The Prodigal Son: Repentance, Forgiveness, and Celebration

Ես այստեղ գրասենյակ ունեմ ոչ միայն, որ իմեյլներին պատասխանեմ, բայց որ ձեզի հետ հանդիպեմ և լսեմ ձեր մարտահրավերների մասին և ձեր դժվարությունների մասին, և ինչպես ուզում եք սրտով, հոգով վերադառնալ…

The third Sunday of Great Lent. We already are beginning the third week of Great Lent now, and I hope that many of you have been following us on Fast and Pray as we’ve been learning more and more about all of the steps that bring us closer to a full and unadulterated appreciation of not just the Resurrection—not just the miracle or the salvation that we’re celebrating on the Feast of the Resurrection, on Easter itself—but everything that led up to it.

It was not just a moment in time, but the culmination of an infinitely long process that was intended for the benefit of you and me. That is what we’re unwrapping on a daily basis through our devotionals in Fast and Pray, but also, of course, each and every time that we gather together here to worship at St. John during this period of time.

On the third Sunday of Great Lent, we remember the parable told by Jesus Christ about the prodigal son. I’m sure many of us remember the parable of the prodigal son, which we find in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15.

There are three elements of this parable that I want us to walk away from church thinking about today. The first, which I went into more depth about in my Armenian message, has to do with repentance, which is really the core message of the prodigal son. It is a perfect example for us to understand what repentance is, how we do it, and who it is for.

It is for the prodigal son because he made a mistake. What mistake did he make? He didn’t follow his father’s guidance. He didn’t trust his father’s will for him, and he went and did something else.

Did he make a lot of other mistakes along the way? Did he do things that he shouldn’t have done after making that decision? Yes. He did a lot of other sinning after he made that decision. But every other sin came from his initial decision not to trust in his father’s will for him, and to do something else and go in a different direction. That is his original sin, so to say. That is the source of it all: he went a different way.

Oftentimes, we mistake sin for naughty things. Sin isn’t just naughty things. Sin is turning away from God’s will for us, turning away from what he is calling us to do in our lives. That is also sin. It is important for us to have a deeper, richer, even somewhat more generous understanding of what sin means.

In this case, his sin was to turn away from his father’s will for him and subsequently find himself lost in the world, where he didn’t belong and couldn’t be fulfilled. Ultimately, after much suffering, he came to understand that he had made a mistake. He made many mistakes, but he made one main mistake by not trusting his father’s will for him. He realized that the only way he could ultimately make it right was to go back and say sorry to his father.

What I emphasized in the Armenian message was this: what we learn about repentance from the example of the prodigal son is, first, that it is never too late for anybody, and it doesn’t matter what we’ve done. Second, it requires us to take stock of and fully understand what we have done, what its impact has been on us and on others, and to feel the weight of that understanding.

Some of us who may be proactive about these things have perhaps done the first and second steps to some degree. But the third step is very important: to take concrete action according to the grief we feel over the mistakes we have made. The prodigal son’s concrete action was to turn to his father—to turn around and walk to his father’s house—knowing that he didn’t deserve the forgiveness he sought, but taking one step after another anyway.

This is repentance. It comes to fruition in that action and in the step that is taken. We are called not only to regret what we have done, but also to take concrete action so as to return to God and subsequently seek the forgiveness that only he can give us.

This is repentance, and this is what this time of Great Lent is meant for. This is what it is dedicated to. We have these beautiful six weeks in which we can focus on this thought, and it is so healthy for you and me to do so.

But the story doesn’t end there. Here is the second point that is important for us to remember: he is received by his father. He is received with open arms. He is received unequivocally and unconditionally, and he is welcomed back—not in the lowest state where he expected to find himself, but fully restored to the place that was his before. Fully, fully restored.

That full restoration, which is given openly and freely, is a beautiful thing. But he had a brother, and when the brother witnessed the forgiveness and restoration that took place because of the father’s love, he found himself resentful. He had been faithful. He hadn’t made the mistakes that his brother had made, and the forgiveness didn’t seem right, fair, or just to him. In his heart, he resented the love that was being shown to his brother.

This is not included in the parable for no reason. It is just as crucial a lesson for us as the example of the prodigal son, and it is intended for you and me perhaps more than any other aspect of the parable. It is hard for us to accept that the forgiveness we can receive, despite our corruption and sinfulness, is also available to everybody else—even the people we think are much worse than we are. That is hard, and it doesn’t seem right. That is a human thing, but it is not a God thing.

This is God’s love and God’s forgiveness, and he is the one who gives it. Our role—and this is the final point—is to celebrate that.

This is how the parable concludes. It concludes with the father proclaiming that all should be merry over the return of the son. He invites not only the brother, but the entire estate, the whole household, and everybody to be joyful and celebrate his return.

That aspect of celebration is what I want us to conclude with today and to reflect upon, because this too mirrors our Great Lenten journey. It culminates in celebration. It is not only a celebration in which we give thanks for the sacrifice of Christ that led to redemption; it is also the celebration in which you and I can participate with one another, because you and I and everyone else are universally given the opportunity to benefit from this, to receive that salvation, and to be like those celebrating the prodigal son who was lost and now is found, who was cast low and now is restored.

That is the fullness of the celebration to which we are invited: on a macro level, in terms of the arc of humanity, and on a micro level, in terms of this community, this church, and this Badarak. Each and every one of us has a path that we follow, and that path is a path from being lost to being found. It is illuminated for each and every one of us by virtue of the love of God.

We not only get to celebrate when we are found, but also when each one of us is found—with just as much glory, just as much gratitude, and just as much generosity of heart.

When we think about it in those terms, truly our celebration should be immeasurable. How many who came before us have received the mercy of God, whose lives and souls we can celebrate in their salvation? And how many will come after us? We are a small fraction of a fraction of those who have followed the path of the prodigal son.

We can hold them up as an example and say: Glory be to God in the highest, for his mercy is beyond measure. It is for me, it is for you, and it is for all of us, for his glory.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.