Pre-Lenten Lessons
Jesus was frequently criticised for hanging out with prostitutes, tax collectors and other sinners. He was never criticised for going to dinner in the homes of Pharisees – which he did! He also was never criticised for going into the homes of synagogue leaders and other important members of society. Of course not. Being with the important people is never wrong for a religious leader. Except that Jesus was not a religious leader.
Jesus had no hesitation to be with the important people, but they were not his first priority. His first priority was to be with the prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, Samaritans, and outcasts of religious society like the woman with issue of blood and anyone else who was considered unclean. We hear about these situations throughout the year in many of our Gospel readings.
Our Gospel reading today is intimately related to last Sunday’s reading. Last week, God chose the tax collector over the super-religious Pharisee. Today, grace is shown to the young son who went away to live in sin, while the older son had to be taught a lesson in mercy and forgiveness – which, it seems, he had not learned from his obedient religious life.
I believe that the church in its wisdom is giving us some not so-subtle hints as we head into the Lenten season. Lent is not about becoming super-religious. It’s about opening our hearts to receive grace from God to do the impossible. And believe me, forgiveness is almost impossible for most of us. And yet that’s what the young son receives today – and the older son does not like it. Some of the millions of Orthodox people who hear today’s Gospel around the world may identify with the younger son. But most of us identify more easily with the older son. We are the good people, who always do or try to do the right thing. Why should God so easily forgive those who don’t do the right thing? In today’s Gospel reading, the young son is like the tax collector last Sunday, while the older son is like the Pharisee. The connection between the two Sunday readings is not accidental. A lot of thought went into the choice of these Gospel readings in these Sundays before Lent. As a matter of fact, today’s reading comes from chapter 15 of Luke. And how does the 15th chapter of Luke begin? Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus goes on in this chapter to give three parables, the last of which is our reading today.
But did you also hear the Epistle reading from Paul’s first letter to the Christians in Corinth? Paul focuses on sexual sin and says very bluntly that whoever joins himself to a prostitute becomes one with her. Well, Jesus might have had a little correction for Paul about this. The younger son in today’s Gospel parable certainly indulged in the sin that Paul talks about. And yet, he returned to himself, to his real self. And he returned to his father’s home, where he received immediate forgiveness. He didn’t even have to say the speech of repentance that he had prepared. His father simply forgave him and gave him all the privileges of a son. Did Paul forget to say that no matter what the sin, it can be forgiven? The message we receive from Jesus today is one of hope, not judgment. The great Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote this in one of his Christian Discourses: “Is this the test, to love Christ more dearly than mother and father, than gold and goods, than honour and reputation? No, the test is this: to love the Savior more than your sin.”
I think much of the problem is precisely what Kierkegaard points to. We’re not good at letting go. We like to hold on to things, even, or especially, our sins. I would even say it’s built into our collective consciousness. Christians talk more about holding on to their privileges than anything else. It’s the primary motivation for a majority of Christians in our society and in many European countries as well. Paul wrote in one of his letters that we must follow the example of Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6-7).
Perhaps that is the real message of Lent and the Sundays leading to Lent: to learn how to empty ourselves. Empty our selves of judgment – last week’s Pharisee and today’s older son being prime examples of how we judge. Empty our selves of religious display and too much religious talk. Empty our selves of presumptuousness that we belong to Christ. Yes, we do belong to Christ, but don’t presume it. Live every day in awareness of grace and God’s forgiveness. Live every day like the younger son after he came to himself, aware of your own emptiness – because that’s when Christ will clothe you with his glory. And please note I said be aware of your own emptiness. I didn’t say nothingness. You are not nothing. You are precious, and God did everything to show you how precious you are. But you must empty yourself, as Jesus emptied himself. That’s the only way you can be filled with all he wants you to be. Can you begin to empty yourself of pride and some of those attachments that conquer your love of Christ? Can you begin to empty yourself of judging others? That can be a truly great Lent for you.