The Parable of the Loving Father

I recently spent several days in Montreat, North Carolina.  There is a chapel there with a very large fresco that is the focus of the worship space.  

The fresco tells the story of the prodigal son.  You see the son and the father in the center, the prodigal on his knees, the father’s hand raised in blessing.  And there is  something in the scene that would have been unheard of in the courtyard of a Jewish home -- pigs!  They are there because this fresco tells the whole story of the prodigal.  To the right is the older brother.  He stands alone, in his fine robes, scowling at what is happening.  There are servants bringing a robe and other things. And there is the fatted calf.  In that part of the painting, there is the clear outline of a cross. I suppose the artist painted it that way to remind us of Christ’s sacrificial love – like the love of the father giving up his entire estate for his children – both of them, not just the prodigal.

That’s one of the surprises of this story.  It was the younger son who asked for his share of the inheritance, but the father divided his estate between his sons.  He gave everything he had to them.   The younger son got what he asked for, but the older son got his portion, too.  The father gave it all away.  Everything he had was given to these two boys to do with as they wished.  The one threw it away.  And the other clutched it so tightly that he could not see the value of what he had.  Reading between the lines, he was obsessed with getting and having.  He was leading a joy-less life.  You can see that from the painting, can’t you?  Is he happy to see his long-lost brother?  Not exactly!

In fact, the only one who might be happy here is the father.  He is not smiling, though.  It seems to me that he has a look of worried concern on his face.  The younger son is stricken with guilt and shame, the other son with greed and resentment. Both of them have failed their father.  Both of them are sinners.  One threw away the father’s gifts and the other hoarded them and refused to let them go.  Both sons look miserable.  

But the father has both of his boys back at home. And he will do whatever he can to welcome them home, both of them – the prodigal and the older brother.

The poet Robert Frost once wrote these words:  "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." 

In all the thousands and thousands of years since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, all that long history in our fallen world, we have been trying to find our way back to paradise, that first and truest home, that place where everything was as God intended for us.  

And maybe this story is a reminder to us that we no longer have to look for that place.  We know where to find welcome, acceptance, unconditional love.  Whether we have squandered all the gifts God has given us, or whether we have held them so tightly they have become squashed and useless, God still welcomes us.  

(Slightly revised from a meditation shared at our monthly vespers)