A Father’s Love
In the story of the Prodigal Son, which individual are you? Who are you in the story? Are you the one who took your share of the wealth… squandered it… and now long to come home and be welcomed back? Are you the parent who was devastated when your child left… the one who stands by the window waiting for him… or her… to return… prepared to forgive? Are you the older brother who has carried a double load of work since your younger brother left… the one that worked hard to replenish the family coffers after your younger brother took his share… the one who feels a deep resentment that now… after all this time… your brother has returned to be reinstated… restored without penalty to the family fold? Or are you just an observer of this interaction… standing in the shadows… untouched and uninvolved in all of it?
In the Hermitage in St. Petersburg hangs the beautiful painting that is featured on the cover of our bulletin today: the “Return of the Prodigal Son” by Rembrandt. It was acquired in 1766 by Catherine the Great and has been a part of the Russian treasury of art since then. In the painting, we can clearly see the younger son… barefoot and destitute… on his knees before his father in the lowest part of the painting. We also clearly see the father in that lower courtyard… leaning down with open arms to welcome his younger son into his embrace. Off to the right, we can see… elevated two or three steps higher… the stern and distant figure of the older son… hands clasped together over his staff… looking down on this tableaux with a frown. Then, there are two other faint figures in the background that we cannot identify. Who are they? Why are they included in the painting?
In 1992, Henri Nouwen wrote a book called The Return of the Prodigal Son that explores the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son through the painting by Rembrandt… a painting that he began to study in 1983. In this book, Henri Nouwen examines each of the characters featured in the painting in light of the Biblical truth behind the parable. First, he takes a look at the younger son… the one who is most often the focus of our love affair with this story. This is the one who cut off all ties with his family to seek a life of self-centered pleasure. How often have we cut our ties with God… to go off on our own… seeking our own pleasure… all the while squandering the gifts that God has given to us? How often have we misused or abused our bodies… these temples of the Holy Spirit, created in the image of God and given to us to glorify God? How often have we looked for love and acceptance in all the wrong places… rather than seeking and finding those things in our relationship with God? How many times has the world let us down… our colleagues turned their backs… our friends been absent or deserted us when we needed them? How often have our material possessions not given us the satisfaction that we long for… but instead left us longing for more? God says to us, “…I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses,” and urges us to, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you…” And yet, how often do we choose death… to cut ourselves off from God and to leave home to go to a far and distant land?
In his book, Henri Nouwen explores the life of the younger son… and then follows it with an intriguing thought… the possibility that the younger son is Jesus. Wasn’t this the one who left his home and his kingly crown to come to earth… to give away all that he had, even his very life… for the ungrateful people of this world… to be crucified on a heap of refuse… before returning to his father… broken, battered, and degraded… by way of the cross? Yet, he did all this in obedience to God for our sake. Indeed, it was only through his long and desolate journey away from home that we are able to return to the Father. So, when this Prodigal Son returns home, he brings the world back to God and all are reconciled.
Then, there is the older son. This is the one who has done everything his father asked of him. In return, he has experienced the plentiful bounty of his father’s household… the wealth, the comfort, the security, and the status of being the oldest son. Everything his father has, his father has also shared with him during the entire time that the younger son has been absent. But it is not enough. There is still anger and bitterness when his brother returns… and a heart that desires retribution.
“It’s not fair!” How many times have we used that phrase… whether we have actually said it out loud… or just screamed it in our own heads? Life is not fair. How often have we seen individuals who have less knowledge… less skill… and less dedication move ahead in their careers? How often have we worked tirelessly on a project… only to see the benefits and the recognition awarded to someone else? Why should others get the new house… new car… better job… good health… when we have worked so hard to do what is right… when we are the ones who have been faithful? Lost in his resentment, the older son also “leaves home”… he storms out of the house. In a sense, he too, is lost. Somehow, he has forgotten all that he has… and all that he is… in this tirade against his brother. In that brief tirade, the “model son”… the perfect child… is revealed for what he truly is… not the obedient… dutiful… hardworking… dedicated person that others looked up to, but instead a proud… angry… resentful… unkind … and selfish person... filled with pettiness. When have we resented that recognition that others received… or envied the success of their lives? When have we railed against God for the perceived “favoritism” granted to others? It is easy to see the “lostness” of the younger son… for what he did was glaringly obvious to everyone. It is more difficult to see the “lostness” of the older son… for much of it was internal… poisoning his heart and his soul.
