Thursday, November 13, 2014

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Luke 15:11-32

If Jesus were to have a greatest hits album, the Parable of the Prodigal Son would be on there for sure. It would start off with an attention-grabbing number like the raising of Lazarus, then go into something smooth like the feeding of the five thousand, and then settle into a substantial piece like the Prodigal Son. It’s definitely one of the most popular of Jesus’ parables, and certainly challenging to those of us who can most easily relate to the elder son; those of us who are comfortable in our pews and dutiful in our work and piety. This sense of self-righteousness can lead us down the road of smugness and insularity.

Henri Nouwen has a wonderful book in which he enters into today’s parable by reflecting on Rembrandt’s painting Return of the Prodigal Son.  In the book he points out that the painting goes beyond the literal parable by placing the elder son at the scene of the return of the younger son (in the parable the elder son is busy working away). But by depicting the elder son, so stern, with hands held tight against his body, Rembrandt subtly brings in another one of Jesus’ greatest hits: the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14), where the  prayer of the proud Pharisee is contrasted with the cry for mercy of the sinful tax collector. In most depictions of that story you’ll see the Pharisee standing upright, while the tax collector is bowed low. And so in Rembrandt’s painting we have the son, off to the right, standing tall, looking down on the scene of love and forgiveness. And as our gaze moves from the elder brother toward the father and younger son, our eyes pass by a figure sitting in the shadows, beating his fist against his breast like the tax collector: “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!” 

http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/rembrandt's_prodigal_son.html

You can find Nouwen’s book The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, in our renewed parish lending library! [To be unveiled in late November, 2014!] 

- Matthew Kieswetter

P.S. A bonus track: 'The Good Son' by Nick Cave, dedicated to BH.