DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

St. Luke 15:11-32                      (2/24)                      Gospel for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

 

True Repentance: St. Luke 15:11-32, especially vs. 20: “And he arose and came to his father.  But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”  In his homily on this well-known parable, St. Cyril of Alexandria first asks “What then is the object of the parable?”  To answer, the Patriarch traces back through the Gospel to “...examine the occasion which led to it; for so we shall learn the truth.”  Follow St. Cyril’s suggestion to the beginning of the chapter, and there you will find the occasion for the parable as well as the identity of those to whom the Lord addressed the parable: “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him” (Lk. 15:1).

All this seems right, for the social pariahs who needed to repent came to the Lord Jesus, a fitting audience for a parable about forgiveness.  But, No!  In the next verse there is a surprise.  The Lord did not address the parable to these lost souls.  Observe: “And the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” (Lk. 15:2).  He spoke the parable to those who objected to His consorting with the social outcasts (Lk. 15:3).

A second surprise follows.  The Lord Jesus did not immediately tell the parable of the Prodigal Son.  First He told a parable about a Shepherd Who leaves His ninety-nine sheep to “...go after the one which is lost until He finds it” (vs. 4).  This is followed by yet a second parable, concerning a woman who lost one of her coins, and to recover it, lit a lamp, swept the house, and sought  “...carefully until she [found] it” (vs. 8).  Then, and only after the Lord has twice made the point that “there is great rejoicing” when the lost are found, does He tell the famed parable of the lost, prodigal son.  Notice in this parable that the Father rejoices when his son returns.

Ah, but first, notice the “build-up” to the third parable in the first two teachings.  To the complaining teachers of Israel, the Master Story-Teller speaks about herding.  He draws directly from the nation’s economy.  A shepherd leaves his gathered flock; one imagines the sheep herded together in a temporary fold.  Meanwhile, the shepherd journeys into the wilderness after His lost sheep.  The Lord speaks to men accustomed to the image of God as the “Shepherd of Israel” (Ps. 79:1 LXX).  They also would anticipate the Messiah coming as a Shepherd for the nation (Jer. 38:10).  From the Prophet David’s words, they expected God to shepherd, guard, and protect them (Ps. 22:1 LXX).  The Lord Jesus’ message is unmistakable and startling.  God is personally seeking the strays of His flock.  The message is ironic in the face of traditional expectation!

God Incarnate, standing in the wilderness, with the lost souls gathered around Him, announces to the self-righteous teachers that God is seeking those who know they are lost (Lk. 15:3-32).  The precondition of repentance lies in the wonder that God Incarnated Himself into the wilderness of this life.  Our Lord infuses true hope into the possibility of repentance.

Next, the Lord speaks of our need for God’s illumination and cleansing (the lamp and the sweeping – Lk. 15:8-10).  It is by the prior actions of God the Holy Spirit that we reach the point of repentance and change.  We do not awake and repent; rather, God brings us to repentance.

Finally, our Lord repeats His theme of gathering and rejoicing.  In the parable of the Prodigal, He does not belabor the point.  He has prepared us to understand by anticipation.  Still, in verse 24, He briefly touches on rejoicing: “And ‘they’ began to be merry.”  Only because God Incarnate illumines us and cleanses us from the dust of life, does the thought ever come to us to arise and return to our Father.  True repentance happens because God creates our awakening, even while we are in our spiritual pig-sties.  The love is most unimaginable!

Help us; save us; have mercy on us, O Savior, and grant us Thy gift of repentance.

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