The Parable of the Prodigal Son
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Helmut Thielicke, The Waiting Father, trans. J.W. Doberstein (New York: Harper & Row, 1959) The Parable of the Prodigal Son PART ONE And he said, "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, `Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, `How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise 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 as one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And 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 servants, `Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry." -LUKE 15:11-24 Several years ago I once set my little son down in front of a large mirror. At first he did not recognize himself because he was still too young. He quite obviously enjoyed seeing the small image that smiled at him from this glass wall. But all of a sudden the expression 17 18 The Waiting Father The Parable o f the Prodigal Son: PART ONE 19 on his little face changed as he began to recognize the similarity of the son this is far too natural and matter-of-course for him to be able to notice it motions and he seemed to be saying, "That's me!" himself. He accepts it as perfectly natural that he, the son of the lord of the The same thing may happen to us when we hear this story. We manor, should be the leader in all the boys' games. He accepts the role listen to it at first as if it were an interesting tale with which we ourselves almost automatically. But one day he hears one of his companions say, have nothing to do. A rather odd but fascinating fellow, this prodigal son. "Ah, if I were only a nobleman's son, a king's son just for one hour! But I Undoubtedly true to life, undoubtedly a definite type of person whom we am only a poor boy and I never knew my father." have all met at some time or other. And certainly we are all objective And when he hears this, all of a sudden it is no longer a matter of course enough to feel a bit of sympathy with him. to this son that he should be a child in the house. Suddenly he sees the Until suddenly our face may change too, and we are compelled to say, house and his comrades and even the father with new eyes. After all, it might "There I am, actually. This is I." All of a sudden we have identified the not have been so, it need not have been this way. There is no reason why I hero of this tale and now we can read the whole story in the first person. should deserve, he says to himself, to be the child in this house and not a Truly this is no small thrill. This is the way we must move back and servant. And exactly in the same way it is by no means whatsoever a self- forth until we have identified ourselves with the many people who evident thing that we as Christians should be the children of our Father in surrounded Jesus. For as long as we fail to recognize ourselves in these heaven and that we should have peace. It could very well be-indeed, people we fail to recognize the Lord. A landscape painter moves about from according to the laws of our natural existence, it must necessarily be-that one spot to another until he discovers the right perspective for his we should think of ourselves as being surrounded and imprisoned by the picture. There is no value in his pedaling through the high country sinister serpent of Midgard, or pursued by the avenging Furies, or delivered until he spies the outline of a snow-capped peak between two treetops and over to nothingness. It is absolutely not a matter of course that all this should then says, "This is the Santis," and immediately dismounts and sets up his not be true and that we may have a home, an eternal security. easel. No. From this point the outline of the Santis is so undefined that it But for the young man in our parable this is only a passing mood. Often might just as well be some other mountain. The artist must rather search the old man gets on his nerves. Why can't a fellow be his own boss? Don't do for a long time until he has found the spot from which he can see all the this and don't do that. Always coming around with his everlasting "Thou characteristic features of this mountain. That is the only way it will be shalt not"; always jerking the leash and whistling a fellow back. Even those recognized and the only way to avoid the danger of people's saying that his "children" Adam and Eve may often have rebelled at this when they were picture is an imaginary landscape or confusing the painted Santis with still in Paradise, in the "Father's house." There, too, was the prohibiting some other mountain. sign, "Thou shalt not," and very specifically placed on the tree of life with So we too must search for the right vantage point from which we can see all the dark allurements of its mysteries. There for the first time appeared that the Lord rightly and without distortion, and not in such a way that he can annoying limitation: so far and no farther. "And you call this freedom; be confused with all kinds of other people, heroes, moral teachers, or always tripping over barriers and signboards; how is a person going to be founders of religions. Now, the best thing to do is always to take up your able to develop and live his own life with the old man constantly stepping in position at exactly the same spot where one of the persons who meet with his house rules?" Just so have Adam and Eve and all their children him or appear in his parables stands; to stand, for. example, where John is in and children's children sighed and groaned again and again. prison, addressing doubting questions to him, or the Canaanite woman, who The Father, of course, thinks otherwise about this. He does not bid and desires nothing of him but the crumbs that fall from the Lord's table, or the forbid in order to "play the Lord" (why should he need to?) or to play rich young ruler, who will not forsake the god Mammon and so goes away tricks on his children or even to give them "inferiority feelings." No, he knows unblessed. that children need this kind of guidance and need to respect boundaries. We When we do this we make a remarkable discovery: in all these figures we all know the educational product of parents who have trained their suddenly find ourselves gazing at our own portrait. In every one of these children in "freedom," and what unbearable brats they can turn out to stories we find sketched out the ground plan of our own life. The prodigal be-not only unbearable to others but also a burden to themselves, sick of son-this is I, this is you! And the father-this is our Father in heaven themselves and at odds with themselves, utterly unhappy in this fictitious who is waiting for us. But now for a moment we must stand here before freedom that knows no fear, no reverence, no limits. this mirror and get the image very clearly in our minds, so that we can say from the bottom of our hearts, "This is I." The first thing we are told about this young man is that he is a "child in the house," a child in the house of his father. At first to the 20 The Waiting Father The Parable of the Prodigal Son: PART ONE 21 Surely the father and son in the parable must have talked about this many times. The son would say, "Father, I want to be independent.