In this parable, which occurs only in St. Luke’s gospel, we see a father reaching out in infinite compassion to a son who is far off from established values and behaviours and disconnected from family support networks. We also see this father reaching out with unconditional love to a son who is hiding behind the barriers of jealousy and resentment.
A father offering everlasting forgiveness is an image of the divine reality, for in this parable we have more than just the prodigal, the recklessly wasteful; recklessly extravagant son. We have an image of God the Father connecting with, getting involved with the mess of human life. This parable is the story of a God who goes searching for each of us and who does not rest until he has found us and brought us home.
Rembrandt’s famous picture of the scene hangs in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The father is still - an old man physically and literally incapable of running to meet his son when he was still far off. But does Rembrandt also depict the father as a blind or partially sighted man? The stooping man and the hands reaching out to feel and touch suggest so. We know that true love can be blind to the faults and failings of the beloved. The younger son - dishevelled, having lost a shoe - is submitting to such love, a love that is blind to the mess that the prodigal has made of his life.
As a father, I know that you cannot keep children at home, to protect them. They must have independence, the freedom to make mistakes from which - hopefully - they learn. But I provide a home where my children will always be welcomed and loved unconditionally. In Rembrandt’s picture, the younger son is accepting such home coming love. He has made that choice.
The elder son’s dilemma is whether to accept or reject his father’s love. Will he dare to be loved as his father longs to love him, or will he insist on being loved as he feels he ought to be loved? The father knows that the choice must be the son’s, even while he waits with outstretched hands. Will the elder son be willing to kneel and be touched by the same hands that have touched his brother?
Will he be willing to be forgiven and so experience the healing presence of the father who loves him beyond compare? Luke’s story makes it very clear that the father goes out to both of his children and they must each choose.
In the same way, God our Father reaches out equally to all mankind. Whether we’ve made a mess of things, whether we are held back by emotional baggage, God offers his incredible love and patiently awaits our response, eager to embrace with joy all who return to him. While we were still far off, God meets us in his Son and brings us home.
Rembrandt paints a father rejoicing. God rejoices, not because the problems of the world have been solved, not because all pain and suffering have come to an end, nor because thousands have been converted. No. God rejoices because just one of his children who was lost has been found. We are called to enter into that joy, to participate in the banquet, to be re-clothed.
How their stories are completed is up to them. The fact that the parable is not completed shows that the Father’s love is not dependent upon an appropriate completion of the story. Luke is not writing a fairy story where they all live happily ever after, but leaves us face to face with one of life’s hardest spiritual choices – to trust or not to trust in God’s all forgiving love.
Ian Evans