Lent 4 - Unfaithful

Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The 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. A 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. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But 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! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ So 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. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But 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. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But 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.’ ”

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Politics and Parables

The people Jesus taught were people who had and knew their history. Many of His lessons and parables were more than advice for practical living today. Jesus addressed the history of the people and their culture. Our passage today is a great example of how Jesus could teach two or three or four lessons all with the same story, digging down deep into the roots of our identity and the loyalties we share.

We read this story in the context of a family, and perhaps it makes us think about the relationships in our family as well. So would the people who first heard Jesus tell this story. Yet, many of them would also hear this as a story about their own nation. You see, Israel began as one big family, but went through a civil war by the time King David's grandson became king, and they were separated into two kingdoms until after World War II. When they heard this story about the father and two sons, they would want to know if the younger son left home and went down South, or headed up North, because there is a world of difference in what that meant. In both cases though, it was clear that this son was a traitor to his family and to his people.

We read this story as a coming-of-age script, where young people go off on their own foolishly, make their mistakes in life, and eventually come home to finally seek the wisdom of their parents and learn to live right. That is not the story Jesus told though. Jesus taught this parable as a way to point out that there are lost children, many of whom have made choices that made them vulnerable, and they are looking for a loving family to welcome them home.

We are made to live in a relationship as God's family together.

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Leaving

Are you from the North or the South? Most of us have thought about leaving our roots at one point or another. It could be the cold snow in the winter or the bugs in the summer, there are downsides to every place we live and every family and community to whom we belong. That includes the people of God from Israel in the Bible and that includes Christian communities today. There are always downsides and we can all come up with reasons to leave if we want to do so.

However, leaving does not happen automatically. This younger son was informed and intentional about his unfaithful act towards his father and his family. He had a sense of what he was expected to receive eventually from the family estate (maybe up to one-third of the total value of the property). He would have known that this was an estate that was transferred to him upon his father’s death, not before. It was an expression of what the father’s life was worth, not an expression of what the son earned or would eventually earn. The boy’s timing was off in asking for his inheritance while the father still lived. Yet this shows the thoughtfulness of the younger son’s actions in this parable. He knew how much and when he would be getting his share of the family wealth, and he intentionally asked for it early.

That is where the intentionality appears to stop with him. Luke’s text tells us that he gathered his portion together (which we translate as he cashed it all in) and then he scattered it (or squandered and wasted it foolishly). He gathered and scattered. Those words come up in other parables as well.

A farmer gathers and scatters seeds on good and bad soil.

A landowner gathers his wealth and distributes it to his servants

From the history of Israel:

The slaves of Egypt were gathered and given a nation of their own.

In their unfaithfulness, they were scattered in exile.

They regathered to rebuild Jerusalem.

Then they were scattered again in their unfaithfulness.

And from the life of Jesus and the prophecies he fulfilled:

The shepherd gathers the lost sheep

The sword strikes down the shepherd and the sheep are scattered.

Many Jewish children left home, taking some of their wealth with them, to find wives and their place in the world. Isaac, Jacob, even Abraham left his father before death and took his wealth with him. That was unexpected, but not shameful. What was shameful is that this son had no thought to what he did with his share of the estate. He gathered it and scattered it to the four winds, and then it was gone. He did not just grow up and move out, he cut himself off from the family, like an amputated limb.

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Coming Home

It didn’t work out for the young man. Having shunned the blessing of his family and all that they provided for him, he found himself helpless and intensely hungry. It was among the pigs, about as far as a Jewish person could find themselves from home, he came to himself and realized he could not handle life on his own. The text also tells us that he realized that no one else cared about him.

Some would call this a tragedy, because no one should be left alone in the field, herding the pigs like a farm dog. Others might call this justice because this is the care he showed his own family. The young man called it over. He was over it. Whatever problem he had with his family that made him leave in such an ugly way, he got over it. Whatever sin had been committed against him or blessing held back, he got over it. He realized that he had to find the humility to ask for forgiveness or he would die hungry and alone, buried under his reasons for leaving.

So he humbled himself, and came home to ask for forgiveness, make amends, and ask for help. He was no longer a member of the family, he was a stranger, and it was all his own doing.

He didn’t need a vacation. He didn’t need a hot meal. He didn’t need to go see a movie, a performance, or a class on how to manage yourself better. He didn’t need a book to tell him how to live. He needed a family that would let him move back in with them.

This parable is not about how to deal with strangers. It is not about how to treat guests that walk in through our doors on a Sunday morning. There are other parables for that.

This parable is about how to treat your own children. Your own brothers and sisters. Your own people. You have had people leave your family. You have known people that have left the faith. You have known what it feels like to go through a relationship amputation, and some of you have made that cut yourself. It takes a lot of guts and a lot of grace to come back home and ask for help when you know how far you have fallen.

Staying/Abiding

It’s so much easier to say you are just stopping back for a visit.

We worry about breaking promises and we think that the solution to avoid breaking promises is to stop making them in the first place. After all, you can't break something that does not exist, right?

It's easier to just be a community collection, where we invite others to come, take what they need and invite them to leave something behind for the next person, and hope for the best. No promises.

Making and keeping promises is one of the most important marks of a healthy relationship. Healthy relationships build healthy families and healthy families build healthy communities. No promises mean no community. No promises mean no family. No promises mean no relationship.

The younger son wanted to be free from making and keeping promises. When he returns, his older brother wants to be free from a relationship with him. He does not want to make and keep promises with his younger brother. The younger son is ready to establish a new relationship with the family, even if it is only as a servant. However, it is the father who truly exemplifies faithfulness in this story of a family torn apart by their choices.

The father lives out the saying that Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:11–13

2 Timothy 2:11–13 NRSV

11 The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

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Some might say the father cares nothing for making and keeping promises and that the mercy and grace he shows demonstrate that those things are not necessary. However, that could not be further from the truth. The father knows that you cannot continue to be a family without them. When others break promises to us, we, like the older brother, are tempted to break our promises to them and refuse to make new ones. We point out that those promises, those relationships are already broken, so what’s the use? The tempter whispers in our ear that we should only give as good as we receive. But that advice leads to the destruction of the relationship, the family, and the community, and all it takes is one broken promise to do it.

Mercy and grace is not extended because the person is extra good or extra generous. It is expected. Faithfulness demands it. The unfaithful behavior of the younger brother does not excuse or permit the unfaithful behavior of anyone else in the family. It is only through faithfulness to relationships and willingness to make and remake promises that any family can survive. That is why the father does not, and cannot accept his youngest son back as a servant or slave. It would break the promises he made when becoming a father and establishing that relationship with his son the day he was born. It didn’t matter if the son considered him a father or not, the father faithfully watched for the son’s return, and once he arrived he was reestablished as a member of the family with a ring, a robe, shoes, and a celebration. The family was made whole again. But would it stay that way?

Would they follow the father’s faithfulness and choose to make and keep promises to him and to one another?

It is the faithfulness of Christ that holds us together in our relationships, in our families, and in our community. But if Christ is the only one making and keeping promises, it is not a relationship, it is not a family, and we cannot be a community together. It requires our response of making and keeping promises to Him and to each other. So, what promises are you making? What promises have you made to God? Are you keeping them? As a church, what promises are you making and keeping faithfully to each other?

Wide is the path that leads to destruction, every step paved with good intentions and excuses for unfaithfulness, and if that is what normal looks like, I don’t want to go there. Straight and narrow is the path that leads to life, with every step paved with promises made and promises kept. What promises do you need to keep and what promises do you need to make to God and to each other to walk the path to a life in Christ’s family today?

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