Joy to Be Had
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons …”
Jesus’s “Parable of the Lost Son” — or more accurately described as the “Lost Sons” — is one of our favorites. For years, I’ve wanted a copy of Rembrandt’s visual interpretation in view from my desk at home, and I’m finally going for it. It’ll take seven more weeks to get here, but I’m on the edge of my seat.
The famous painting captures the moment of the prodigal’s return. Knelt before his father, with one shoe missing and the other tattered, the father’s arms embrace his son. The father’s hands on his son’s back mark the brightest point in the painting, full of darkness and shadows. Rembrandt meant every stroke, and it’s powerful (Henri Nouwen is an able guide).†
But the part that sounds out to me afresh in this new season is in verse 25: “Now the older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.”
This is the first line we read about the older brother (the only other illumined figure in Rembrandt’s depiction, standing to the far right). This brother heard the party from a distance, and the rest of the story is largely about what he does not do.
The word for “celebration” is used four times in this parable. It’s important.
But the older brother wants no part in the party. He got mad when he found out the news behind this noise. He refused to join the joy. Literally, in verse 28, “he did not desire to enter.”
So his father — and this is the part that will shake you — his father came out to him and entreated him. He begged him. The father pleaded and urged his eldest son to share in his pleasure. But the eldest son still refused. He complained, twisting what the father had graciously done for his brother to be about what he had not done for him. He recoiled at the evidence of his father’s mercy. And then his father corrected him in verse 32.
Very simply, his father said: “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:32). It is appropriate to celebrate, in other words.
And when I hear these words, what echoes in my heart, for my life and for our church, is that there is a joy to had — if we want it.
There is reason for celebration. There is an appropriate, right, fitting kind of joy to be had when the lost are found and the dead are made alive.
But the way to that kind of joy is messy. Finding the lost is messy. Raising the dead is messy. The prodigal son was messy. But then there’s the joy. There’s this celebration. And I want it so badly. I want us all to want it so badly, and to know, even though it’s messy, the joy makes it worth it.
* * *
† So I’ve written about this story before, and about Rembrandt’s painting. I searched “prodigal” on our site, and these popped up:
https://www.citieschurch.com/journal/that-shadowy-middle
https://www.citieschurch.com/journal/more-steps-ahead
