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Today’s lesson is familiar to many of us. We learned this parable in Sunday School. We enjoyed it in the musical “Gospel.” We have called it the parable of the Prodigal Son. So I was startled when I attended part of the Barth Conference last year and began to hear people talk about the “Lost Son” instead of the Prodigal Son. That’s odd, I thought. But maybe not.
This parable is the last in a set of three—the parable of the lost sheep, where 1 sheep gets lost and the shepherd goes looking for that lost one, leaving the rest of the flock behind until the lost is found. And the parable of the lost coin, when a woman loses track of a coin and upsets the whole house looking, until she finds it. And then this parable, of a man with two sons.
Of course, this is the most elaborate of the stories. And we could spend a year talking about details, about angles, about meaning. Today, I want us to focus on lostness. I think it is an important theological shift to change the name of this parable from The Prodigal Son to the Lost Son. Hear me out.
#1—Prodigal has a certain connotation, a recklessness, a wastefulness, a willful lavishness. It’s not a good term. And you can certainly see why people might have jumped to calling this parable the Prodigal Son. Jesus even says the younger son “squandered his property in dissolute living.” There you have it.
But our use of the word prodigal, although technically correct, might have something to do with our insistence on judging others, a topic that Jesus often talked about.
And I think it’s important to see this story in its context of three. We aren’t going to shake our finger at the sheep for wandering off. We don’t scold the coin for getting lost. But when it comes to people, we are quick to put them down. It is THEIR fault. And so we can look down on them. The words, the Parable of the Lost Son, help us focus on the important part of Jesus’ story. Not the lavish parties and the wallowing in the mud that consume so much of our culture’s interest. The prodigalness of our younger son is not supposed to be the climax of the story. It is that he is lost. Like the sheep, like the coin, he is not where he is supposed to be. And someone, somewhere, needs to be looking for him—throwing caution to the wind, leaving no stone unturned.
We discover that the son himself realizes he is lost. He “comes to himself.” He is willing to give up his identity, just to be in a place where he will be well treated. And of course, the father in the story, repeats again and again, that this son was dead, and has come to life; he was lost and is found. The father is the one we could call prodigal—he throws himself at his lost son, running to him, embracing him, kissing him. And then throwing a big party—clothing him in the best robe, putting a ring on his finger, killing the fatted calf, celebrating with music and dancing!
Remember these three parables are told in response to the Pharisees and scribes grumbling about Jesus welcoming tax collecters and sinners and EATING with them. It seems that Jesus wants us to see God as the one who seeks after the lost, and celebrates when they are found. A good reason to change the Prodigal Son, to the Lost Son.
#2 But just as important, and maybe more so, this parable is not only about the son who leaves. It is also about the son who stays. And, in fact, when we get to the end of the parable, it is the older boy, the first born, the one who has done everything expected of him, who is lost. He is as willfull in his being lost as his brother. For he refuses to join in the celebration. He stays outside of the house, he will not let go of his anger, he argues with his father about his father’s grace and mercy.
It is almost as if Jesus wants to portray that being lost can happen in many different ways. There is the physical being lost. There is also a possibility of losing oneself in our pride, in our inability to give up our treasured position, in our clinging to our anger, in our absenting ourselves from the party.
We can only hope that this older son will “come to himself.” That he will be able to find forgiveness in his heart. That he won’t miss out on being where he is supposed to be—at the celebration, with the father, and with all those gathered there.
Calling this parable the Lost Son allows for the possibility that there might be more than one Lost Son. And this is so important for us because although there are times in our lives when we might have been the one to take a break and live it up, we more probably are the older son—showing up in church, giving to the right causes, trying to live a life following the rules. It is easy to celebrate when the lost sheep is found. It is easy to celebrate when the lost coin is discovered. It is not as easy to follow in the father’s footsteps and open our arms and our hearts to those people who have been lost in some way, especially if they have impacted us.
And that is why this parable is so demanding. It hits us right between the eyes. Are we going to stay out on the porch, sure of our righteousness? Or are we going to hear the message that no matter how you get lost, God wants you to be found. And when you stop being lost, there is one great party to be had.
May we accept the invitation. Amen and Amen.
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