The Prodigal Son
Adapted from a sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous
Luke 15
The prodigal son- the most beautiful of the parables. This parable came at a time when sinners were gathering around Christ. The Pharisees and Scribes were seeing this and thought to themselves, “this Man gathers sinners together and eats and drinks with them.”
Every word that follows is in response to their judgement. The son comes to the father and asks for his inheritance. The father does not say no, nor does he try to challenge him. He respects his freedom entirely. He not only gave away the inheritance that his son asked for but he allowed him to sell his inheritance.
In the Jewish Michener – one of the writings of the Rabbis on the interpretation of the law – it was permissible to give a child their inheritance before the father passed away, but never could you sell it before the father passed away. The son goes in haste, within days, and sells his entire inheritance. What shame this would have brought upon his father in the eyes of the entire community.
At the time that this happened, the prodigal son’s actions were the equivalent of him saying to his father, “I wish you were dead.” The son did the unthinkable, but we observe how the father reacted in complete respect for his freedom. Christ also demonstrates in this parable a completely different take on sin and sinners. The sin was not the mark of somebody that had made a mistake. It’s not a cross that was put against someone’s name. It was not a catalogue of sins that the sinner would have to account for, one by one. On the contrary, it was a broken relationship – moving away from the unity with God. The son humiliated the father, left him and went as far away as possible.
An old Jewish tradition was called the Kezazah shaming. When a Jewish person lost their inheritance to the Gentiles, they would be greeted with the Kezazah shaming upon their return to their village. The people would get pots and fill them with burnt corn and nuts and break these pots as the person returned to their village. While they did this, they would shout repeatedly, “you are cut off.” It was intended to be a deterrent so that a person would be extra careful with their family’s land.
The prodigal son knew the shame that would befall him if he returned because his immediate action was to tend to the pigs. Pigs were not a kosher food and would not be kept by Jews. The prodigal son must have been working for Gentiles as far away from his father’s home as possible.
And yet, the father never forgot the son; he remained watchful. Christ portrays the image of the father standing in the middle of the village square with his eyes fixated on the entrance. The prodigal son was the last of three parables Christ taught about the lost in response to the judgement of His dining with sinners. He starts with the good shepherd that lost one of his 100 sheep, the good woman that lost a coin and ends with the good father that lost his son. All three are symbols of Christ. The heroes of the parables are those that find the lost and rejoice.
The hero of the parable of the prodigal son is the father. Christ is telling us that He is the father, He is always watching and waiting for the son that has wasted his inheritance. We look at the son who became a herder of pigs whose only food was the food of the pigs. We read that he realises the state he is in and says,” I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:18-19). He doesn’t say, “I will go and be a slave,” but a, “paid servant.” He wants to go back and earn what he lost. He knows that the Kezazah shaming is what awaits him and he knows he has a lot to make up for. The son was not searching for mercy and repentance, his mind was not on the broken relationship but on the lost money. Christ was teaching us that no father truly care more about the money that was lost over the broken relationship with his son. Christ is saying to us, “When you sin, you haven’t lost My money, you haven’t discarded something of Mine but you have broken your relationship with Me.” This is what sin is.
The son returns to the father that has been waiting all along. The father who is Christ, the One who eats with sinners, who yearns to repair every broken relationship. The actions of the father depict Christ’s love for the sinner. The father runs to his son after waiting day after day for the son that has shamed him. We read, “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). He was inwardly moved with compassion. Christ is inwardly moved with compassion for every sinner that returns.
The father ran to his son, possibly to stop the Kezazah ceremony from even commencing. Running for a wealthy middle eastern man was shameful, they would never run in public. Yet, he ran, he humiliated himself for the sake of the son. He embraces and kisses the son before he could even open his mouth. This is Christ speaking to his children. This is Christ’s feeling for the sinner that returns in repentance. He embraces him even before he repents. The son could only manage the beginning of his speech – ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ Before he can say, “make me like one of your hired workers,” he stops. He doesn’t need to say those words, he doesn’t need to earn back his inheritance for his father that has accepted him back. The relationship is healed. The father embraces him and overlooks his weakness. This is Christ self-emptying for us – a son that has rejected Him and wasted his inheritance and come only because he was hungry, but Christ overwhelms us with His love.
Peter Chrysologus, Bishop of Ravenna in the 5th century says, “The father fell on his neck and kissed him. This is how the father judges and corrects his wayward son and gives him not beatings but kisses. The power of love overlooked the transgression. The father redeemed the sins of his son by his kiss and covered them by his embrace in order not to expose the crimes or humiliate the son. The father so healed the son’s wounds as not to leave a scar or a blemish upon him. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and his sins are covered.”
Not only does the father return the son to his original state, but he elevates him for joy for his son who was dead was now alive. This is the nature of who Christ is. He created us out of the super abundance of his love so that we could be with him and we could be united with Him.
Finally, we see how the older son complains after a hard day of labouring in the field to return back to the festivities for his brother. He says to the father, “these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him’” (Luke 15:29-30).
Again, we see the nature of Christ when dealing with the older son. He pleads with him to return, gently encouraging him to share his compassion. He doesn’t condemn him for being judgmental nor scold him. He gently pleads that he becomes more like him, and share in his joy to have his son back. Christ calls us to love the way He loves. To seek the healing of our brothers and sisters and nothing else. All Christ wants is to shower us with His mercy. We were never just statistics of sin, but temples for His dwelling out of the super abundance of His love.
When they accused Christ of eating with His sinners, this is how He responded to show Himself as the father, sinners as the younger son and those that condemned Him as the older son. St Isaac the Syrian says, “among all of God’s actions, there is none which is not entirely a matter of mercy love and compassion.”
God is not waiting to pass or fail us depending on our actions. He waits to hear from us and to bring us to perfection. How then can we not turn him? How then can we not confess? How then can we not run team recognising that we have broken our relationship to him? Knowing that He is ready to forgive and heal us of all sin. May we all know who Christ is in the deepest recesses of our hearts.