Homily For The Ninth Sunday after Trinity 2025
A few weeks ago, our Gospel was a set of parables that Jesus told about the lost sheep and lost coin. Today’s Gospel is the final parable in this series, the prodigal son. I mentioned this helpful summary of these three parables a few weeks ago. “Now follow three parables representing the sinner: (1) in his stupidity; (2) as all-unconscious of his lost condition; (3) knowingly and willingly estranged from God [Bengel]. The first two set forth the seeking love of God; the last, His receiving love [Trench].” We saw the love of God, the humility of Jesus, in seeking and saving the lost - all of us - as represented by the lost sheep in its stupidity and the lost coin in our not knowing that we were lost. So much is made about the prodigal son, his actions and attitudes, along with the older brother, the good son who stayed on the farm, but let us today put our focus on the love of the Father,
the love that receives those who have knowingly and willingly decided to live apart from the house rules in the home. It is easier to see God who seeks out those who are lost - who are stupid, as the sheep, or unfeeling, unconscious of their lost condition, such as the coin. This parable is most remarkable because it displays the heart of God for those who abandoned God’s will and whom God, amazingly, receives when they come back home. This is a story particularly for the people of God, those who were marked with the new family name in baptism, who may have decided to dwell in the far country for a while and those who may be physically present in the covenant family but whose heart harbors unforgiveness for a brother or uncharitable thoughts about the heavenly Father. This is a story for those far away and for those who are within the Church.
We often focus on the lostness of the prodigal, but the older brother was also lost in his affections, in his attitudes, he was estranged from his Father. St. Paul gives us an example in the Epistle of how God’s people can be estranged from him while being physically present among the body of the Church. I think it is helpful to contemplate the common Father of both the prodigal and the older brother - the extraordinary Father. The real hero in this story is the Father - the Father who was truly affronted by the prodigal who wasted the Father’s money in the far country; the Father whose other son was estranged from him in his prison of bitterness. He had the unwillingness to forgive, and was fixated on the sinfulness of his younger brother.
Many of us are familiar with this parable. A man had two sons. The younger son came to his father and requested his inheritance so that he might leave home. The far country was calling with all its pleasures and independence.
Generally, the estate was settled after death. Inheritance distributed after the death of the Father. The younger son asks something very irregular and it communicates his desire to be done with the family. It was the most crass rejection of his Father and his family. Contrary to convention, the Father goes to the trouble of “dividing his living” - indicating a distribution of ⅓ to the younger son and 2/3rds to the older brother in accordance with the Law that stipulated the older receive a double portion of the estate according to birthright.
The parable states that the younger son took the proceeds and squandered them in the far country - in living contrary to the rules of His Father’s house. Famine came and the younger son was in need. No one helped him. No one was generous to him like his Father; no one reciprocated the gift of the younger’s generosity in his riotous living.
Instead, he hired himself out to a pig farmer, so this Jewish boy could have the dual indignities of feeding the unclean pigs and suffering hunger alongside this ceremonial filth. The memory of home, its contrast with his present condition, the goodness of his Father toward servants who had abundance, these thoughts came back to him and he decided to go home with words of repentance on his lips. “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” We read that he headed toward home and his Father, ever watching for the returning son, saw him at a distance and ran to meet him. He was so excited about the son’s return that he pre-empted his rehearsed speech. The Father was too busy ordering the reception of the long-lost son. Kill the fatted lamb. Cloth the wayward son with the best robe; put the ring on his finger. Let us celebrate the return of the repentant son. The one whose clothes reeked of the sin and defilement of the far country. Rejoice.
The love of the Father is the hinge in our story. The Father’s love is seen clearly in what the law permitted for the affronted Father. We read in Deuteronomy 21:18-21 that an obstinate son, who refuses to obey his father and is “a glutton and a drunkard” should be taken outside the city walls and then stoned to death. The Father has every right to require the younger son's death because of the offense. Yet, here, the Father lavishes all the blessings of His house upon the guilty but repentant son. The younger son even in the far country knew his Father’s character, that he would not require blood. He was convinced that the Father would make him a servant rather than be executed. It all hinged on the love of the Father.
As it has been said, “And the lesson is beyond measure astonishing. The Eternal Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, and Who knows every beat of that Father’s heart, sets forth here what He alone knows, the mind of God towards the penitent….Such is the human or earthly picture by which the Lord would have us judge of the mind and heart of His Father towards penitent sinners.
The love of the Father wasn’t only for the wayward son; his love was known in his tenderness toward the older son as well. The older son abided in Father’s house, was physically present, but his heart, his affections were far from the Father. He was bitter toward his brother - who squandered a portion of the estate in the far country. In the mind of the older brother, he may have justified his bitterness toward his brother because of the shame he brought on the family, the pain he inflicted on the Father.
The older brother felt justified in avoiding the celebration because of the Father’s honor. He refused to go in and instead asked a servant what the celebration was about. To which, the servant only gave the barest of facts - the younger had returned and the Father threw a party. Of course, the older brother was not aware of the contrition of the younger brother; the elder was unaware of the spirit in which the younger returned home. The same father who received the younger back pleaded with the older. The older was focused on the affront - he said, “I’ve worked all this time and you never gave me a kid to celebrate with my friends.” It’s remarkable how ingratitude, a perverted and profoundly self-serving sense of justice, skews facts. The eldest son would inherit everything. He was improving the estate which would be his. He would receive the fruits of his labor later. Moreover, the elder brother was upset that his father “never” provided the meat for a celebration with his friends. The Father was nothing more to him that an inheritance; an inheritance spent in pleasure away from the family among friends.
Both brothers had the same problem, only viewed through a different lens. The Father who loves them both acknowledges a spiritual and physical reality - the best must be given to celebrate a new life for the younger brother. For all practical purposes, the younger was as good as dead in the far country. Yet, his suffering, his absence led him to repentance which reunited him with the Father. He was received back home - physically alive and spiritually renewed. The older brother needed renewal as well. First of all, he must love his brother - instead of calling him the “son” of his Father; he must receive him as his brother., receive the one who broke his Father’s heart but is now home a changed man. Second, the elder must enter the feast. It is a celebration of the Father’s love for all his sons - the outwardly destitute prodigal and the inwardly self-righteous elder. The older brother wanted the younger son to feel the disgrace that he had brought to the family; the older brother wanted stronger discipline but the Father knew that the crucible of the far country was discipline enough.
What both sons needed was re-assurance - the younger needed reassurance that his Father would receive him; he needed the robe, the ring of sonship, the feast so that he might know he truly had been restored to his father. The elder needed to know the fullness of the Father’s forgiveness - he needed the reminder of the blessedness of remaining in the Father’s house. He has been saved from the scars of conscience from the far country; his body preserved by His Father’s wise stewardship.
This morning, we are called to meditate on the love of God for sinners - both in open rebellion in the far country and those who are tempted to resent God for not adequately rewarding their labor in his fields. For those in the far country, those who are running from God, who are seeking meaning in the pleasures of this world, seeking distraction through the priorities of this present age, come home. Come back to God. Turn and repent and say unto Him - I have sinned against you and am not worthy to be called God’s child.
Yet, come back knowing that God delights in receiving those who turn to Him - trusting that he will receive them. For those in the Church, whose sonship has nothing to do with their merit, who received sonship by adoption, let us praise God that He receives sinners - for all of us stand in need of mercy regardless of the outward manifestations of rebellion. Whatever your state this morning, whatever brother you may find yourself identifying with, don’t miss the Father’s banquet. Come and celebrate the forgiveness of sins, come and enjoy the sweetness of restored relationships - between God and each of us and one child of God with another. Amen.
