Fourth Sunday of Lent
The Reverend Dr James Hawkey, Canon Theologian and Almoner at the Abbey, examines Jesus’ beloved parable of the prodigal son, with its reminder of the new life that repentance can bring.
The Reverend Dr James Hawkey, Canon Theologian and Almoner
Sunday, 30th March 2025 at 9.00 AM
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A reading from the Gospel according to St Luke, chapter 15:
Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
So he told them this parable:
‘There was a man who had two sons. 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. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 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. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 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! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’” 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. Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.
‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 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. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 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.”’
The gospel story we have just heard is one of the best loved of Jesus’s parables of repentance and reconciliation. The dawning realisation in the mind of the younger son of how grace has been squandered, only to be met by the unconditional embrace of forgiveness once he looks his own mistakes squarely in the face, is a message which needs to be heard again and again by every Christian in every age. This is always a tale of strikingly contemporary resonance.
What does it take for us to come to ourselves? For the younger son, it is his experience which prompts this, and a sense that all the glittering idols and sparkling images of the world cannot offer ultimate fulfilment. In fact, they provoke a greater restlessness which itself leads to an exhausted collapse and an isolated life which is only sustained by scraps. It is only from this point that his self-sufficient heart learns the potential of repentance; an acknowledgment of failure, which is met by a welcome home he surely could never have imagined. This, perhaps, was the treasure he had always been seeking.
But what about the older son? Jesus’s introduction to the parable makes it clear that this story is about two sons. Our hearts perhaps go out to this man so different from his colourful younger brother, hard- working, committed, well-behaved, has never asked for anything. But he needs to learn, from his father’s gentle but clear insistence, that self-righteousness can be as problematic as self-sufficiency. The resentment so easily nurtured by those who try to live good lives is a poison which can corrode community, threaten solidarity, and shrivel the heart. Repentance is not a summons to a badly-behaved few, but a call to all to enter a new way of living, where gratitude, wonder, and grace lead us to holiness. This, scripture teaches us, is real life, where we forgive and are forgiven, learning alongside one another that God’s beauty and truth are more than enough.
