Prodigal God

A reflection on Luke 15: 1-32 - Sunday, 18 March 2007

On our first trip from Darwin to Alice Springs we camped one night at what was then called the Devil’s Marbles. There were four adults and six young children in our group. We pulled up at about 5.30pm, set up our tents, got a fire going, cooked dinner, fed the children and got them to bed. When all was calm we sat under the stars and talked about the day that had been, the one that was coming, and the amazing experience we were having.

At about 8 o’clock another vehicle pulled into the rest stop. It was a truck towing a 40 foot (or 10 metre) caravan. The people got out of their truck, started their generator, and then disappeared back inside their van. They switched on their lights, turned on their television and their air-conditioner, presumably cooked dinner on their electric stove, and had a hot shower. We were left wondering just how much of the outback they were experiencing when they weren’t prepared to leave behind all the comforts of home.

Sometimes I think it can be like that for us. We talk about wanting to experience new things, about wanting to be changed people, about repenting and being transformed by the love of Christ, but we’re not willing to let go of old ways.

Repentance

Last week I spoke about repentance. Repentance is more about our turning to God than it is about that from which we turn. And today’s gospel reading is a further illustration of this.

Did you know that the word prodigal means extravagant, generous, lavish, abundant, and plentiful? We usually interpret it as meaning wasteful or spendthrift, but it also means extravagant, generous, lavish, abundant and plentiful.

It has only been in later manuscripts that this parable has been given the title of “the Prodigal son”. Early manuscripts had no such titles. Historically our interpretations of this story have focused on the younger son, on the repentance of the son, on his learning his lesson; and the story has been used to remind us of the need to repent. That interpretation is both valid and helpful.

But I want to suggest there is another layer to this story. I want to ask, “Who is it who is being extravagant and generous? Who is it who is being lavish, abundant and plentiful” The word prodigal can be applied to the father as much as it can to the son. When we apply the word prodigal to the father then we are more likely to be focused on who is turned to rather than what is left behind.

When we turn again to God, when we repent, we find ourselves face to face with this prodigal father – this parent who is extravagant and generous in love and lavish in forgiveness.

A reckless God

The passage tells us that the father runs to meet his son. This patriarch, this well-respected man in a long robe, gathered his garment up around his knees and ran to meet his son. He doesn’t wait for his beloved son to come begging. He doesn’t make him hang his head in shame. He runs to meet him, to gather him into his arms, to kiss him, to welcome him home. It is good to remember this is how the father expresses his forgiveness for the son long before the son speaks words of repentance.

This story is the culmination of a series of stories in Luke’s gospel about the nature of God. The story of the prodigal is preceded in Luke’s gospel by the feeding of the four thousand and the feeding of the five thousand; by the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Every one of these stories points to God as anything but cautious when it comes to love and forgiveness and reconciliation.

A resentful brother

Yet, even in the face of that wonderful good news, there is tragedy in this parable. The tragedy lies with the older brother. He has done all the right things. He stays and works with his father. He acts to protect the family honour. He is responsible.

But in the end that isn’t what matters. Being responsible doesn’t provide him with reconciliation. It leaves him estranged from his father and his brother.

I wonder if you share my sympathy for the older brother? Being responsible is a valued characteristic in our society and in the church. while being careless with money, as the younger brother was, is frowned upon.

One of the things that happens for us is that whatever we value we tend to project that onto God. So when we value responsibility we construct a picture of a God who rewards responsibility and who disapproves of irresponsibility. But that is not how it works in this parable!

Luke tells us we have an extravagant, generous, and lavish God who embraces us with love and forgiveness. This parable serves to disrupt our image of God. It offers us a new image – a prodigal God.

A new creation

This new image of a generous, lavish, extravagant God isn’t one we can put alongside the old disapproving God who only rewards responsibility. We have to let go of old ways of knowing God in order to embrace new ways.

If we return to my experience of camping in the Northern Territory: the people who hold onto their known ways of living miss out on the starry sky and the stillness of the night.

Paul writes:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation

This passage is part of Paul’s argument that when we become Christians our approach to people and to life will be based in a new value system. In Christ we are a new creation, and this means our values, our attitudes and our behaviour will be different from that of the world.

We will live in ways which reveal the prodigal God we have discovered when we have turned again to God.

Philip Yancey, in his book Amazing Grace puts it well:

If the world despises a notorious sinner,
the church will love her.

If the world cuts off aid to the poor and the suffering,
the church will offer food and healing.

If the world oppresses,
the church will raise up the oppressed.

If the world shames a social outcast,
the church will proclaim God’s reconciling love.

If the world seeks profit and self-fulfilment,
the church seeks sacrifice and service.

If the world demands retribution,
the church dispenses grace.

If the world splinters into factions,
the church joins together in unity.

If the world destroys its enemies,
the church loves them.

That is the vision of the world which Luke shares with us when he writes of a God who will leave the 99 in order to search for 1, a God who will feed the hungry, and a God who will run to meet those who have turned towards God.

It is this prodigal God who says to us:

‘Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on; put a ring on your finger and sandals on your feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this child of mine was dead and is alive again; she was lost and is found!' And we will begin to celebrate.