During Lent we are presented in our Readings with many of the most familiar scripture stories. Maybe it’s a way to focus us back on the clearest summations of what our faith is all about. Today we hear the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32), which is certainly up there as one of the best known.
It’s known as the Prodigal Son because of the way the first son throws away the money he gets from his father. It could equally well be called the Jealous Son, if we were to focus attention of the “good” son who stays dutifully at home. We may be encouraged to reflect on which son is the “better” son, or the better person. I’m not sure that’s a particularly useful line of thought. The most relevant son for us is one one we feel best aligns with our own relationship with the father – are we in the process of turning our life around or are we secure in our relationship, but maybe suffering from the challenge of the father’s profligate behavior towards others.
It has also been noted that parable would perhaps be better labeled as the Prodigal Father. Jesus may well be delivering a lesson in comparing the behavior of the two sons, but I’d suggest his deeper intent is to teach us a lesson about the father, and his behavior.
So – we are reminded of the father’s inexhaustible love and we can focus on how we respond. But why are we focused on the sons? What about the third character in the drama? Well, that’s the father, that’s God. How is that relevant to my behavior?
Let’s switch for a moment and take a look at what St Paul tells us in our second reading (2 Corinthians 5:17-21):
God has reconciled us to himself through Christ
and given us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting their trespasses against them
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Now, we can be honest with each other, yes? Sometimes Paul says the most wonderful things in beautiful language. And sometimes not! This passage probably falls in the second category. And anyway, what does it have to do with the prodigal son, or prodigal father?
So let’s unpack it (as the saying goes). The parable is about reconciliation. So we have a connection. Jesus doesn’t appear in it directly, but that’s ok – God is reconciling himself with us, showing us his love – that’s what the father in the parable is doing. But the kicker is what follows: “God has given us the ministry of reconciliation”. This reconciliation isn’t down to Jesus, or at least it starts with him or works through him, but it’s down to us to pick it up and carry it on.
Paul repeats this and amplifies it. God was reconciling not just us, but the world, everyone, to himself. And then he entrusts us to pass on that message. And just in case he hasn’t hammered the point home he repeats it again with a different metaphor: So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. In that world ambassadors meant something, they weren’t cushy positions handed out to favored donors. When it could take 6 months for a message to get home the ambassador really was the power of the state in another country.
We are the power of God, we are the power of reconciliation. We are asked not to compare ourselves to one or other son, we are expected to identify ourselves with the father, to demonstrate his profligate love to the world. “God has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.”