This Sunday’s Gospel reading from Luke is a familiar story for many Christians—the story of the prodigal son.

However, when we look more closely at the historical setting for this story we see that for Jesus’ original audience in the first century it would have been a shocking story.

The younger son is desperately restless. He goes about seeking fulfillment for his life in all the wrong places. In asking his father for his share of the inheritance right away, he is essentially telling his father, “I wish you were dead” because the inheritance usually wouldn’t come until after his father’s death. He then sells his share of the inheritance and squanders it on prostitutes. The son is looking for happiness in wealth and pleasure rather than in his relationship with his father.

But this son isn’t the only character to act in a surprising way. When the father sees him returning, he runs to meet him. Fathers were expected to act with dignity, so running to meet anyone—let alone a son who has shamed the family— would have been shocking. Indeed, the action is completely incomprehensible to the older son. He has remained obedient to his father, but he views his father more as a master and himself as a servant. In this story the father goes out to meet both his sons and invite them into the feast—and into a better understanding of his love.

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1st Reading Reflection

Joshua 5:9a, 10-12

In this reading we see the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham. The Exodus from Egypt didn’t go easily, however. Those who had grown up to adulthood on the arduous forty-year journey would have no place to return to. These young desert wanderers would be tough enough to face the challenges of recapturing the land of Canaan from those who had occupied the land in the absence of Israel. Joshua 5:7 says, “It was the children whom he raised up in their stead.”

Our task in this Lenten season is to be like those young wanderers who were able to enter into the land and the children to whom Jesus promised the kingdom.

The long sojourn had its effect. The children of the Exodus who for their whole lives ate the supernatural food called “manna” cease eating it only when the first fruits of the Promised Land are harvested. We hope and pray that we who are fed by the manna of the Eucharist will, after our sojourn here, enter into the Promised Land of heaven, as did Joshua’s children of the Exodus.

2nd Reading Reflection

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Paul uses vivid language in describing the effect that reconciliation in Christ has on Christians—we’re “new creations.” “New creation” is an idea that the prophet Isaiah used as well. In the book of Isaiah, God announced that he would make “new heavens and a new earth” and that the former things would be forgotten (Isaiah 65:17). In the time before the coming of Christ, the Jews lived in hopeful expectancy that when the Messiah came, God would re-create Israel and Jerusalem. But it wasn’t only Israel that needed to be re-created. God re-creates his covenant family to include the Gentiles who were once excluded. In fact, the rabbis at the time of Paul thought that when a Gentile converted, he became a new creation.

With this background, we can better understand Paul’s use of the term “new creation.” He means that the new creation spoken of by Isaiah has begun with Jesus Christ. All those who are in Christ become a new creation. No longer shall race or nationality divide God’s family. Man’s fallen nature is healed, renewed, and even elevated in this new creation in Christ, and the new Israel is a land without borders.

Gospel Reflection

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

The story of the prodigal son expresses a summary of the Christian understanding of who God is, who we are in relation to him, and what the process is that he has willed for our salvation. This story has been used to explain the errors of pharisaism by looking at the attitudes of the elder brother toward his younger brother. Pharisaism is generally defined as a rigid practice of the external forms of religion or morality without genuine regard for the proper reasons for doing so.

A Pharisee doesn’t recognize his own need of a savior, and that kind of blindness can afflict both those who are too intent upon the following of rules as well as those who don’t think that there ought to be any rules at all. Neither recognizes their need for mercy. Jesus doesn’t free us of the obligation to act rightly; he mercifully gives us the power (grace) to act rightly and gives us his mercy when we don’t deserve it.

DISCUSSION:

The presenter, Edward Sri, shared with us some of the historical background for this familiar story. What are some things about this story that would have been shocking to Jesus’ audience in the first century?

In this story the younger son looked for happiness by squandering his money in a “distant country” (Luke 15:13). What are some ways we look for happiness in things that don’t really satisfy?

In the story we see that the older son served his father obediently, but without joy. In what ways have you ever viewed God as a master rather than a loving father? How can we guard against this?

PRAY & MEDIATE:

PRAYER: Take time now to consider your relationship with your heavenly Father. Prayerfully place yourself in the Gospel story. First imagine that you are the younger son leaving home, squandering your inheritance in a distant land, and ending up destitute, starving, and alone. How do you feel? What do you say to yourself? What do you do? Next imagine you are the older son dutifully working at home but not recognizing the love and generosity of your father. Now decide with which son you identify more at this point in your life. Put yourself in the position of that particular son and imagine the father coming out to meet you and inviting you into the feast. What would you say in response? How do you feel when your brother appears on the scene?
 

RESOLUTION: Just like the father in the parable, our heavenly Father comes out to us and invites us into his love. In prayer, talk to God about what he is inviting you to do to go deeper into your relationship with him this week.

Reprinted with permission from  Opening the Word at Formed.org .
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