Lent - Day Eighteen - Two Sins and A Father's Love

Gospel
Luke 15:1-3,11-32 ©

The prodigal son

The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:

  ‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

  ‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.

  ‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

  ‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

  ‘The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’

I wasn't able to write in my journal yesterday so let me recap what has gone on yesterday and today.  Yesterday was a lost day.  We were at a small oasis and the Master said he needed to be alone for a while to pray so we did not break camp, we stayed in oasis the whole day while the Master was by himself.  He sat under the coolness of a palm tree near the waters of the oasis.  Uriah, our team leader, used some of this time to have us make needed repairs to the saddles we use to load our camels down.   But by lunchtime, all of the work he could think of was done and he told us to rest for the rest of the day.  The Master was still in his place by the water. None of us dared to interrupt Him while He was in prayer.  He neither ate nor drank that day and He sat there all night.  Around the campfire, we spoke only softly because we did not want to disturb the Master.  When bedtime came we all silently departed and took to our beds in silence.  I had a hard time sleeping that night so I spent time in prayer.  My soul needed this time more than my body needed rest I guess.  I audited carefully my life to date and I found myself lacking in many ways. It jolted my soul to realize that the person I thought I was, actually was an airbrushed caricature of what I really was.  I glossed over my many mistakes and sins and yet held others strictly accountable for them.  My vision was clear and could detect other's errors at a thousand yards, yet I could not see how I had failed my family, my friends, and my Church so blatantly and with no remorse.  Tears began to fall from my eyes and it was in this state that sleep claimed me.  I awoke it seemed only moments later to the call from the leather lungs of Uriah getting us out of bed to start another day.  The Master, looking well and rested even though he did not come to His tent at all, took breakfast with us and He made the meal memorable with His wit and charm.  

Twelve hours later we stopped again for the night.  It was kind of an odd place, a windswept dusty plain that had the look of utter devastation and loneliness.  The only thing good about it was there was a supply of dead wood from the scorched plants about so making the fire tonight was easier than usual. The Master recounted to us the story of the Prodigal Son. We, being Christians, know that story well.  The young son abandons his family, loses all he has and comes back with his tail between his legs ready to beg for forgiveness. He decides he will offer his father his services as a slave for his food.   The father for his part had spent the time since his youngest departed from home watching for his return, he saw him while he was far off.  The father abandoning his dignity ran to the son and immediately treated him once again as the son that he was. He threw a party, it was a good day for all, except for the fatted calf of course who fulfilled his destiny at the dinner that day.  Meanwhile, the elder son, who had stayed with his father, came in from a hard days work in the fields.  He heard that his stupid younger brother was home again and that dad was throwing him a party.  He was outraged.  He refused to go in.  Once again, leaving his dignity behind, the father came out and pleaded with his son to come in.  The elder son, who momentarily forgot his place, vented his spleen against the father and pointed out that he had worked like a slave and yet there was no party for him.  The father reminds him of his love and tells him that everything he has belongs to the elder son.  But he as the father has to rejoice because the younger son, after being lost to the family has returned.  He was dead and now lives again. 

As I said the story is a familiar one.  The master talked at some length about it.  He gave us an insight into the story that I had never considered before.  He pointed out that both sons, each in his own way, were disobedient to the Father.  The younger son told his father, "The heck with you, I want to go out and see the world while I am still young enough to enjoy it."  The father, of course, could have refused, but he did not stand in his son's way.  But the question then comes how did the elder son sin against his father?  Did he not stay and work his fingers to the bone to make his father even more wealthy than he already was?  Didn't he do this without complaint and did he not serve loyally all those years while his sibling was consorting with lewd women and drinking cheap wine? The answer was, of course, he did all these things but what he said to his father showed that his appearance to others did not match what was in his soul.  In his own way, he showed he was working not for the father but in fact for himself by making the farm a success he was doing so to preserve his future and to necessarily please his father.  

So one son left and came back willing to be called a slave and the other son stayed and worked and felt like a slave.  The father loved his sons without measure and he forgave them each their respective sins which were sins of disrespect due to him because he was the Father.  And the father showed himself to be righteous because he did not stand on ceremony.  He did not wait for the boys to appear before him.  He surrendered all dignity he was due and went out to them.  He forgave them.  They were lost and now they were found. But the question remains, did the elder son join the party?