It’s Not Fair; It’s Mercy

“It’s not fair!” we catch ourselves thinking when we read the parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32). The parable could easily be renamed “The Prodigal Father.” The word “prodigal” means to spend money or resources recklessly and extravagantly; something (or someone) that is lavishly abundant or generous. It applies to both the younger son and the father.

It's not fair that the younger son tells the father, “Give me the share of your estate that should come to me.” That share was to come to him as a gift after his father died. So the son was basically saying to his father, “I wish you would hurry up and die.” What an unfair fracture in the father-son relationship! Amazingly the father consents, and off his son goes into a distant country.

His selfish disobedience is a classic example of human sinfulness, fracturing our life-giving relationship with God our Father and spiraling downward into a life of dissipation. When he is desperate enough, he finally comes to his senses and gathers the courage and humility to return to his father. He admits his sinfulness, and his unworthiness to be called a son. He’s just hoping his father is merciful enough to give him a job.

It would be fair even for the father to give him a job. So what the father does give him is completely extravagant. “He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.” When the son admitted his sinfulness and his unworthiness to be his son, the father ordered his servants to dress him as a son and to prepare a festive banquet because his son “was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” The father acts like a prodigal in the sense that he spends his resources recklessly, extravagantly and in a lavishly abundant way.

The way the father treats the younger son is certainly not fair. It is merciful. It is loving. It is the way God treats each one of us. None of us deserve forgiveness as if it were something we earned. Forgiveness is offered to us as a gift because Jesus earned it for us on the cross. None of us deserve the banquet of the Eucharist; Jesus offers himself to us as a gift. The Father is generous, forgiving and loving, and He calls us to be the same.

Which is why Jesus brilliantly includes an older son in the parable. The older son gives an angry voice to the sentiment, “It’s not fair!”

“Look, all these years I served you; and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me as much as a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf!”
The prodigal father pleads with his older son:

“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. You don’t deserve it. You did not earn it. All of this is a gift because you were born into our family. All of the service you have done is for your family, for you, as well.

“But here is something you need to understand about my mercy. It flows to the one who needs it most. Your brother almost died of starvation. He needs a good meal. He was not expecting a feast; he was only hoping for a job at best. But he is not my servant; he’s my son, and I will always love him. The family was incomplete without him; and now it is incomplete without you. You, also, are not my servant; you are my son. Neither of you can earn my love by your behavior; neither can you extinguish my love. Because I am your good Father. I am love, itself.

“My son, your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found. But now you are dying out here alone in this field; and I have found you. I invite you to come to life again. Resentment kills. Forgiveness brings new life. I came that you may have life. Come to the feast, that we may have two good reasons to celebrate and rejoice.”