On Being Lost & Found
By Philip Burchill
3-30-2025
The Parable of the Prodigal Son is considered ‘the greatest short story in the world.’ It is the Gospel within the Gospel, the story of mankind’s falling away from God and portrays the recovery of one’s lost home and original unity. This parable is not only about one lost wayward son who recklessly wastes his inheritance. It is also a story of an elder brother who did right, followed the rules was filled with resentment and jealousy. At its climax this story is ultimately reveals the nature of God as our Heavenly Father who extends open arms of eternal unconditional love. For this reason, many Scholars, Pastors and Theologians believe this story would be more accurately entitled ‘The parable of the Loving or Compassionate Father’. This story has three dimensions of focus on the younger son, the elder brother and the Compassionate Father we will take in turn.
To my right you will notice Rembrandt’s painting of the Prodigal son painted within two years of his death in 1669. Henri Nouwen a Dutch priest and prolific spiritual writer (whom Elizabeth mentioned last week), credits this painting as the catalyst for a transformative revelation and life changing decision. Nouwen saw himself as the prodigal son, wandering in exile of academia and seeking refuge embrace of a fulfilling purpose. Home was not found in the ruthless competition and high demands of the publish or perish environment as an ivy league Theologian at Harvard. Nouwen’s revelation of God’s love and yearning for homecoming was experienced while gazing at this work that ultimately led him to resign his professorship and make a new home with catholic brothers serving the mentally handicapped and disabled community where he went onto write many spiritual classics. Nouwen eventually wrote an entire book on the prodigal son and the life of Rembrandt, that I drew much insight from in this sermon. Throughout this sermon we will be in conversation with the parable and Rembrandt’s painting to reinforce illuminate and draw from a infinite well of revelation contained in this profound story.
Nouwen points out Rembrandt’s genius lies in the fact he lived the inner drama of all these characters in this story throughout his life. If one looks at Rembrandt’s early self portrait of himself as ‘The Prodigal Son’. One witnesses Rembrandt as an early man is much like the character in the story, proud self-determined a taste for material things who wasted and squandered his money. He is said by contemporaries to have the characteristics of being brash, self-confident spendthrift, sensitive and arrogant. In an early self portrait, this is brought to full view we see him in a brothel with the red curtains behind alluding to the red light district in Amsterdam as he lifts up a half empty glass, dressed extravagantly wearing a flamboyant hat, with a wavering feather. Biographers describe him as young proud convinced of his own genius eager to experience everything, one who loved luxury was insensitive. He made and spent a lot of money, the early paintings reveal his adulation outlandish hats, vestments tunics. Rembrandt was the prodigal son.
As Rembrandt got older he endured heavy blows of many hardships. His son Remartus died in 1635, his daughter Cornelia died in 1638 His second in 1640. Rembrandt remarried in 1640 to Saskia who dies 2 years later , and is left with a 9 month old son. He remarries has one daughter the only who will survive him. Rembrandt’s popularity plummeted though some critics still acknowledged his genius. His financial problems became so difficult that he had to auction his property, sign over rights to paintings furniture to avoid bankruptcy all of which sold in three auctions in 1657 & 8.
Rembrandt found some peace in his fifties. His paintings took on a quality of psychological depth that captured the inner character of his subjects which reveal a sense of compassion and inner sympathy. One critic wrote, ‘He began to regard man and nature with an even more penetrating eye no longer distracted by others outward splendor or theatrical display’. Rembrandts son died in 1663 in his late life when he painted the prodigal son he was a lonely man in the last few years he left us this masterpiece.
The Prodigal Son
The younger son in the story is determined to make a name for himself, to live his own way to break the moral code of the family. He wants his inheritance prematurely. In the OT Deuteronomy 21: 7 it said the older son traditionally got 2/3 of the property. It was not unusual for the Father to distribute early if he wished to retire and no longer manage his affairs. The son shows a level of callous cold hearted indifference. He’s essentially saying he wishes his father dead and only cares about the things that are to come to him. In these days wealth was tied to land cattle property one’s material goods. One’s land was intimately tied to one’s identity standing with the community, was stewarded and handed down across generations. The Greek for property is bios defined as life. The Father had to tear his life apart voluntarily demote his own property and standing in the community in order to give the son the inheritance he wants early.
