The prodigal
The youngest son comes to his father demanding his half of the inheritance. In other words, he doesn’t want to wait until the old man dies: he wants the cold hard cash now! I know what I’d do if I were that Father...but what happens in Jesus’ story? The Father gives him a check, no, he gives him cash, and off the kid goes to spend the father’s hard earned money on desperate living.
And when the prodigal son returns, having wasted half of everything the Father ever earned, what does the Father do. He runs out to meet him, throws his arms around him, kisses him and throws a party.
And another thing. We are told that the father saw the son while “he was still a long way off.” How would he have seen him while “he was still a long way off?” Unless he had been standing on the porch, day and night, waiting for his son to return. Staring down the road, hoping against hope that he would return. So strong was his love that he never gave up hope.
It is the love of the shepherd who when he loses a sheep leaves the ninety-nine and goes off in search of the one. If you did that, you wouldn’t be a shepherd for very long, because when you came back what’s to say the ninety-nine would not have wandered off, as well? But what does the Good Shepherd do in Jesus’ story. He leaves the ninety-nine and goes off in search of even the single sheep who got himself lost.
Such is the mercy of God. Unbounded. Unreasonable. And so far beyond our tiny little hearts. The kind of mercy that forgives not seven times, but seventy times seven times. The kind of mercy that looks at the prostitute forced into confession and tells her, just don’t do it again. The kind of mercy that desires not the death of the sinner, but that he repent and live!
The older brother
It is the kind of love which loves all sons, even the older one, who should know better.
Now when you compare the older son to the younger, he looks pretty good at first glance. No evidence of lust or gluttony or any of the other devils that possessed the prodigal. Maybe he was adopted.
But what he lacks in the quantity of sins, he more than makes up for in the quality of his sin. For the older brother is so very proud: too proud to go into the banquet, too proud to trust in his Father’s love, too proud to forgive his repentant brother.
So what’s the difference between the two sons? We know that the sinful younger prodigal confessed his sins and was saved. But we never hear what happened to the one who was too proud to ask for forgiveness to accept the father’s merciful love for his son.
Us
Which is a good lesson for us all. Sometimes we are the younger son, the prodigal, lustful, gluttonous, greedy, slothful, angry and filled with envy. And that’s why we have so many confessionals.
But at other times we are like the older son, blinded by the self-righteous log in our eye, spending so much time judging others, ascending our royal thrones and declaring how wicked they all are, and how lucky God is to have at least a handful of good folks like us.
Indeed, I fear, my brothers and sisters, that if we spend too much time on our high horses that, on the last day, when the Lord comes and looks upon those who have confessed their sins and leads them home to heaven, we may be left standing there with nothing more than wrists sprained from patting ourselves on the back.
For, the truth, as each evening’s examination of our consciences reveals, we are, each one of us, nothing but worthless sinners, defaced by the ugliness of our sin; and made beautiful only by the unmerited love of an infinitely merciful God. Wretched in our selfishness, devious in our narcissism and often so totally self-absorbed that we fail to pray the most primal of prayers: Lord, have mercy!
So whether you are the older or younger son today, the prodigal or the proud, may God grant you the courage to pray the mantra of the cripple by the side of the road, the blind man who can’t find his way in the dark, and the sinner, who know how much he needs God’s mercy: Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
