September 15

   Jesus’ critics are concerned with his sitting at table with Roman collaborators and others they labeled as sinners.  These “Pharisees and scribes” believe it was important to maintain a distinction between righteous and sinful behavior.  Jesus appeared to be ignoring those categories.  Jesus responded to their criticism with three parables about “lost-ness.”  He asked them to call to mind the feeling when a piece of property that had gone missing was found.  Perhaps, he suggested, they could think of the people they were labeling as sinners as being lost.
      
     After softening up his critics with the first two parables, he delivers his “you-may-be-lost-yourself” punch—the parable of two sons. The younger son, having squandered his inheritance, returns home to avoid starving. This son recognizes his lost-ness, the brokenness of his relationship with his father—and accepts the gracious, unmerited invitation to come to the table with his father and others. The elder son—the dutiful, good son—is full of resentment and a sense of privilege. He may have stayed home but is emotionally distant from his father and his brother. Despite his lost-ness, he is invited to celebrate as well.

        We are left wondering if this son is aware that his sense of righteousness is as destructive to relationships as his brother’s waywardness.  Will he recognize the most in his own eye, the lack of grace in his own heart?  I am left wondering if I recognize the way my sense of being right, of labeling others as sinful, blocks my ability to love.