The father did not reject the sons request. He knew his son would have to learn as most of us do the hard way by experience, in life’s school of hard knocks. The son goes out into a far country squanders his wealth on loose living. In modern terms, imagine your son decides to move to a big city like San Francisco and needs money to get established. To do this you have refinance your house give away equity so he could get this start up business venture going. You find out through his online posts, He’s used your hard earned money and family inheritance to start a sports gambling tech start up app. In his spare time he uses the money to dine at five star hotels, go to parties, nightclubs spend it on prostitutes. As wealth attracts friends people join him on this pleasure seeking excursion. Eventually he burns through all the inheritance, the business falls through, bills are racked up he cant pay. He is evicted penniless and ends up homeless in the tenderloin district in rags on a curb with just a sleeping bag. The loose sinful living of excessive drinking, parties, one night stands never fully satisfied created a gaping void in his soul and he lost everything. Like most people he did not like to be told what to do but he found out the path his way was not working out. Once he came to the end of the mirage of self seeking pleasures he finally realizes he’s better off returning home. The story of the original prodigal Son reached lowest point imaginable in that society. The Jewish law held ‘cursed is he who feeds swine’ this is what the prodigal was doing to get by and was not enough.
At rock bottom the younger brother comes to his senses. The scriptures say ‘when he comes to himself’. John Calvin the great reformed theologian opens his magnum opus Institutes of Christian Religion with ‘Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say true and sound wisdom consists of two parts the knowledge of God and ourselves’. When we turn away from God’s will choose our own way independent of scripture we lose ourselves. ‘Know thyself’ as for the philosophers is taken a step higher for the Christian. It is always connected to know God and then you will come to know yourself. We also learn who God is by what he is not just as we learn of ourselves by experience does not suit our nature. For the younger son finally woke up in the depths of depravity and realized if he was to return home. He could have a full belly and being a hired servant would be a far superior mode of living with dignity instead this humiliating and servile debasement.
“The son decides he will get up, say to his father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be your Son, make me as one of your hired men’. The scripture tells us “Honor your mother and father so it will go well with you, (this is the first commandment with a promise)”. This young man chose the opposite path and the consequences proved this to be true. Lawlessness led to humiliation, poverty, and starvation. Obeying the Scriptures not just a Divine commandment, thou shalt. It is a natural law of cause and effect the law is meant to guide us and lead to blessing and life, lawlessness to chaos and destruction.
The younger son wants to make restitution to pay his father back. He did not feel worthy to be his Son and plans to offer himself as a mere hired day worker in his father’s house which he considered to be a privilege. The hired servant was the lowest rank of a slave who could be dismissed in a day’s notice.
The Father’s Extravagant Forgiveness
To our amazement the Father does not follow the law and demand exact payment of debt. He is not a stingy calculator who cares for money and sees his son as an instrument for generating wealth nor is he filled with anger. ‘While he was a long way off his Father saw him and felt compassion for him. He ran embraced and kissed him’. It’s often said a parent is doing as well as their worse off child. The grief, anger and worry of their sons whereabouts dissolved by the consolation, relief and joy that floods the Father’s soul when he sees his once lost Son reappear in the distance.
When the son proposes to be a servant the Father, he will have none of it. The Father is saying, I won’t let you earn your way back. I will bring you back. God’s love is sheer unconditional and a generous gift of acceptance. The Father is a picture of God who generously offers His love with no strings attached, or conditional stipulations. He bestows upon us the stamp of sonship as children of the Most High. ‘For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith not a result of works so that no one should boast.’ No matter what one has done where they have been the arms of God are an open invitation of welcome into Christ’s heavenly family. Just as Rembrandt depicts the warm embrace of the son. By accepting this gift we can dare to believe God’s words to us, ‘You are my beloved with whom I’m well pleased’.
