And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”--Luke 15:2
A lost sheep.
A lost coin.
A lost son.
In the fifteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus responds to some scribes and Pharisees who were grumbling about his habit of welcoming sinners and eating with them by telling three parables about finding what has been lost.
A shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to go after one who has wandered off.
A woman turns the house upside down to find a single coin that has disappeared.
A father runs down the lane to welcome home a son who had left the family and squandered his inheritance.
All three, the shepherd, the woman and the father rejoice when the lost has been found.
Jesus, I think, tells these parables to teach the scribes, the Pharisees and us something about the depth of God’s love for those who might be considered “lost.”
And, ultimately, that would be all of us.
But, here’s the thing. I don’t think the father in this week’s parable only started loving his prodigal son afterhe decided to come home. After he “came to himself.” I think the father loved him before he asked for his portion of the inheritance and after he gave it to him. I think the father loved him and missed him every day he was gone. He loved him before he knew the boy had squandered his inheritance, and after he learned what happened. Otherwise, why would he have been so joyful when he saw the young man walking down the lane? Why else would he have killed the fatted calf and thrown a party?
And that’s the way God is with us too.
Paul says in Romans that God loved us while we were still sinners, and that nothing can separate us from God’s love. Just like this father’s love for his wayward son.
Knowing that should, I think, impact the way we treat each other. Wouldn’t you agree?
In his explanation to the 8thCommandment in the Small Catechism, Luther says that not bearing false witness against a neighbor means that we are to “come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”
The Pharisees and the scribes didn’t do that. They looked at Jesus’ meal companions and saw tax collectors and sinners. Jesus looked across the table and saw beloved children created in the image of God.
The elder son didn’t either. He looked at his brother and only saw someone who burned through his inheritance with prostitutes. But, the father saw a beloved son returned home.
What do we see when we look at the people around us? Too often, I think, we stake out our own claim to righteousness over and against those we think of as sinners rather than run down the lane to welcome them or sit at table with them.
Not always easy.
But, if we started where Jesus starts – seeing the other not as other, but as a child created in the image of God just like us, as a sheep, coin and prodigal in need of finding just like us, as one we rejoice in because God rejoices in us – then maybe the world would be able to celebrate a bit more, and fight a whole lot less.
Peace,
Bishop Mike
Thank-you for reading. Rather than praying for the prodigals of our world, maybe we should try praying with them.
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