Dead and now Alive, Lost and now Found

Jesus would teach anyone who wanted to listen to him, regardless of who they were, what they wore or what they believed. The response from the religious leaders of his day was, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Jesus responded to them by telling a story: "There was a man who had two sons. . .” We’ve all heard the story. We call it the “Prodigal Son,” The Two Sons,” or “The Forgiving Father.” It’s a story about love and family and jealousy. About getting what we deserve and making sure that no one else gets more than they deserve. Ultimately it is about forgiveness and acceptance whether the forgiveness and acceptance are received or not.

Jesus often got into “hot water” with the “powers that be,” both religious and secular. Usually for talking to the wrong people or speaking of God more as a loving father than a despotic judge, and especially for eating with people who did not deserve God’s love: tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes. As we listen closely to this story, found in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15, we see and hear Jesus illustrate that all deserve God’s love and forgiveness. Jesus hopes his listeners, then and now, see ourselves in this story, that we see our sins and mistakes as clearly as we see the sins and mistakes of others. Certainly some did and do, just as surely others did not and do not. I believe Jesus also hopes that we see God as bigger than we could ever ask or imagine.

In this story we can see the selfishness of the younger son as he takes his inheritance while his father is still living and blows it on parties and high living with his friends. The older brother, on the other hand, appears to be the perfect son: he stays home and cares for the family business, does all his father asks of him and never asks for anything special. This perfect son’s jealousy comes out when he feels he is not getting what he deserves, even to the point of expounding on his brother’s “sins” which may or may not have taken place.

God’s love, represented by the father’s actions, is greater and different than both expected. The younger son expected to become a servant and his father welcomed him as a son. The older son expected to be rewarded and the father welcomed him as a son. He loved them both with his whole heart and mind and strength, and forgave them both of their blindness and selfishness and lack of vision.

Wherever we find ourselves in Jesus’ story: the older brother, the younger brother, the father, a servant or just on the outside looking in, Jesus’ proclamation to the brother who stayed home is God’s gift to each of us. “We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”

May we celebrate God’s loving and forgiving presence in our lives, and may we go and do likewise. For truly we were dead and are now alive, were lost and have been found.