Jesus makes clear if we are to enter into the Kingdom of God we must humble ourselves become like children and become born again. This is a second innocence, by returning to God who is our origin and final end. Nouwen’s commentary helps us see, ‘The head of the boy come home is a second childhood portrayal. It’s as if this return to the father is portrayed as a return to the womb of God who embraces us in one hand with soft nurture and the other an affirming bold grip.’ As Jesus told Nicodemus no one can see the Kingdom without being born from above’.
V. 22-24
The father tells his servants to get the best robe, put a ring on his hand, sandals on his feet. The son who squandered his father’s wealth on fleeting pleasures went to lie in a pig pen is redeemed in dignity, given a robe of honor, and a ring for authority. This is the antithesis of what he deserves according to tradition and basic household codes. Most in the Father’s position would feel betrayal taken advantage of and manipulated. This love of the Father covers a multitude of sins and clothes the son in a robe of righteousness. This selfless unconditional The Father’s love for his children is so great that ‘neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Romans 8:38-39)
A parallel to this extravagant undeserved love that many of you may recall comes from the great novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo that has been adapted to theater countless times around the world and many cinematic portrayals. We witness this echo of the prodigal son in the protagonist Jean Valjean who encounters the selfless Bishop Myrial reminiscent of the Father in our story. Jean Val Jean is sent to prison for nineteen years for stealing bread to feed his starving sister and her family. After numerous attempts to escape he’s labeled a former convict with a yellow passport and is treated as a leper in society. He sleeps on the street is angry and bitter. Bishop Myrial takes Jean in offers hospitality, clothing a warm full mean and a place to sleep. In the middle of the night he steals almost all the bishop’s silverware. The next day he is caught by the police, brought to the bishop to confirm his crimes where three soldiers are holding Jean by the collar. The soldiers give a military salute greet the Bishop inquire if these items were stolen. The bishop replies ‘ah here you are looking at Jean Valjean. I’m glad to see you but how Is this? I gave you the candle sticks to which are silver like the rest and which you can get 200 francs. Why did you not take them with the forks and spoons?’
The bishop drew near to him reminded him
‘Do not forget that you have promised to use this money in becoming an honest man. Jan Val Jean is speechless
The bishop uttered these words in solemnity
‘Jan Valjean, my brother you no longer belong to evil but to good. It is your soul I buy from you. I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition and I give it to God’.
Jan Valjean goes onto a transformed redeemed life becomes a mayor and does as much good he can for his community. A complex plot continues to unfold with many parallels to the Prodigal son on mercy, the law, sin, grace and redemption. The point to be made here the Bishop like the Prodigal’s Father show mercy triumphs over judgment. The scandalous generous selfless love of undeserved gift that ‘While we were still sinners Christ died for us’. The prodigal son and Jean Valjean did not get what they deserved they got grace and that loving kindness led to transformed life. ‘Darkness cannot cast out darkness only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that’, as MLK elegantly reminds us. Human psychology confirms the point positive reward is a far more successful incentive of altering human behavior than condemnation and punishment.
The Elder Brother
We must remember this is not only the story of the prodigal but the brother and we miss the lesson if we fail to see the contrast with the self-righteous resentful older brother. V. 25-28 The older brother was working in the field, he heard music and dancing inquired of the servant who replied your brother has come home your father has killed the fattened calf and he became angry not willing to go in. The Father Began pleading with him v. 29-30
“The brother’s attitude shows his years of obedience hard work was of grim duty and not love for the father”(Barclay). He did not feel he was satisfactorily appreciated nor receive his just deserts. He is thoroughly ungrateful, jealous, resentful and bitter about the younger brother. He has no sympathy for him. He distances himself and will not acknowledge him as a part of the family, calling him ‘This son of yours’. Charles Dickens famously said, ‘were all in the gutter but some of us choose to look at the stars’. The younger brother learned this painful lesson first hand in the gutter looked to God for redemption became conscious of his situation. The older brother stands far off on an island of self-righteousness pointing out others failings he cannot see he himself is in the gutter of pride. He is not concerned about God or others and is solely wrapped up in himself.
