already dead. The father agrees to divide up his property and appease the younger son. We don’t know the father’s feelings around this act, but we can assume that he was deeply hurt by the request. Then his selfish, greedy, thrill-seeking son takes his inheritance, moves far away from his home and family to live a foolish existence of self-indulgence and fast-living. He acts like an idiot. He has plunged himself into a hedonistic lifestyle. He’s abandoned his responsibility of working the family’s property and helping his older brother and father. He just spends the money on his own pleasures and desires. He is wasteful, but it’s not long before he must face the consequences of his many poor decisions. To further highlight his stupidity he’s done all of this in a place that is suffering from a famine. After he’s gone through all the money he sinks to the lowest point possible for a Jewish boy. He takes a job feeding pigs. That’s right the most unclean animal known to Jews. Not only that, he’s in a situation where he’s lower than the pigs. At least the pigs have something to eat while he faces starvation. He has bottomed out in a very big way. No community, no food, no friends, no family, no inheritance. When he realizes the magnitude of what he’s lost, he decides to turn away from this life of his own choosing and return home to his Father. There in the fields, with the pigs, he rehearses the confession he will make to his father. So, he gathers up all his courage and sets off for home. Just imagine the shame he must have felt during that long walk…the humiliation and the apprehension of his Father’s reaction to his reappearance. That’s a lot of time to think and a lot to think about.
 
However, as he nears home his Father sees him far off in the distance. Just imagine what difficulties the father has been dealing with in the time that his younger son has been gone. He has one less son working the properties. His younger son treated him as if he were dead. Yet, he has still loved this son who had gone away. He didn’t know if this son was even still alive. Where did he go? What has he been doing? He has had a lot to think about too. Yet when he sees the distant figure approaching he knows instinctively that it is his younger son. He’s so sure of it that he runs out to greet him. The father is so filled with compassion that he embraces his younger son before one word can be exchanged.

There’s a painting of this scene hanging in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. It’s called ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son’. It was painted by the great Dutch artist Rembrandt who himself had a tendency to live beyond his means and foolishly spent his wife’s inheritance. At one time he was forced to declare bankruptcy. Rembrandt kept painting to pay off his creditors and to express himself. Although he painted many biblical scenes throughout his career the parable of the Prodigal Son must have been one of special significance for him since he created several versions depicting the scene of the embrace before finally painting the work that now hangs in the Hermitage.

In this great work of art the father and the son are the main figures. The son’s clothing is old and tattered. His sandals are worn out. One of his sandals has fallen off revealing a foot covered in sores and calluses obviously a sign that his journey home was physically painful and arduous. His body looks emaciated as his clothes hang off his frame. The son’s head is shorn of all its hair like that of a penitent. He is kneeling in contrition in front of his father. He is leaning in towards his father as if his arms are either crossed over his chest or held in a prayer position. His head is bowed down and his eyes are averted to avoid looking up at the father. The son is a figure of absolute defeat. The father sees that the son is clearly broken by his journey from transgression to atonement.

The father is depicted as an elderly man wearing fine clothes underneath his bright red cloak. He is shown standing but slightly bent over. He has one hand on his son’s right shoulder and the other hand pressing into the son’s back…as if gathering the lost son home into his bosom. It is a tender scene of compassion and mercy.

There is a group of dedicated employees at the Hermitage who are devoted to their work at the great museum. They feel a tremendous responsibility for the artworks in their care. One such employee is a young art handler named Vadim. In the recent TVO documentary series ‘Hermitage-niks’, Vadim was asked which artwork was his favourite. Without hesitation he replied that Rembrandt’s ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son’ was the painting he loved the most in the whole of the enormous Hermitage collection. Vadim passes by this painting everyday and always stops to take some time to admire and contemplate it. When asked why this Rembrandt appeals to him so much he replied that he reveres it because it shows how families should love each other.

It’s about how families should love each other but don’t. It can be difficult to forgive people in our families who hurt us. It can be difficult to have compassion for people who suffer from self-inflicted wounds or ignore our counsel on the way to such behaviour. The older, dutiful son certainly is not pleased to see his loser brother welcomed back into the family fold. He wants him to be shunned and punished for his disgraceful shenanigans. He’s so bitter he refuses to join in the forgiveness that his father exhibits. He’s so bitter he refuses to go in and join the celebrations. He doesn’t think his brother merits forgiveness after wasting his share of the family property. In a way he’s right.
The younger son also does not believe he merits forgiveness. How can he return to his home after what he’s done? However, it is God who helps him come to himself. It is God pushing him to do what is right. God pushes him to turn away from his wretched existence and return to his home to ask for forgiveness. He knows his sin has gotten him to this point of despair. He knows he’s unworthy and does not expect his father to restore his position in the family, but he is prepared to settle for being treated like a hired hand. He knows he does not merit forgiveness. In a way he’s right.
Merit has nothing to do with it.

It is not a question of merit.

Jesus is showing us a different way to love that has nothing to do with merit… a way to forgive. In the parable, the father forgives his son before he even sees him. The father forgives him before the son can speak the entire confession he’s so carefully rehearsed, but the confession is not necessary. He is already forgiven. The father restores him to wholeness in the family. He is welcomed back to his family, his land and his community when the father calls for a big celebration…and the angels who pushed the son to turn away from his lost existence were likely celebrating in heaven right along with them when that lost son returned to the fold.

The father shows both of his sons that compassion and forgiveness are not given out of merit. There are no conditions to be met. Compassion and forgiveness are freely given because the younger son is his child. The father’s actions are a way past resentment and hatred. Compassion and forgiveness are a way to love. Christ is showing us that we are made to be more like the father in this parable and not the sons. We are in Christ. God can move us past the behaviour of the two sons. Merit plays no part in God’s love for us. God loves us unconditionally. God forgives us before we have the chance to ask because we belong to God.

We are made in the image of God. If this is true then we are expected to be more like God. We, therefore, need to practise what we already are. Practise loving people who don’t deserve your love. Practise loving like God. Practise loving people who’ve failed you. Practise loving people who’ve wronged you. Practise loving like God. Try throwing a party for someone who doesn’t deserve it. Visit someone who frustrates you. Practise loving like God. It may not be easy at first. You may fail, but it’s important to keep working at it. Forgiveness is hard. Unconditional love is hard, but God makes it possible for us to do it. With practice we may discover that we are being transformed into becoming the father of this parable. God will help us journey in compassion and love. God enables us to live out God’s divine compassion in daily life. God gives us the ability to dare to stretch out our hands in blessing and to receive with ultimate love and compassion those around us regardless of how they act towards us or feel about us. God allows us to show the same compassion to others that God shows to us. Jesus says your family, however you define it, can demonstrate love in the manner that Vadim observes in Rembrandt’s painting. God can help us be like that. We can love like God…the God who will never leave us no matter how alone and how lost we are. The God who will lead us to repentance…The God who loves us even though we can never pay off our sins enough to merit God’s grace…the grace that culminates in the Christ who has already paid for our sins in full.

Preached by Karine Farmer at Christ Church, Sunday 18 March 2007.