“How could anyone…”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, March 27, 2022
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 (Forward, p. 57) CEV p. 1082
I think that we could all finish that sentence in some context or other. Most recently, I found myself saying that in response to a Face Book video. Someone was trying to pour a liquid into the small mouth of a large bottle and was using a funnel—only that person was using the funnel upside down, that is, with its pointy end up! My response of ‘how could anyone…” was quickly followed a response of ‘how could anyone waste his time watching this?’
I think that this tendency to look down on others or dismiss them or write them off in some way or other is pretty universal. We probably do this all the time. We do this of persons whose political or religious beliefs differ from ours, or whose actions or dress or deportment are out of sync with what we hold to be correct, and probably of many other situations as well.
We find this very tendency to be alive and well in today’s gospel passage. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law were critical of Jesus because He was friendly with sinners, and even ate with them. “How could anyone…” they muttered. Moreover, they were quite disdainful, not just of Jesus Himself, but also of the people that He hung out with. They didn’t figure that they were worthy of His attention.
In response to this criticism, Jesus then told three parables, the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the two lost sons. In the first two parables He suggested that for each of them even one lost item was important if that item was of value and importance to them. He suggested that each of them would then make a most determined effort to recover them and suggested that this was exactly how God acted, how He acted towards people.
But what about people, the very people that the Pharisees and teachers of the Law disdained as being unworthy of their attention? Here then Jesus tells the parable of the two lost sons, the parable usually known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Surely, they would have written off the younger son. “How could anyone, how could he…treat his father in such a fashion? To have such disrespect and loathing as to literally want him dead—that’s what asking for his inheritance prior to his death was saying in effect. To be that selfish and self-centred…how could he…” they would have muttered. Surely, as far as they were concerned, that younger brother was ‘beyond the pale’, beyond redemption, beyond hope. Surely he should just be ‘written off’ in terms of that father and family.
However, the father does not ‘write him’ off, but when the younger son ‘comes to his senses’, welcomes him back—and that heartily! To which the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law would have likewise said, ‘how could anyone…how could anyone do that after how he was treated?’ And yet the father does just that.
Here, however, Jesus introduces yet another character into the story, the elder brother. And what does that brother say and do? Incredibly, he takes up the part of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. Whereas earlier they had exclaimed of Jesus, ‘how could anyone…’, they are now saying that of the father. “How could anyone…accept back such a scoundrel, such an ingratiate, such a degenerate?” And yet, as I think that Jesus is trying to point out, that is exactly what His heavenly Father has done, and not just to those that they label in such unsympathetic, derogatory terms, but to everyone, themselves included. For, as the parable points out in rather vivid terms, they, the so-called ‘good sons’ were equally as ingratiate of the Father’s love as was that younger son. And so too with all of us: we have all spurned the Father’s love, or made light of it, or misused it, regardless of how ‘good’, or not, we might be. Indeed, God the Father might well say of each of us, ‘how could anyone…’ and yet He still loves us, forgives us, reinstates us and accepts us back as full sons and daughters. What a wonderful love that is! Amen.
Forward notes: “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” (verse 20).
“The parable of the Prodigal Son continues the theme of the Israelites’ story. Repentance is important to God. God wants us to turn back. After making a mess of the freedom he was granted, the younger son in this parable ‘came to himself,’ saw the error of his ways, and decided to seek his father’s forgiveness. His father did not force him to return home. He does not put words in his mouth. The son makes the choice to return home. Once the father sees his younger boy returning, he runs—runs—toward him and welcomes him with open arms.
“God wants us to recognize when we have done wrong to our neighbors, to ourselves, and to God. God wants us to come home. Just as the younger son was extravagant with his inheritance, squandering it away, God is extravagant with love. If we will come to ourselves, realizing where we have missed the mark and turning toward home, God will come running.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Is it time for you to ‘come to yourself?’ Read this parable from Luke and then pray to God who is waiting to welcome you with open arms.”