C, Lent 4 - Luke 15:11b-24 "A Modern Prodigal Son"

Early in the morning the young fellow packed his bags for an adventure of a life time. He knew his family was far from impressed he was leaving home at such a young age. In fact his father didn’t want him to leave at all; he could have done with the help on the farm. It was big enough to support a large family, and his family was not large by any means. After all, his father had a dozen or so hired hands to do various tasks on the property.

But the youth was packing his bags; the size of the property seemed unimportant; the security it and his family had provided for all these years; and the future prospect of it becoming his – was only a noose he couldn’t wait to cut from his neck. As he strode out the front door, he stopped to kiss his mum goodbye; the morning sun glistened in the tears rolling down her face, his father put his arm around her to comfort her and with the other arm reached out to give his son a hug. He was unable to speak. His stony face hiding the gut wrenching anguish piercing his insides as his son set out on his way to the luring lights of the city.

In the coming days the father grieved over his son. He could still see his face, his smile, and his sparkling eyes. He spent much time sitting in the boy’s room where he had spent so much time with him. He remembered the day he came home from hospital, his first words, his first steps, and his first day at school. He could see him sitting on the tractor, as proud as punch the first time he ploughed a paddock all by himself. But now all he could do was look down the dusty track, hoping one day to see his son return. These were bitter times for the farmer; day in, day out, he longed to see his son.

Meanwhile, in the city the younger boy had forgotten all about the farm and his family. He was winning friends left right and centre with the family fortune the father had handed over. Never before had times been so exciting. Every night was a party! In fact his partying grew greater and greater as the memories grew dimmer and dimmer of the life and the lessons taught by his father at home. He became addicted to excitement and fast times, and to continually stimulate this obsession, his life fell deeper and deeper into depravity.

But not only was his lifestyle falling into chaos. His bank balance plummeted towards poverty at a wildly out of control pace. Before long he had no money. Funnily enough all his new mates and girl friends fell away too. But still his thoughts looked toward fun times rather than his father. So the young boy took himself off to find some work.

But the weeks went past and his experience counted for nothing in the city. At about the same time a drought had broken out across the land and every general labourer’s job that still existed was taken by the workers retrenched from properties such as his fathers.

Things became so bleak in the city, the days clouded in around him, the tall buildings made him feel claustrophobic. He became bitterly depressed, he was hungry, and he had no money. The exciting life he had was turning sour. At a party someone offered him drugs. Was this a path to exciting times yet again? He bowed to the pressure and took some.

It gave him a high — the first time — but afterwards all it gave him was a habit which led into crime and violence. As the days went on the drug habit grew worse. At the last he sold his body into prostitution. He was so disgusted with himself for what he’d done. Another shot on the needle to hide from his pain, and he collapsed from an overdose, all by himself, lonely, and lost, in the depths of darkness.

The next morning a sharp glistening ray of sunlight shot down between the buildings, a little bird sat on some bins towering over his body, spirited by the sun the bird began to sing. As the boy lay there his body warmed too, a sensation came over his eyelids, he wanted to open them but he was blinded by the light.

He began to think about the farm, and about the warmth of his father’s embrace. Suddenly a great dollop of water splashed onto his face. Gasping, the chilling water made him sit upright with life. He remembered his mother’s deep sorrow the morning he turned his back on them. For the first time since he left home he thought about the farm and his family. He could hear his father’s supporting voice of encouragement. He remembered their love; the love he’d never experienced in the city. He immediately got up and walked.

Things were tough on the farm. The drought was fierce, season after season the skies were blue, there was not a cloud to be seen. The dust was so thick, it tainted everything. The only moisture was the sweat pouring from the brow of the father and the few remaining farmhands he could afford to keep on. But as the father toiled he still waited for the boy to come home.

And one day the boy walked in from out of the dust. He was a mere shell of the strong healthy boy he use to be, he was rundown and weak. The drugs and diseases barely allowed him to walk, yet he staggered on in hope of being fed and loved. He knew what he’d done was wrong, but he didn’t know what else to do; all he could do was keep walking back to the life he’d once known. It was if his father’s spirit was pulling him home.

This modern day prodigal son came back to his father. The father saw the boy walking toward the house and dropped everything and ran to the son he thought was dead. Nothing was going to stop the father from loving his son — not drugs, not disease, not squandered wealth, and not even prostitution. He was dead, he looked as though he’d been to hell and back, but now he was alive!

This is how it is for us. There is not one sin that our Heavenly Father won’t forgive, when we ask through his Son, Jesus Christ.

13 “…the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. (Luke 15:11-24)

In the parable Jesus says while the son was still far off, the father saw him and filled with compassion ran to him and threw his arms around him. We might think our Father would make us, his prodigal sons and daughters, grovel at his feet just a little. But this doesn’t happen and it never happens. Even after all we’ve done, just like the prodigal son, our Father still wants us back, desperately!

God loves us all as brothers and sisters, because of Jesus Christ. When he runs to us he doesn’t see the sin, but rather repentant people walking towards him, trusting in Christ who went to hell and back, for us, for peace and for our salvation.

We are called to pray for other prodigal children too, feeding them, and being there for them, so through us the Father might be able to re-enter their lives and nourish them with the same grace which nourishes us every time we hear his word of forgiveness and receive his sacraments.

God never cuts us off from his banquet table. He loves us and waits for us too, just as the father waited for the prodigal son to come home and eat in joy and celebration. Amen.