From 5th April 2022
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This week’s parable points us towards how we are to picture God. It’s the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son, in which a disrespectful younger son demands his share of the family inheritance and promptly spends all the money on wild living. When he is broke, hungry and without friends, he returns home, hoping to be taken on as a hired labourer. His father sees him returning from afar, rushes to welcome and embrace him and throws a big party to celebrate the son who was effectively dead now being alive again.
Most religions claim to offer a source of comfort and guidance. They provide a basis for moral beliefs and ethical behaviours, often provide a sense of community and a connection to tradition. Religions differ significantly, however, when it comes to questions of God, multiple gods or no god at all. The three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – all claim that there is one God who is the Creator and who has provided guidelines for how to live a just and holy life. When it comes to Christian faith, the teaching and person of Jesus Christ provide unique insights into the nature of God.
The second, older son hears the music from the party and becomes angry on learning that his father has thrown a party to mark the occasion of his younger brother’s return. This older son is presented as the dutiful, responsible one who always does the right thing, but who resents the father for not honouring him with a party for his many years of faithful service. The father invites the older son to join the celebration, but the parable is left open-ended as to what will happen next.
Jesus’ repeated message – that we know as the gospel – is that God is indeed like the father in the parable – gracious, compassionate, extravagant in love and patient with our shortcomings. We do not have to merit or earn our salvation from God, but rather can receive God’s blessing as a free gift. We call this free gift grace. This is the heart of the gospel message. The challenge for us as Christians is how prepared we are both to receive God’s grace into our own lives and to extend such grace to others.
Note that courage is not the opposite of fear. Courage is acting or speaking despite one’s fear. Courage may well be what God calls us to embrace in a given situation, although sometimes caution and withdrawal from a potentially dangerous situation is the better course of action. Our natural inclination may well be to withdraw but some situations require us to act with courage (e.g. Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion, speaking to politicians in the lead-up to the election). We need God’s wisdom to know which way to act as well as God’s strength and boldness to act with courage.
This iconic photo was taken during the Tiananmen Square student protest in Beijing in 1989. It shows an ordinary person standing in front of four tanks, which were among many tanks sent to the square to clear protestors. It captures the essence – and foolhardiness – of courage. The person apparently has no concern about their personal safety in the midst of a dangerous and tense situation. They may have been quite frightened but chose to act in this way regardless.
In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus is journeying towards Jerusalem and is warned by some Pharisees that King Herod wants to kill him. Presumably Jesus took the warning seriously as Herod had already killed John the Baptist. Rather than being ruled by fear, however, Jesus calmly sends word back to Herod that he intends to carry on his journey and his ministry as before. He feels compelled to go to Jerusalem even though the city has a reputation for killing God’s prophets. Jesus acts with courage.
I wonder what sorts of things are distractions for you? It could be Facebook, or talkback radio, or shopping. A distraction is neither good nor bad in itself. It is simply something – or a person or a situation – that prevents us from concentrating on something else. Often we enjoy such distractions since they may keep us from attending to more important but difficult issues. Other times distractions are just plain annoying – like a constantly dripping tap.
In this week’s reading from the Gospel, Jesus makes a deliberate choice to set off for Jerusalem despite knowing that rejection, suffering and probably death await him there. The text states that he set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). No distractions for Jesus. Just a narrow and single-minded focus on following the path that God seems to have laid before him.
This is hard teaching that we may try to ignore or wish had never been spoken. That’s because distractions – while neither good nor bad in themselves – take us way from other priorities. And as Jesus makes clear, those who wish to follow him must be prepared to walk the same path as he takes, which includes making God’s kingdom our number one priority. Lent is a good opportunity to review our priorities and how we are spending our time, and to check whether distractions are diverting us from following Jesus.
Several would-be disciples encounter Jesus and offer various excuses as to why they can’t follow him right now. One must organise a funeral for their father, one needs to go and say goodbye to their family and one is apparently unsure about basic requirements such as where they will sleep each night if they follow this itinerant preacher. Each of these excuses seems entirely reasonable. Yet the clear implication is that they are distractions from following Jesus and embracing his mission of bringing God’s kingdom into reality.
This week is the first Sunday in the season of Lent, the 40 day period leading up to Easter. Why 40 days of Lent? This number is based on this week’s reading – the so-called temptation of Jesus – in which Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil. It’s also why the traditional discipline for Lent is fasting (and prayer) as Jesus apparently fasted throughout the 40 days.
The temptations that Jesus faces all seem reasonable – feed yourself (and potentially others) to ease your hunger, rule over the nations of the world (responsibly and justly of course), and show others that God can indeed save by leaping off the temple. Jesus resists these temptations by choosing to follow God’s way instead – the way of deep trust in God, the way of service and the way of humility and suffering. These will be the hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry.
We face different temptations to Jesus but they are often equally subtle and enticing. At heart, most temptation is about making ourselves the centre of everything – satisfying our own desires and building our own little kingdom of self. If we follow the way and example of Jesus, we will resist such temptation by deliberately choosing to turn to God and following the ways of God’s kingdom instead.
May Lent be a rich season for you as you take time to reflect on your personal walk of faith.