The elder brother is a shrewd calculator who thinks only in financial terms. The fattened calf was the most expensive delicacy. One wouldn’t do this for a private party and the entire village would have been invited. For the Father it was the best day of his life. And for the son it was the worst, all he could do was think of receiving a lesser inheritance. The Son cares about the Father’s things, not the Father, his brother or the family. The elder brother wants the younger to endure the full punishment of the law not to be shown mercy, welcome or celebration.
If we return to Rembrandt’s illustration the elder brother to the right is the prominent observer and is withdrawn. The father has wide open arms and lovingly embraces the son. The elder brother is in the shadows, he is static, detached somber. Standing erect looking down upon his brother who humbled himself. The Father is open, the older son is closed with clenched fists. The return is the central event as we read it from left to right we notice the elder brother’s response just as the parable chronologically portrays this story. ‘The large open space separating the Father and his elder Son is a space that creates tension asking for resolution’(Nouwen). As in the parable the brother will not participate in welcome. He stands aloof in isolation and detached judgment. While the Father bends over in compassion. The father is fully illuminated light in the darkness the son remains in the shadows with his clasped hands.
From a psychological view the two brothers represent two different modes of cognition that the psychologist Abraham Maslow coined ‘Being Cognition and Deficient Cognition’. Deficient cognition is one’s practical, instrumental and calculating intellect. It perceives lack and what is to be made through striving. Its underlying motive is anxiety that propels one to work for survival. When someone is in this cast of mind they operate on a means to ends basis. You are the acting subject and everything external people and the environments are objects to satisfy objectives for survival or gain. This is the older brother who sees the younger brother as an object a depreciating asset not a relative. His unwillingness to participate in the joyous welcome of his brother is due to his perception of deficiency. Even though the Father later reminds him all what is his is the son’s as well.
Being Cognition, is represented in the father’s perspective, generosity to the family and the forgiving embrace of the son. The younger son glimpses this reality when he comes to his senses and surely feels it in his moment of reconciliation. In sharp contrast to deficiency cognition, Being cognition motivates the way one relates to the world as participation not manipulation. One sees oneself as another, there is an experience of unity between subject and object that overcomes difference. Being cognition is an end in itself, sees people as an ends never as a means, it transcends ordinary space and time. The Father embodies being cognition and this is the template Christians are called to imitate. The Father sees the younger son for his infinite dignity in God’s image, the love he has for his son, overwhelming joy for his return.
The Celebration of the Son’s return and invitation to the community to participate on this momentous occasion is a celebration a soul lost and now found is of eternal value and far outlasts ephemeral concerns of survival. This is what we do in church when we worship God on the sabbath the day of rest to focus on an end God worthy itself. This is not the usual day for demands of the market, buying and selling, and transactional interactions. We gather to worship God our common object of love, where rivalry and competition have no place and our souls find their rest. ‘The sabbath is different from the other daily anxieties which temporarily allies , time out of time’.
Both Are Lost
The facts of the story are that both sons are lost. Pastor Timothy Keller outlines several enlightening dynamics at work with the younger and older brother in relation to the Father. Both of the brothers want the Fathers things, his wealth and status but not himself. They go about it by different methods. The Son is wayward, rebellious, self -indulgent living a ‘loose life’. The elder son is dutiful, obedient and rule abiding but bitter and resentful. He stomachs the means of duty of his Father for the worth of estate and property. One tries to get things by breaking the rules the other by keeping them. One misses the Father through resistance to religion the other by following it. On the surface they seem different underneath they are the same they both want the father’s things. The older brother is using religion for the agenda of material acquisition.
As Christians it’s easy to slip into the older brother mentality after going to church for so many years, attending bible study, making donations serving the poor saying our prayers to get to heaven. We falsely assume that if we keep doing the right things follow Christ as a model but not our Savior. This is an attempt to get the benefits and blessings and miss the true reward is God himself. God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are the ultimate treasure, the eternal gift and pearl of Great price. For Gospel believing Christians, God is our ultimate aim who we seek first as end worthy in Himself whom we desire to resemble, to know, and delight in.
