Fourth Sunday in Lent; 27 March 2022; Lent 4C (RCL); Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32.
Reconciliation is hard work. All too often, when we think of the forgiveness of sin, we think that God has done this once and for all, and that’s all there is to that. However, Paul tells us that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Godself, not holding their trespasses against them. Not hold their trespasses against them is just the first step of reconciliation. One has then to move past the consequences of those trespasses.
The parable of the waiting father shows just how hard it is to move past the consequences. The younger son asks his father for his share of the inheritance, which means he essentially treats his father as if dead already. We know the story — he then goes and squanders the whole lot with loose living. In his penury, he comes to himself and returns home. There are several fascinating details in the story.
He rehearses a little speech he will make to his father (notice that in rehearsing the speech, he addresses his father as “Father”). He will end by saying he is no longer worthy to be called a son. When he actually makes the speech, his father interrupts him before he can make this last claim.
When the older son hears the party going on in the house, and his father comes out to invite him in, the older son does not address his father as “Father,” but just begins, “Listen.” He then identifies his brother as “this son of yours.” The father re-identifies the younger son as “this brother of yours.” The father then tells the older son that “everything of mine is yours,” which is true because the younger son has already taken his portion. Everything left belongs to the older son.
What I find fascinating, and cannot find in any commentary, is that what the older son hears when he comes in from the field is συμφωνίας καὶ χορῶν (symphonias kai xoron – symphonies and choruses), the music associated with Greek comedies and tragedies. He does not hear music and dancing, but the music associated with Greek worship of the gods.
The epic of Israel is replete with stories of favored younger sons (Israel/Jacob is a favored younger son). Luke’s hearers would hear the story against this background, but in this case, the younger son welcomed home is Greek (remember, he was feeding pigs). Romans 1 – 2 gives an account of how the Gentiles (Greeks) exchanged their knowledge of God (available through creation) for false worship, and squandered their inheritance with loose living. In this story, Israel is the older son, and he is miffed that Greeks have come into the party, welcomed home by the waiting father (who actually runs out into the road to greet the younger son, loosing all dignity in doing so).
The question the story leaves unanswered is whether the older son comes to the party. If we raise too many questions about who else gets in to the party, we are likely to miss it.