Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

          . . . Sir, let it alone this year also, until I have dug around it and put on manure.  Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down. (vss. 8-9)

          The Parable of the Prodigal Son has so many elements and facets that can be explored with this one of the longest and most involved parables that Jesus told. But this is the penitential season and our interest is to prepare our hearts for the passion of our Lord and the incredible ends that our Heavenly Father will take there with Him too return us to His purposes for us in creation - that we should just always live lives of fulfilled joy as sons and daughters in his household.  Like the Father in the parable, our Heavenly Father has given us an inheritance in our baptism that is connected to living as his child in his house. And while we can walk away from that inheritance, we cannot void it. We can either run from it, or run back to it . . . but since he has called us and done all the things necessary to make us his child through his incarnate only-begotten Son, our actions or attitudes contribute nothing . . .even should we bargain as the prodigal son for a lesser arrangement.

           The importance of this parable for our Lenten preparation, however, has to do with understanding a common problem that those who have lived for most of their lives with their baptismal inheritance. Those who cannot remember anything about what life was like before becoming a child of God because they were so young when the Father adopted them as a babe into his household and gave them the inheritance won for them in the cross of Christ.  It is such as these who can acquire a low awareness and appreciation of what life would be like if lived apart from all the blessings that come from being family in the household of God. Think about it for a moment . . . what would your life be like right now, if you had to live without all the blessings that are yours because you are a baptized adopted child of God?  How would it be different? What would you be missing, in fact? But more to the point . . . how bothersome or alarming would it be if you no longer were living in your baptismal blessings?  Perhaps, your response might be . . . I don’t know, I have never particularly thought about it.      

           When it comes to blessings that we enjoy . . . it has often been observed that we may not fully appreciate their value, until they are lost, taken away, or threatened.  It is hard to appreciate things that you do not know what it would be like to be without them. Such was the case concerning life as a son in his father’s house, by this prodigal. This son, before he left home, had all the symptoms of those who are fully convinced about the greener grass on the other side of the street . . . the greener life that can had when you invest yourself in the things that you can appropriate for yourself . . . for a time. The point of the parable for our purposes here during Lent is to put our finger on the root of the problem that many like the older brother in the parable exhibit . . . the problem that can plague sons and daughters who have not left the inheritance of their baptism in the household of God . . . but who have become in some instances bored, and in other instances irritated about all the things in life that one may think are really important or significant, but they are not yours. When things you think are important and significant, but not things that God has seen fit to give you, begin to pile up in your heart; . . . when what you think about your life right now as his son or daughter does not seem to be as fulfilling as you think it ought to be . . . you can find the sin of ingratitude - the sin of an ungrateful spirit - festering deep in your heart. Such a sin is a parasite, and it eats up good spiritual attitudes . . . like love, joy, peace . . . and thankfulness. It also eats up an appetite for the bread of Heaven and the Living Water of the saving work and gifts of Christ.

           Let’s face it. The trip to Jerusalem with Jesus to behold his date with the Jewish authorities, the guards, the angry crowds, and the grizzly cross is not something that would rank high on the significant amusements of life meter. Becoming an engaged spectator and devotee of the passion of Christ requires a strong sense of personal need. It requires a strong awareness of personal guilt that takes Him there. And it requires a strong sense of thankfulness that He would go and endure all these things for you, because without his willingness to make this sacrifice for you . . . you just don’t get a life, you just don’t get a future, you just don’t get a real home you can call your own with a Father who give you all you need and then some.

            So part of the Lenten Season brings the challenge to do something that neither the prodigal son nor his older brother did while living with their father in the fullness of their inheritance. . . take the true measure of what it would be like to live without it . . . to loose it all, or just to have to live with your own resources could provide you for a life and a future. . . or just to survive, existing in this fallen world. Now if you can relate to sin of an ungrateful spirit, the sin of ingratitude . . . understand that Jesus goes to the cross to die for that sin and all the others you have. And for you to take heart and feel relieved that there is nothing you can do to void his saving work of making you his adopted child to live with him forever. You can just walk away from it . . . but then you can return and He will greet you with open arms where, hand-in-hand, you can walk together to Jerusalem and see again what He has done for you to make you His own in the passion and cross of His only begotten Son. And there, he will put the robe of righteousness again on you and invite you to come inside for some great partying that he has planned just for you.  

           In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.