The question arises who are you in this painting and in this parable? Perhaps like Rembrandt you see the characters in you at different stages of life some aspects of each or identify more strongly with one. I know for myself I was the prodigal son in High school. I sought girls, experimented in drugs, craved popularity belonging in the company of those I thought were cool that ended up in ditching school getting into fights disregarding my parents wishes to belong. I had a spiritual conversion at 17 in a Pentecostal prayer meeting where I felt the tangible love of God. A few years later after more spiritual experiences I made a 180 to drop the pursuit of business world to become a missionary for half a year and enter into Biblical studies for my undergraduate. As time has gone on my spiritual life lengthen its easy to lose touch with my early conversion the spiritual honeymoon and drift into the older brother syndrome. After repeatedly going through the flow of Christian check list of attendance, bible studies out reaches a sense of self righteousness, spiritual achievement and comparison to others slips in. Sometimes I question why are others further ahead or better rewarded in their career than I. This parable is a sober reminder when our hearts wander we must return to our spiritual home to seek God’s grace, forgiveness and acceptance. Whether we are the younger or older brother, This parable illuminates in our soul and conscience a spiritual calling to mature into the compassionate Father.
Become the Compassionate Father
The scripture says ‘Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate’. The Father says, ‘Son all you have been with me and all that is mine is yours.’ Nouwen writes ‘becoming a compassionate Father is the ultimate goal of spiritual life’. God shows us his extravagant generous love we can extend this love and unconditional welcome to others. Ethnicity, gender, political party ideology, social economic status are not a barrier to the Father’s eyes of compassion who sees the heart not outward appearance. Jesus makes it clear in this parable, ‘That the God of whom he speaks is a God of compassion who joyously welcomes repentant sinners into his house’. If this is God’s actions toward humanity this is how we are to be toward one another. Let us love one another the way he has loved us. It looks like this Father in Rembrandt’s painting uncomfortably bending over a selfless reaching out to include, embrace and forgive. From this place of God’s eyes of compassion, scarcity and competition rivalry dissolve by divine love. This is love that hopes, believes and endures all things and is a light in the darkness.
This is not easy but with God all things are possible. The parable concludes with the Father saying, “we celebrate and rejoice for this rother of yours was dead and now has began to live and was lost and has been found.” The genius of this parable is we are not told how the older brother responds or if he changes his act. We are left with a cliff hanger, the choice is open. God’s love gives his children the precondition of freedom it is always up to us: choose how ye shall live.
In summary, this parable shows us we can be lost in outright rebellion choosing our own way or perfect rule following with the wrong intention. Jesus spoke this to pharisees who could not fathom why he spent time with sinners told and this parable reveals that those who keep the rules are potentially just as lost. The scandal of this story is the wayward son who squandered his inheritance is saved and the man or moral rectitude is lost. The one with incorrect orthodox theology and correct political opinions but has a contrite heart is closer to God than the orthodox with accurate facts while being cold, resentful, exclusive and discriminatory. Different on the surface, underneath we are all lost in need to be forgiven and found by Christ.
One such story of being lost and found a story of homecoming I’d like to conclude with. It shows knowing God is intimately tied to knowing oneself and recovering an ultimate sense of home. A pastor of an urban congregation in California records:
“A woman’s mother was near death, but she didn’t have a church home. She asked her neighbor, a member of the congregation I served if she belonged to a church. The neighbor gave her my name and I visited her. I met her at the door and the conversation went something like this. ‘I don’t know why I called you but my mother is near death and I thought maybe we should have someone from the church here’… She invited me into her home and we talked about her mother. I found out that the mother and daughter had been involved with a church many years ago. Then I suggested that we have the prayer in the living room because her mother had been in a coma for many days and couldn’t participate. But I urged that we go in the room anyway. I offered a prayer and then asked if she knew the Lord’s Prayer. I invited her to join me. We barely said, ‘Our Father who art in heaven,’ when her mother joined us through the rest of the prayer. She came out of her coma for a few days before she died and the mother and daughter had significant conversation.”
Here familiar words of the Lord’s prayer miraculously reached the mother lost in unconscious and enabled her to find consciousness be with her daughter before entering her final home in God. This is the God of prodigal children who we worship and belong to. Jesus our Lord and Shepherd, the One who seeks and saves that which is lost. Amen.