Gospel Reading: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
For Sunday, March 10, 2013: Year C—Lent 4
Our reactions to the characters in the parables can tell us a lot about ourselves. Maybe that’s part of the point. Jesus, (and Luke), teach us about ourselves. Chapter 15 begins with the Pharisees and the scribes grumbling because Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them. That sounds good if we think we’re the sinners that Jesus loves, but what if we think we’re the righteous that Jesus overlooks?
Jesus is still at dinner (Luke 14:3) with lawyers, or teachers of Mosaic law, when he tells the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. The Pharisees were grumbling because Jesus, in welcoming sinners and eating with them, was breaking the established social expectations around cultic purity laws. Like the grumbling brother at the end of the Prodigal Son story, the Pharisees have a sense of their own righteousness—but “being good” doesn’t bear the fruits they expect. And they’re frankly miffed.
Entitlements
Life seems so unfair when we work so hard and things still don’t seem to work out the way we want them to. It seems we just have to keep working harder and harder. And when the “lazy” people seem to get what they haven’t seemed to earn, well… That is just so irritating. What is it that entitles people to be treated with generosity? Our answer is often different from the answer Jesus gives.
Caring about “the one” doesn’t mean not caring about the 99, the 9, or the other 1 brother. In fact the father goes out of his way to reassure the elder brother that he too is precious to the father. Jesus cares about all, which is kind of the point. Everyone is entitled to love and generosity according to Jesus. We make it contingent upon “earning.”
Squandering our Essence, or Giving our Life
There’s something significant in the description of what is given and what is squandered in this story. In verse 12, the younger son asks for his share of the property, which in Greek is ousias, or “substance.” But when the father divides and gives property to the two sons, he gives his bion, his “life”—a different word is used. In verse 14, the younger son squanders his ousias, his essence, but the older son tells the father in verse 30 that the younger son has devoured the father’s bion, his very life.
The father gave life to the son not once, not twice, but three times: first, when he gave him birth (or his mother did…), second, when he gave his bion, the property that would have kept the father alive, and third, when the son came back “from the dead,” and the father welcomed him and celebrated his new life.
The Hardest Question
My hardest question for this week’s gospel is threefold:
