Lent 4 (Matthew 21:33-46) Luke 15:1-3; 11-32 “He was lost and has been found.”

The prodigal son represents all of humanity.

In a single parable, Jesus summarizes the story of salvation. There is the original blessing, the choice from pride to separate, the initial rush of power, the fall into distortion and despair, then repentance, reunification and transformation.

A parable is not an allegory. A parable is a story drawn from human experience to help us understand a broad and fundamental principle. The principle in this parable is repentance.

People who participate in Twelve Step programs understand the concept of “hitting rock bottom”. They understand that addictive behavior brings pleasure. They understand that the addict is lost in fatal pride that says: not me. Others can’t handle this. But I can. Others need help. But I don’t.

There is no repentance from the place of pride. Only as pride morphs into deeper and more profound levels of distortion, dissolution and despair does the soul cry out for deliverance.

The younger son in the parable demonstrates the journey of the soul in this world. We come from glory and are destined for glory in God’s forever family. By our own choice we look at the glory and decide we’d rather have the cash. The cash, of course, is the frozen energy of life.

Through pride we decide the relationships God has designed us for are only a means to an end. Through pride we choose knowledge that says: I and I alone know what is best for me and for everyone else. Through pride we assert the will to power which says: do it my way. Give me what I want when I want it and how I want it. Through pride we separate from God’s forever family and enter in a journey to a distant place. In that journey we become lost. We become lost in all manner of distortion that leads to sin. As we become lost in sin we suddenly realize one day we are lost in suffering, sadness and despair.

At that point of despair, when we hit rock bottom, grace enters in. In the parable the prodigal son “comes to himself”. He enters into a moment of clarity. That moment is a gift of God. It is the gift our Heavenly Father has imprinted in our souls, designed into natural law, and presents to every soul by the Real Presence of the Holy Spirit.

It is important to pause and ponder these words. He came to himself. He came to recognize the original blessing of God’s forever family. In coming to himself in this way he repented of his choice to separate. He literally turned his life around and journeyed back to his father.

He confessed his sin. He acknowledged his prideful actions from the place of humility. He offered to make restitution for his willful self-indulgence. He offered to repay his Father for all that he had taken from his father and squandered in the temporary pleasure of sin.

This is the pattern for repentance for all people. Not all of us follow the same detail of sin as the prodigal son. The Bible is very clear that all of us do follow the same path of separation that produces the distortions of pride and self-indulgence and results in sin.

The grace comes to us in those moments when we come to ourselves. We all have those moments. Not all of us make the choice the prodigal son made. Some of us remain stubbornly, willfully and spitefully lost. Some of us echo the words of Satan in Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost”: it is better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.

The moments of grace that can lead to repentance are unconditional, universal and unlimited. We don’t have to study the Bible to recognize this pattern in human behavior. We can look to history. We can look around us in the events and experiences of other people. Most powerfully, we can look within our own souls.

We can by grace perceive where we willfully, stubbornly and yes sometimes spitefully say no to God. We can by God’s grace look into the perfect mirror of grace who is Jesus Christ. He is the fullness of the original blessing.  The life he lived is the pattern, plan and purpose for how our Heavenly Father intends us to live. Any way of living that is less than Jesus is the way of separation, sin and death.

The prodigal separated from pride. The path of pride led him to despair. It was only at that place he was able to listen for the moment of grace. It was only in that place that he could come to himself, repent, change the direction of his life and return to his father. The brief pleasure in sin always decays into a half-life of endless regret, suffering and despair.

The message is two-fold. It is never too late to repent and turn your life around. It is better to repent sooner than later.

God gives all people everywhere sufficient grace both to discern the problem and to seek the solution. The problem is separation through pride. The solution is reunification through the humility of repentance, reunification and personal transformation.

As we journey through Lent stop, look and listen for your moment of grace. It will be there. It will likely come in a very unforeseen yet ordinary manner. It will be personal, designed for you. It will be formed in accord with the universal principles God has revealed in the Bible and personified in Jesus Christ.

Ask our Heavenly Father to release the power of the Holy Spirit in your soul so that when your moment of grace comes to you – you will be able to come to yourself and say yes to God through repentance of sin and transformation of sin back into its original virtue.

The great joy of the prodigal son came as he repented, returned and transformed. Jesus summarizes that great joy for the prodigal son in the parable and for each of us who are lost in the distortions of sin when he says: “He was lost and has been found.”