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| The Prodigal Son Georgio di Chirico (1965) |
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 • Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
This week’s Gospel -- the story of the Prodigal Son -- is
one of Jesus’ most famous parables. Literally millions of sermons have been
based on it, which make it hard to find
anything that has not been said a hundred times already. So perhaps we are best
advised to start with the accompanying Epistle.
‘From now on’ St Paul tells the Corinthians ‘we regard no
one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human
point of view, we know him no longer in that way’. What does it mean to regard
Christ from a human point of view? It
means (among other things) seeing in Jesus of Nazareth an inspiring example of
service to others, or a great moral teacher who exposed the hypocrisy of his
times, or even (though there is no much Biblical warrant for this) a social
revolutionary who fought for the poor and oppressed.
All these images of Jesus have proved attractive over the
centuries – but St Paul rightly sees that they cannot adequately capture the
uniqueness that makes Jesus the Christ.
To grasp this, is to understand that the mind of Jesus is not just that of an
exemplary human being. It is the mind of the God who made us, redeems us , and will
pass final judgment upon us. So, in the parables of Jesus it is really God who is talking to us.
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| Rembrandt The Prodigal |
The story of the Prodigal Son ends, not with the sinner’s
return to a loving welcome, but with his brother’s resentment. What is the meaning
of this little tailpiece? Is the elder brother at fault because he goes on seeing
things from a human point of view, instead of God’s? That cannot be quite right. After all, his
father does not rebuke him for this. On the contrary, his honesty and decency
is powerfully affirmed when, even in the face of his anger, his father tells
him: ‘You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours’.
Even true repentance like the Prodigal’s cannot wipe out the
past. Nor does it put everyone back on an equal footing, it seems. What it does
do is bring sinners back to God. From Christ’s point of view – the one that as
‘ambassadors for Christ’ we are called to share -- that is an occasion for such
joy, that understandable complaint and necessary retribution must take second
place.
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