The question is this: Can the older son come home, too? When we are imprisoned by our jealousy… lost in our resentment… and frozen in our condemnation… can we also be found? Can we also come home? The answer, of course, is that all things are possible with God. God does not love the younger son more than the older one. So, in our story, the father leaves the banquet and goes out to find his older son… and urges him to come home. The older son pours out all of his resentment and his bitterness. It is then that his father reminds him that all that he has belongs also to the older son… as it always has. There is no favoritism here. Both sons are given everything that the father has… and the father is not content with having just one son at the feast… he wants both of them to be there. The story of the Prodigal Son is the story of a God who searches for us and does not rest until we are found… whether we are found returning from a far distant country… or residing right here in God’s house. We can be equally lost in either place. Both places can be dark… and lonely… and filled with despair. God searches for us in all of the places where we can become lost… in the world or inside of ourselves. God will not rest until we are found… and returned to his embrace… to share the feast that he has prepared for us.
The passage from Isaiah that Jeff read this morning says, “…everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen… to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” Why do we spend our time and our resources on those things which can never satisfy us? God invites us to so much more… and the mystery of that continues to amaze me. Many years ago, J.B. Phillips authored a book called Your God is Too Small. In this book, he talked about the limited vision that we, as humans, have of our Creator. His thoughts have stayed with me and, from time to time… usually in those times when I have felt overwhelmed by life… when the mountain in front of me seems to daunting to climb… when life seems to demand more than I have to give… I see the title of that book again. “Your God is too small.” Is your God too small?
Carl was barely eighteen years old when I met him. He was the nephew of one of my hospice patients. When he was in the sixth grade, he lost his mother to a major stroke. His father was an alcoholic who abused him. Carl went to live with his grandmother and his aunt. Unfortunately, his aunt was also an alcoholic and mentally unstable. She battered his grandmother and then tried to take her own life. As a result, she was committed to the State Hospital in Austin. When Carl was in the eighth grade, his grandmother died and his father left the state, leaving him behind. Carl ended up at his uncle’s house.
When I met Carl, he was living alone in an old mobile home in a cow pasture. He was late for our appointment. Within the first few minutes of our conversation, I learned that what I most feared was true… Carl did not want to see me. He had only agreed to do so to make his cousin, Kelly, happy. I knew that Kelly was worried about him, but I also knew that Carl needed to make his own choices. So, I told Carl that it was OK that he did not want to see me or talk to me. We could spend our time together talking about other things. I did encourage him to keep my phone number and told him that, if Kelly felt he should talk to me again, to let me know and I would make an appearance… for Kelly’s sake. Carl smiled at that and we began to talk about high school… the prom… and other things.
Carl turned out to be one of those miracles that you never expect. Despite all the trauma… rejection… abuse… and abandonment he had experienced in his life, he turned out to be a wonderfully talented and mature young man. As I learned from Carl… all of which was later confirmed by his pastor… Carl was completing high school and would be graduating in May. He had good grades… held down a steady part-time job… owned a car he had purchased himself… and had a girlfriend who was a strong Christian. He was going to Blinn College after graduation. Somehow, a story that ordinarily would have been a tragedy had turned into a triumph. How? It was God at work. “…My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” When Carl was living with his grandmother as a young boy, Carl found a home in his grandmother’s church. He had found friends there… and that family of God loved him… accepted him… supported him… and encouraged him through all those dark years.
Why do we have so little faith? Why do we have so little trust? We may not understand all that God is doing in our lives, but there is one thing we do know… that God loves us with a love that is beyond our ability to measure it… that God seeks us with a restlessness that knows no bounds… that God welcomes us home from whatever far country into which we have wandered… and that God spreads a feast before us that we may eat and drink our fill of what is good. We are never lost when we are in his care. During this Lenten season, let us do what the psalmist encourages us to do: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near…let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them… for he will abundantly pardon.” Come home. Find love in your Father’s arms today. Amen.
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32; Isaiah 55:1-9