This year, when I first turned again to this familiar text, I noticed the language of resurrection of the dead. In verse 18 the younger son says to himself: "Having risen up, (anasTAS) I will journey to my father..." In verse 20 the same verb is used: "Having risen up  (anasTAS) he went to his father." And, of course, we have the very dramatic language of the father, used twice with regard to the younger son, the brother of the elder: "was dead and is alive" (vss. 24 and 32), both explained and tied into the two previous parables by the addition, "Was lost and is found."

           This led me to think again about Karl Barth's christological interpretation of this parable, and I read a few pages on this from his Church Dogmatics IV 2: "The Homecoming of the Son of Man." Indeed, as the lectionary indicates, this parable is closely tied to an event in which the Son of God has entered into the "far country" of sinners and celebrates the "homecoming of the Son of Man": Jesus' welcome of the tax collectors, sinners, who came near to listen to him, and his banqueting with them, and the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes at this event. The parable  is an analogy to the repentance of the tax collector sinners, but both of these, parabolic repentant sinner and real life repentant sinners,  are analogous to the one great sinner who repents: Jesus Christ, True God Humbled and True Man Exalted. 

            In light of all this, the parable is an invitation and encouragement to celebrate "this," our "brother," Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, himself "The Resurrection and the Life." The love of the father bestowed on him is the love of the father toward us, and this is our inheritance, this is our gift from the father  in which all that is his is revealed as being ours, and our being is revealed as a being with him: "This" his "son" is "This," our "brother", the great gift of the fathers' quickening and finding love, at the table of the gracious and righteous father, in the house in which even the hired servants have bread enough to spare: our brother who was dead and came alive, who was lost and is found. Let's party in celebration of him! It is right (v. 32 'Edei) and proper so to do! When we accuse God of not giving a "kid" about us but rather giving all things to "this" his "son," may we remember that he has given us the greatest cause of all for celebration of his love: "this" our "brother" Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, lost in our sins and found to our salvation. Amen!

        This year, when I first turned again to this familiar text, I noticed the language of resurrection of the dead. In verse 18 the younger son says to himself: "Having risen up, (anasTAS) I will journey to my father..." In verse 20 the same verb is used: "Having risen up  (anasTAS) he went to his father." And, of course, we have the very dramatic language of the father, used twice with regard to the younger son, the brother of the elder: "was dead and is alive" (vss. 24 and 32), both explained and tied into the two previous parables by the addition, "Was lost and is found."

           This led me to think again about Karl Barth's christological interpretation of this parable, and I read a few pages on this from his Church Dogmatics IV 2: "The Homecoming of the Son of Man." Indeed, as the lectionary indicates, this parable is closely tied to an event in which the Son of God has entered into the "far country" of sinners and celebrates the "homecoming of the Son of Man": Jesus' welcome of the tax collectors, sinners, who came near to listen to him, and his banqueting with them, and the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes at this event. The parable  is an analogy to the repentance of the tax collector sinners, but both of these, parabolic repentant sinner and real life repentant sinners,  are analogous to the one great sinner who repents: Jesus Christ, True God Humbled and True Man Exalted. 

            In light of all this, the parable is an invitation and encouragement to celebrate "this," our "brother," Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, himself "The Resurrection and the Life." The love of the father bestowed on him is the love of the father toward us, and this is our inheritance, this is our gift from the father  in which all that is his is revealed as being ours, and our being is revealed as a being with him: "This" his "son" is "This," our "brother", the great gift of the fathers' quickening and finding love, at the table of the gracious and righteous father, in the house in which even the hired servants have bread enough to spare: our brother who was dead and came alive, who was lost and is found. Let's party in celebration of him! It is right (v. 32 'Edei) and proper so to do! When we accuse God of not giving a "kid" about us but rather giving all things to "this" his "son," may we remember that he has given us the greatest cause of all for celebration of his love: "this" our "brother" Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, lost in our sins and found to our salvation. Amen!