The Lord be with you
Helmut Thielichke (1908-1985) once wrote concerning the parable of the Prodigal Son:
… Jesus, who tells this parable, is pointing to himself, between the lines and back of every word. If this were just anyone telling us this story of the good and kindly Father we would only laugh. We could only say, “How do you know there is a God who seeks me, who takes any interest in my lostness, who, indeed, suffers because of me? Why do you tell such nursery tales? If there is a God, he has enough to do to keep the planets moving. And perhaps if he has nothing better to do, he may sometimes take pleasure in an upstanding man or a great heroic act. But run after the lost like the Salvation Army? Some God!”
Or another says, “What are you saying? God intervene with forgiveness and a new beginning? No. God does nothing but carry out the eternal law of sin and atonement. ‘God’ is only another word for the law of justice and retribution, because every sin has to be paid for on earth. That’s what concerns God, my friend, not forgiveness!” And, indeed, this is what we should all have to say if just anybody were to tell us of such a Father.
But this is not just “anybody.” This is Jesus Christ himself who is speaking. And he is not merely telling us about this Father; the Father himself is in him. He is not merely imagining a picture of an alleged heaven that is open to sinners; in him the kingdom is actually in the midst of us. Does he not eat with sinners? Does he not seek out the lost? Is he not with us when we die and leave all others behind? Is he not the light that shines in the darkness? Is he not the very voice of the Father’s heart that overtakes us in the far country and tells us that incredible joyful news, “You can come home. Come home!”?
The ultimate theme of the story, therefore, is not the prodigal son, but the Father who finds us. The ultimate theme is not the faithlessness of men, but the faithfulness of God.
And this is also the reason why the joyful sound of festivity rings out from this story. Wherever forgiveness is proclaimed there is joy and festive garments. We must read and hear this gospel story as it was really meant to be; good news! News so good that we should never have imagined it. News that would stagger us if we were able to hear it for the first time as a message that everything about God is so completely different from what we thought or feared. News that he has sent his Son to us and is inviting us to share in an unspeakable joy.
The ultimate secret of this story is this: There is a homecoming for us all because there is a home.
The Waiting Father