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Imke 15: 11-32

October 24, 1971
John M. Buchanan

I can't hear the parable of the Prodigal Son without thinking of a charm
ing anccdote which happened in a first grade church school class. The toacher
had told the story very graphically: the runaway son, his fall into sin and
vice: tho joyful reunion: and the sulking older brother. "low children,"
she said, “at the end of the story everybody is happy except onc charactcre
Do you know who that is?" Immediately a hand shot up ana voice proclaimed:
"The fatted calf!"

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is probably misnamed because it's really
three storics woven into onc. Different conclusions may be reached depend-
ing on which of the three stories we are considering. In the popular mind,

tho most important story concerns the younger son. However, when Jesus told

it, the real thrust was probably in the story of the Elder Son. And it is

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my feeling that the relevance the parable has for men of all times and ages

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will be found in the story of a father's love.

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Let's look at the story again. You kmow it well, but let's consider it a
again with an openness to the three major themes. i ;
A young man, growing up on his father's estate, working daily in the ~
ficlds, came to the conclusion that the time had come to break the ties and "3
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vanture out into the stream of life ~ a not unnatural thing to want to do. .
His father did not attempt to dissuade him; but willingly gave his son all ad a
that he had coming. {le can only speculate about the Son's motives. Ina *a
famous poom Rudyard Kipling has him say: } ‘ s
"ly father glooms and advises me, a ;

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My brother sulks and despises Mc, <=
My mother catechizes me, AG

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“primevil lic", namely that there is freedom to be found once one casts aside

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all rules and restrictions.

I'm not sure cither of those arc very valid. I'm inclined to think that
the young man did a normal and healthy and good thing: broke the tie, assorted
his manhood, and walked into life as an individual. In a recent study group
in this church Dr. Ralph Strong made what I thought was a very perceptive
observation. We were talking about the painful problem of adolescent impatience
and hostility toward parents. dnd Dr. Strong suggested that God made us that
way: that civilization depends rather directly on young people becoming rest-
less and sensing a strong neood to move out on their own. In any case, let's
give the young man the bencfit of the doubt. Let's assume he was simply
doing what comes naturally.

But then things began to go badly. Unaccustomed to money management and
euphoric over his new found pleasure, he soon found himself broke. At the
same time, the country he was visiting experienced a severe famine, and our
young friond was reduced to focding pigs. le should not miss the special kind
of degradation intended here. Swine were unclean: there were religious
restrictions involved: and the bottom of the barrel was indicated in the
desparate young man's willingness to tend them, and even to want to cat their
food. That is comparable to you and I being reduced ‘to rummaging through our
neighbor's garbage cans for something to cat.

Well, he “came to his senses", Luke reports. He thought about his plight,
and motivated by hunger - real gnawing hunger, but perhaps also hunger for his
fathor's love — he made a very important decision. He decided to return and
he began to frame what he would say: "Pather - I've sinned against God and
youe I'm no longer fit to be your son: just treat me as a hired hand."

I can imagine him rehearsing that line over and over as he made the long
trek home, I cyn imagine him going over the scene ~ nis father at home, . ‘
smiling the smg smile that cay*ts "I told you so." I can feel his anxiety
and shame and love and guilt. : B <

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* him and literally ran out to meet him and embraced him. The well rehearsod ne

consistant with everything the New Testament teaches at this point: namely

ind as he appeared down the road, torn, broken, dirty - his father saw

apology was up-staged - he really hadn't needed it. And when it came - it
came now in gmateful response to this unexpected and incredible love. The
father had taken the initiotive: the fathor had born the burden of the first
step: the father had extended his love in the face of every possible rationalo — 53
for withholding it. Ths re;-it is reconciliation - healing - salvation, if
you will.

But the story is not over yet. in older brother is hurt: offended:
jealous. He had not been prodigal: he never disobeyed his father: «and
never had he been treated to this extravagant show of affection. Even the
words of his father, assuring him of the continuity of the relationship, fails
+o soothe. And the story ends with him sulking.

