Reflection to the WORD on Sunday of March 30, 2025
LENTEN PRODIGAL - Luke 15:1-3, 11b
It looks like that in the story the king had two sons. The righteous one and the prodigal one. However we should be certain both sons were prodigal. This is a parable, it has a metaphorical layer, and of course in the metaphorical layer, this father of the story, is God, the king of Heaven. But let us say, we take the parable, though we should not, at its literal narrative, about an earthly father who had two sons. If it is an earthly father, even the father should be considered as a prodigal father, as The Apostle Paul wrote in his latter to the Romans, chapter three:
“For there is no distinction,for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;”
In the literal story although the main accent is on the sinning son, spending his heritage on debauchery. Clear case, his behavior was unacceptable, by the natural moral code, and by the religious -legal moral code, we call the Law of Moses.
However, we know that the first born son was rebuked by his father for his indignation and impatience toward his brother, and not only toward his sinning brother per say, but toward his repenting and returning brother. As the firstborn son told it to his father:
“Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”
By the Gospel moral code the firstborn son’s behavior and hardened heart is unacceptable, so the father’s rebuking of the firstborn son is justified, and in this sense, even the firstborn son a prodigal one, who needs to correct his conduct and his life.
The earthly story literal meaning can even be so complex, that the father also should take a little blame, with some possible negligence during the upbringing of the kids, somewhat favoritizing the firstborn over the siblings, and when the younger went astray, it is at least is not in the story, but it looks like that the earthly father did not go after the lost ship of his children, trying hard to rescue him.
It is speculation, of course, but in an earthly setting, nobody but nobody, including fathers, are blameless. In this sense the earthly father in the story is a prodigal one, who had to arrive at understanding, forgiveness, and an unconditional parental love. And the society had also a role in this family crisis: as the traditional property law said exactly what the father in the literal story said: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”
According to the contemporary inheritance law, the firstborn son inherited almost everything from the wealth of the family. It could have a rational logic in this, especially in a farming, settled society, not to cut up the real estate or the sizable herds into shards. But still, the other siblings might have felt ignored, disowned, the system was doomed to be shaken by the revolting siblings.
Thus, the set of the story was a real issue in the society, and even the literal meaning had a real message for the audience.
However, even at the onset of the story, the Gospel states, that this is a parable, Jesus said it to the Pharisees, who were often depicted by the Gospel as unwaveringly judgmental group in the society, and Jesus tried to remind them of the very spiritual institution of repentance of the sinners and the mercy of the Father, who is of course on the metaphoric level of the parable, is God, the King of the Universe.
The opportunity of repentance and the mercy of God is an expressed institution in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 18:21-23 “if the wicked turns from all his sins that he has committed, and keeps all my statutes, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die. None of his transgressions that he has committed will be remembered against him. In his righteousness that he has done, he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh, “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?”
Thus, in the metaphorical level, the Father is God, and the firstborn Son might be Israel, and the other siblings are the other nations, the children of God.
The understanding of Israel as the firstborn son has Biblical references. Moses in the the Exodus told Pharoph, that God says that “Israel is my firstborn son, … Let my son go that he may serve me.”
Also, in the Book Prophet Jeremiah, chapter 31, God explicitly says, that “With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.”
And Israel should serve as the Light of the Nations, reminding them of God’s commandment.
The power vector of the Gospel story points toward my and my personal repentance, that I, just because there are so many wicked people around the world who are obviously more wicked than me, still I should not think that I am not a prodigal son or daughter of God, who is not wasting the precious time remaining to me on vanity and futility.
It is clear in an other parable told by Jesus, in the praying of the publican and the Pharisee, where the Pharisee was boasting with his imagined righteousness while the publican was begging for mercy, where Jesus had to say that “I tell you that the man, begging for mercy, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
I have to take repentance and penance seriously, which is not the easiest thing in the world, ever and at all, as I am tend to find excuses for myself how wonderful I am, how I deserve all the best in all worlds, and how I am better than the others.
The Lent keeps coming back yearly, in order to remind us the intrinsic value of humbleness, because without humbleness we can not be justified before God, and even Jesus will not be able to justify us, because rejecting humbleness, we sin against the Holy Spirit.
Thus, may the Lord lead us on the narrow pathway, sometimes not only avoiding, but against the Broadways of this WORLD, and against the spiritual forces of darkness and death. May the Lord name be praised by our thoughts and deeds according the will of the Almighty God, and the always vigilant Holy Spirit, Amen.
