March 30, 2025 Sermon

Sermon title:  “The Prodigal Son”

Scripture:  Luke 15:11b-32

(Other lectionary suggestions include Joshua 5:9-12, Psalm 32, and II Corinthians 5:16-21.)

The Rev. Kal Rissman wrote this sermon. He is a Lutheran pastor in Alexandria, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. He is also a chaplain who does a lot of hospice work. I have quoted him before. His treatment of the Prodigal Son idea is terrific, in my opinion, and that’s why I’m using his sermon.  His title for this sermon is “Another Slap in the Face.”

Luke 15:11b-32

The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother

11b“There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. 25“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

There are some stories that Jesus told in his teaching that are so good, so poignant, and so powerful that a preacher doesn’t have to really preach at all.  All you have to do is tell the story.  The story is brilliant enough in and of itself for God’s message of love to filter into our hearts as we listen to it.

          Today’s parable is one of those stories.  It is my favorite story and my favorite part of scripture.  When I was in Sunday school this story was known as “The Story of the Prodigal Son.”  But sometimes parables are misnamed, and I think this one is.  The driving force in this story is not necessarily the wildness and insensitivity of the younger son, nor is it the jealous, self-righteousness of the older son.  The driving force is the unceasing desire of the father to find two lost sons and raise them from the dead and restore them to relationship with him and with each other.  It should be called “A Father of Two Lost Sons.”

          The story starts out with a bombshell.  The younger son comes to his dad and says, “Father, divide the inheritance between me and my brother.”  In that culture, this was a horribly shameful thing to say to a father.  It was the same as saying, “Dad, I wish you would drop dead right now!”  The community would have been mortified at this request.  Even more surprising is that the father grants the request, even though by rights he should have refused, boxed the son’s ears, and sent back out to the fields to work.

          Quickly, the younger son liquidates land that should never leave the family and leaves for a far-off country.  There he wastes his inheritance on riotous living, whatever that entailed.  Having worked at drug and alcohol treatment centers most of my life, I have a pretty good idea of what this entailed.  The older brother later assumes his brother wasted it on prostitutes, but we’re never told that.  But he wasted it somehow, and when he had blown it all, he realized he was in trouble.  When the money ran out, the friends ran out, and there was a terrible famine in that country.  He had to get a job, but the only thing he can find is a job feeding pigs.  Can this young man sink any lower than this, feeding unclean animals?  Yes, he can.  He not only is feeding pigs, he is eating what the pigs are eating.  He might as well put his face down in the trough and chow down with the hogs!

          He finally comes to himself and says, “Hey, my father’s servants have bread enough to spare and here I am perishing with hunger.  I know what I’ll do.  I’ll tell Dad that I’ve sinned against heaven and against him.  I’m no longer worthy to be a son.”  If only he could have stopped there, he would have been alright.  But then he adds, “Make me a hired hand” (another translation is “a skilled tradesman”).  Wrong!  That is not repentance; it is just another dumb life plan.  It is in effect saying to the father, “I’ll just salvage the false pride and go live in the bunkhouse with the hired hands and pay you back.”  That’s not repentance—It’s Let’s Make a Deal.  Yesterday I insult you and tell you to drop dead and today I’ll write you a check.  That is an even greater insult and another slap in the face.

          The next scene shows the real crux of the story with the father’s costly demonstration of love.  The father sees the son coming home when he is way down the road.  Here is the heart of the story and the heart of the father.  How did it happen that the father saw this wayward son way down the road?  Because he was looking for him!  Every day he looks down the road many times a day, just hoping to catch sight of this son that he loves.  Every day he has been praying that the son is alive, and he might see him again.

          Then one day it happens.  He sees the son and runs to meet him with his robes flapping about him in an undignified manner.  But the father doesn’t care how he looks; he just wants to see his son and make sure everyone else in the community knows that he is still a son.  There is a custom in the Middle East that still goes on today that the townsfolk would come out and hurl insults and rocks at someone who had shamed a father and shame their community.  The father runs to prevent that shunning ceremony.  He throws his arms around the son’s neck and orders the servants to get the best robe and ring to show he is a son.

          The son only gets out his first two statements and the father cuts off the rest of his dumb life plan to be just a hired man and save his false pride.  The father’s arms around his neck were the most painful part of the whole ordeal for this son.  He has come to proclaim himself not worthy, but the father’s arms preclude all of that nonsense.  “You are a son.  You have always been a son and still are.  I love you.”  That is what those arms around the neck say so forcefully and eloquently.  He was forgiven even before he confessed.  Confession is apparently not a precondition for forgiveness.  We confess to celebrate the forgiveness we already have.

          But now the scene shifts back to the house.  The older son hears the music, probably the drums for the men’s stick dance.  He asks what is going on and is told that his brother has returned.  He is livid and refuses to go in.  This little twerp has frittered away half the farm and now he wants to come back and waste some more.  I don’t think so!  The older brother should have been doing shuttle diplomacy between father and younger brother, but he can’t be happy for anyone else, because he is a selfish, self-righteous bean counter.  He stays out and humiliates the father.  The father should ignore him and thrash him also, but for the second time in the same day he goes out in a costly demonstration of love to coax the older brother in.

          The older brother slaps his father in the face twice by not going in and not addressing him with title.  He says, “Here I have slaved for you and never even got a young goat for a party, but you give this son of yours a party.”  The father says, “We had to have a party for this my son was dead and is alive again.  He was lost but now is found.”  There is a freeze-frame, and we don’t know which way the older brother will go.

          So, which son do we identify with in this story?  I would think both of them at one time or another.  We have wasted our gifts with riotous living, and we have smugly put ourselves up as better than our brother.  But no matter which brother we are being, we can never get away from the love of God, which will not let us go.  The Father will literally go through any kind of hell to get us back and throw his arms around our neck.  Amen.

Pastor Skip