Tho single point of that story, or rather those three stories, has to
do with love, unconditional love: love with no strings attached. The intent _
of the story is, I believe, to proclaim the exceptionally Good News that God's
love for us is like the love of the father for his son; that is - an uncon—
ditional love dependent on nothing in us. The intent is also, I believe,
to hold up a model of what human love — the love of men for other men — ought
to be. It is a story about forgiveness — but with a difference. For . this
forgiveness is extended, not as.a result of penetence and sonnei as

prior to any expression of contrition. This forgiveness comes first. It is

that authentic forgiveness is a permanent attitude, not an occasional act.
That's what the life and ministry of Jesus Christ is all about. He camo
to proclaim the Good News. And the Good News was just this: there are no
conditions to God's love: there are no strings attached: he loves all men
regardless of who they are or what they are Sone: Jesus lived nie cps Able

as a model of that Good News. He was

moral credentials: he supockuben si ts

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Once when Peter raised the question of the duration of forgiveness, Jesus ets

took it out of the realm of etatictics by suggesting that forgiveness is to be
extended 10 timos: thnk a to say, tatine thy. dnd finally, on his cross,
as ho dicd, he becaine that unconditional love as he forgave the very mon who
had driven the nade through his hands and feet. |

That's Good News and that's also a model, in which context you and I
ought to squirm a little. For we are very good at attaching conditions to

the love of God, and attaching all kinds of strings to our own love. One way

of viewing the history of religion is as man's concerted effort to make con-

ditional that which by nature is unconditional. Jesus came as the embodiment
of God's anoonda\orial love: and for 15 subsequent centuries Christian men
valiantly attempted to draw up lists of saad hinds Simple lists at first -
but then not so simple lists, until by the 16th century God's love seemed like
a distant prize to be won by attending masses, saying prayers, making pilgrim “
ages and buying indulgences. But then - the Good News was rediscovered. The ; ;
Protestant Reformation proclaimed the love of God apart from men's rules. find
then, tragically, ‘big process of attaching strings began all over again. New
kinds of lists were created: new conditions added. Until Protestants became
the reincarnation of all that was wrong in pre-reformation Catholocism. Under
the guise of exhorting men to good works and moral goodness, the love of God
once again was made to sound like something men could earn if they tried hard
enough.

It's almost as if there were something innate in the human condition that

will not allow us to accept the unconditional love of God. It is obvious, as

—— o

we look at history — but also as we look deeply within our Own hearts - that

we want to resist believing in a love with no strings attached. }
Paul Tournicr, Swiss Psychiatrist and theologian, peints out that Freud

has shown us "that guilt is awakened in the infant's mind by the fear of | :

losing the love of his parents; and also that all the traumas of his mental aa

life are connected with this doubt about being loved . . .- The anxiety of we

guilt is just this anxicty of being loved no longer. The child has the
impression that his parents' love is conditional; that they will love him
only on tho condition that he is good." [p. 189, Guilt and Grace]

Tournier suggests that this is a universal human condition, and goes om
to propose that men have always projected their guilt and anxiety ove” the
loss of parental love on God. "They nicture God as one whe i-ves ©. only
on the conditioa i-.% thay ave good. ..." [ps 190] And it is, of course, 37°”
avery pac ucg une has bought into the idea of God loving on the
condition of human goodness — to thinking about and establishing the specific
conditions. That's exactly what much religion is*- much Christianity - just
so many strings attached to God's love. Do this - don't do that. And finally
- "Repent!" I think all of us believe, somewhere deep dow inside, that
God forgives us only if we rener+; 7% God loves us more if we come to him
awar: of our omm anfilress. I thick all of us assume, that the brand of
Ciri t° atty thei Lears down hard here: that preaches the hopeless sinfulness
of men, and then sets forth the conditions of salvation in terms of saying 3
certain words or doing certain things is probably the real thing. Tourneir,
the Christian psychiatrist calls it a "wilderness of multiplied guilt." ind
I for one wish people would see it for what it is — not real Biblical Chris-
tianity - but a denial of the Gospel. I wish we could stop being uncomfortable
about the fact that we are forgiven and loved of God - not because we asked
him — but because that's just the way he is.

