Let's Do Lent - Properly! The Sunday Next Before Lent - The Parable of the Prodigal Son

2 Corinthians 4.3-6;  Luke 15.11b-32

Jesus was a great storyteller. And what we've heard today is one of His greatest and most profound. If there's one story, one parable that sets the scene for Lent for us it's this parable of the Prodigal Son.

In our first week of preparation we recalled Zacchaeus and his life-changing encounter with the Lord. But for that meeting to be such a huge occasion for Zacchaeus, we learned that he'd really had an over-riding desire to see Jesus in the first place. He wasn't just curious about Jesus, he went out of his way to see Him. He overcame his physical limitations and those imposed by the attitude of others towards him. And the result was life changing. A desire to see God, no matter what is stacked against us is our first quality we need to approach Lent.

Last week we heard the story, told by Jesus of the Tax-collector and the Pharisee in the temple offering up their prayers. The Pharisee, so full of himself, pleased with his progress in the religious life, pleased with how he stuck to the rules and how it made him different from others; thankful in fact, that he was different to others. And the tax-collector, knowing what he was, regarded as an outcast, looked upon by society as a sinner, hardly dare raise his head, for shame and simply asks God to bless him even though he's so sinful. It was this man, Jesus tells us that is right with God. It is the tax-collector that shows us humility, the second quality that we need to go into Lent in the right way.

The Prodigal Son

And now we come to that, amongst the most remembered of parables. What does this parable, among all that things it can say to us, tell us about how we should approach Lent? Well this one, above all else, is about repentance, that turning to God and away from ourself, again that Lent is itself is really all about for us. For Lent is the season of repentance, a journey, a school of repentance as we said in our first week of preparation.

There's so much we could learn from this parable, enough for many bible studies. But let's just look today at two things, two short statements in that parable that teach us so much about Lent and our attitude in Lent.

First of all, the son 'gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country'.  He puts himself far away from his home, far away from his family. And in those days there was no internet or text messaging, no Skype, no Facebook, no Twitter, no e-mail or even post as we know it today. So, in the 'distant country' the son was completely cut off from his home and family; from the father who, out of love, had given him so much and who was to receive him so well and who was so forgiving when he came home. The son was, in effect, in exile.

And that's our situation. The son, 'in a distant country', is us in our relationship with God. Since The Fall of Adam and Eve we've been in exile, so easily. We spend our time, separated from God, cut off from His love. And like the prodigal, it's our own doing. Day after day we spend with hardly a thought of Him if we think of Him at all. And if we do think of God our thoughts are usually full of selfishness, full of what God can do for us rather than what we can do for Him. And, like the prodigal, we squander all that God in His love has given to us. We spend it all in foolish living. And so it continues, our whole life long unless we come to the point that the prodigal Son came to; which is the second statement we read in this wonderful tale.

'But when he came to himself...' '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!' That's the turning point, the pivot in the whole story, 'But when he came to himself....' You can imagine that the whole consequence of what he'd done came to him like an express train. Suddenly he realises his folly. Suddenly he realises what he's left behind. Suddenly he sees the state he's in. Suddenly and finally he sees his true self. And he turns for home; because he knows that there is no other course of action if he's to live and regain his true dignity. And he turns for home not knowing what the outcome will be; not expecting to be treated as a son again. It will be enough to be just a servant in his father's household. He knows he's in no place to be treated as a son again.

This is what repentance is all about. It's not about grovelling back to God, tail between the legs, asking for punishment for offending God. It's knowing how estranged from God we are. It's knowing that in our sinfulness we don't deserve to be treated as sons and daughters of God. It's being willing to accept ourselves as God accepts us, no matter how that might be.

It's really like the tax-collector we met last week, who had such complete knowledge of himself that he could be himself before God and not something false and fabricated and deluded like the Pharisee. Because it's only when we can come back to God like the prodigal and the tax-collector that we are the right frame of mind and heart to receive the healing of God's love, of God's forgiveness. For God greets us like the father in the parable, who's been looking out for us right from the start and who runs out and greets us, arms flung around us and with a kiss.

So, here we have the way in which we are best to make our way through Lent; with an over-riding desire to see God; with humility and a spirit of repentance. Do Lent that way and you'll do it properly.