Today's readings are Numbers 8.5-26 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Num.+8.5-26 ) and Luke 15.11-32 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Luke+15.11-32 )
As we look at Luke 15.11-32 today, we see one of the more familiar parables. How easy it is to gloss over something with which we are already familiar. But this parable of the prodigal father deserves more than our cursory inspection.
First, see how in fact the father is the prodigal one. He gives his inheritance away before his death. He suspends his business duties to watch for the return of his son who is gone. He doesn't give up his clothes to this filthy and defiled son who is returning, but he gets a special robe worn for affairs of state, then gives his son his ring and shoes - symbols of his authority and of possession of all his wealth. He does not provide a normal meal but a huge party for which he seems to have been saving up for some time. This indeed is a prodigal father.
Now look at the two sons. One of them we think we know well. Most of the story centers on him. Desiring to run life his own way, he requests an advance on what will come to him, mistrusting his father's wisdom and disrespecting the possible needs of his father. He takes the inheritance and spends it carelessly, without regard for what his father would consider important. When he is beyond the end of his means, he comes up with a plan to gain subsistence on his father's estate, a plan which, if he knew his father, he would know is completely unacceptable. He is taken aback when confronted by his father's true character upon his return. Some of us are like this son. We think we know better than God how to govern our lives. We find ourselves condemned by the results of our management. When we look to God with our plans firmly in hand, we are left with a clear view of how inadequate our plans are.
Some of us are more like the other son. Though not much of the story centers on him, he is certainly one of the three main characters in the story Jesus tells. He has remained faithful, at least as far as he is concerned, to his father. He did not ask for anything. He has labored long and hard, guarding and increasing his father's investments. He has friends, but is often burdened with his work so doesn't do much with the friends. He watched his profligate brother act insolently, and has clearly harbored ill-will toward that brother in his heart. When the brother returns, he is moved to anger with his father. This indicates that the brother who remained at home did not know his father either. He has not rejoiced in the presence and abundance of his father. He has not, in fact, been a good steward of the interests of his father.
Both sons are failures. Neither understands the father. Yet at this critical moment, the end of the parable Jesus tells, both are in the father's presence. The father is showing his character to his sons and giving them opportunity to rejoice in him, in his liberality, in his desire for their joy. Likewise, our heavenly father calls us to his side, out of the ways we have been governing our lives. He calls us to receive the gifts he gives, which are costly, precious, and not given according to our work or our failure, but according to his abundant mercy. Let us look now, not to our failure, our need, or our self-discipline and rigor, but to our heavenly father. Thanks be to God for his precious gifts, most of all, the priceless gift of life everlasting through Jesus, the one slain on our behalf. Let us celebrate in the presence of our God and Father.
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