ie do have trouble with this. We'd prefer it if we could merit God's
love. It isn't just that God should love and forgive all men, when we have
tried so hard to be good. That's precisely what the older son in the parable
was saying. That's exactly what Jonah said when God forgave sideman the
people of Winevah. It isn't fair - they don't deserve it! But the Bible
is consistant here. There are no strings attached to God's love. That's
what the Psalmist meant when he confessed “Te you kept a record of our sins,

who could escape being condemed? But you forgive us, so that we should fear

God. That's the essence of the Gospel. God's love for you and me depends

on nothing in us. We don't have to do anything ~ he loves us as we are: he
forgives us long before we ask.

How, what are the implications? What does it mean to believe in a God
who loves me regardless of what I have done, and to accept unconditional love
as a model for my own life?

Very bricfly I think there are three .areas we might be thinking about.
First familics and relationships between parent and ehiia. I think the initial
and most essontial task of parenthood is to establish a feeling that love is,
in fact, unconditional: that it does not depend on a child being good: that
it comes from in here ~ not out there - and that nothing can diminish it. And
I think a lot of us fail at precisely this point. Some parents fail overtly
by verbalizing a child's worst fear: “Mama won't love you if you do that."
Others fail covertly by witholding love and affection when the rules have
been broken. I know it must sound awfully empty to the one being disciplined
to hear that "this hurts me worse than it docs you." But I think that message
must, somehow, get conveyed. Even and particularly when your behavior dis-
pleases mc, I love you cnough to give my life for you.

The permissiveness of modern parents is a subject that is currently veTy
popular. In fact there are those who can find in parental permissiveness
the reasons for all our socictal ills. Well I admit to having trouble with
that because, first of oll I don't know many parents who could legitimately
be called permissive, but also because I feel the real crisis between parent
ana child is not pormissiveness at all but a crisis of love that has suddenly (
been revealed to be quite conditional. I see lots of situations in which
‘love depends on hair length or life style or dress. I see young people
dismayed and lost because of the discovery that their parents care more about
what the friends will think than about them. I see young people rebelling ~
not against rules ‘sat Seouratibeas but against parents who have attached all

kinds of strings to their love.

I think the basic workshop for God's unconditional love is the human

family. And I think it is there that words like forgiveness sna ceconetaae
ation must become realities.

Second — socicty. God's love for all manner of men means that all men
are worthy and have dignity. That has lots of ramifications -— penology, for

instance. \e Imow that our prisons rehabilitate no one: that they make

hardened criminals harder and minor criminale major. ife know that - but seem
incapable of devising systems that reclaim lives rather than destroying them.
We have not moved very far from the idea of “an oye for an eye" which phil-
osophy Jesus taught, lesves everyone blind.
Finally - our personal relationship with God. If the parable of the
prodigal son has anything to say to you and me personally it is that God is -
to us - like that father was to his son. That is, he loves us: he forgives
us: he comes down the road to embrace us before we have a chance to say
"I'm sorry". In the story the son's confession came as a response to his
father's unconditional love - and then - reconciliation took place. That's
the way it can be for us. God forgives us before wo ask, and our confession
is the act by which we put ourselves in the position to experience his for-

giveness. That means we are free -free from the old concern about our

salvation - free from the nagging worry about condemnation ~ free from guilt
ond enxiety — free even from worry about death. That means we are free to’
live grateful ond joyful lives: that means our faith can become a glad and
happy experier ce to be shared and celebrated.

It means we have been given that which we most need:
gome men spend a life time trying to carn. God loves us — and there are no

strings attached.
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and that for which .

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