Daily Devotion – March 23, 2022 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.
15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
15:3 So he told them this parable:
15:11b “There was a man who had two sons.
15:12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.
15:13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
15:14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.
15:15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.
15:16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.
15:17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!
15:18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;
15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”‘
15:20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
15:21 Then the son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
15:22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe–the best one–and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
15:23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;
15:24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
15:25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
15:26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.
15:27 He said, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’
15:28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.
15:29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.
15:30 When this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’
15:31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
15:32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'”

Everybody knows this story, I suppose. We call it the Prodigal Son. Prodigal means extravagantly wasteful. Some scholars and theologians think the story should be called the Prodigal Father. The elder brother would agree. True, the younger brother was wasteful, to be sure. But the father, upon the son’s return, is extravagant in his celebration, much more than the son deserves, especially according to his brother and probably others in the household.

But what better way could Jesus make the point about the extravagant love of God for us humans than to tell the story of a young man who wants to leave home, pile it full of examples of wasteful spending, and then pile it even more full of bad behavior like looking for a local job instead of coming home, working with pigs (to a Jew this was a very wrong thing), and relying on what he could beg for. This sorry hard luck son came home, willing to be a servant in his father’s house. He had been humbled.

And his father was generous to him. Generous to a fault, we might say. Prodigal. But aren’t we lucky that that father in the story is also our God? That’s what Jesus wants us to know. God will always be prodigal.

Gracious Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for your prodigal generosity to children who do not deserve it. Help us to appreciate it every single day of our lives.   Amen.