Today’s lesson in the Adult Bible Study series was on the text of the Prodigal Son, or at least that part that dealt with the Prodigal — here’s today’s lesson text, in case you need a refresher:
The Prodigal Son
Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
My first thought on reading the lesson was, “what can I add to this that hasn’t already been said?” Our Sunday School class has been meeting together for forty years. Even the new members have covered this ground before. But as I prepared the lesson for the class, I realized that — as with most of the parables of Jesus — there is always something new.
Having read the lesson, the class members were ready with the definition of the word prodigal as being “wastefully extravagant”, and we talked a little about what that means.
Then we discussed how this parable compares with the two that precede it (the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin). All three involve something that is lost and then found.
And then we discussed how this parable differs from the two that precede it. The other two involve lost things that are not human. Both the sheep and the lost coin are sought and found through diligence of the one who searches. In the parable of the Prodigal, the son is found when he comes “to himself” and remembers his father’s generous character.
We touched on Karl Barth’s discussion of the doctrine of reconciliation in his Church Dogmatics (touched really, really lightly, but we did talk about it a little). And we talked about Henri Nouwen’s treatment of the parable in his book, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming.
And then we talked about the rest of the parable, the part that was yesterday’s reading in the Daily Bible Study, the part that we might call the Parable of the “Frugal” Son:
The Frugal Son
“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered 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 property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But 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.’ ”
We had already noted that, in the context of these “parables of the lost”, Jesus was making a point to the Pharisees who had been criticizing him for keep company with sinners. Surely, the elder son was meant to portray the Pharisees and just as surely we knew that they probably didn’t see this. And then class member Andy pointed out that just as we could see ourselves as the younger son (the Prodigal), we might also see ourselves as the elder son . . . sort of latter day Pharisees.
Not that the elder son was all bad. As John, another member of our class, pointed out, the elder brother may very well have stayed and worked for his father all those years because he wanted to fulfill his duty to his father our of a sense of love and devotion. In other words, he could be an example of what it means to live righteously - albeit a bit grudgingly when it came to the welcome his younger brother was receiving.
John also noted what the father said to the elder brother, “[A]ll that is mine is yours.” The point John was making was that God’s love is boundless. Both sons received “all” God’s love, just as we receive all God’s love.
As we wrapped up the lesson, class member Shawn pointed out that we (our church — First United Methodist Church of Tupelo) had grown complacent and fallen short of our role in seeking justice for the least, the last and the lost. We ended the class on that note, but I hope we won’t have stopped there.
I pondered Shawn’s remark as I drove home and it occurred to me that the elder brother may have been “frugal” in his righteousness. Could Shawn be right? Are we being frugal in our righteousness as well?
The Prodigal Father
I looked up the word prodigal online, and found this in the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the word — “Having or providing a lavish amount of a resource or quality; generously or abundantly supplied with.” The OED supplied this quote from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost:
Be now as prodigal of all dear grace
As Nature was in making graces dear
When she did starve the general world beside,
And prodigally gave them all to you.
It is in this sense of the word that we see the actions of the father in this parable, and I wonder if that isn’t the point that Jesus also meant to make — that of God’s overflowing, unconditional forgiveness in love when we turn back to him, whether as the returning prodigal or as the frugal elder brother who is “always with” him.
We are meant to be just as abundantly lavish in mirroring God’s love in our role as his stewards in this world. As Nouwen writes:
In order to become like the Father, I must be as generous as the Father is generous. Just as the Father gives his very self to his children, so must I give my very self to my brothers and sisters. Jesus makes it very clear that it is precisely this giving of self that is the mark of the true disciple. “No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.”
As always, it is not necessarily what the text teaches so much as what the text instructs us to do.