4th Sunday of Lent, Year C, 10.03.2013

Joshua 5:9-12/ 2 Corinthians 5:17-21/ Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32


Some people have this idea that after they had died and their mortal remains are cremated, they would want their ashes to be scattered.

Some want it to be scattered in the sea, some want it to be scattered in the wind or wherever.

The reasons for doing so are many, but there may be one reason that will sound rather melancholic or sad.

And that is that as time passes by, their memory will also fade from the minds of their next-of-kin and friends.

And in time to come, any indication of their existence on earth will also be forgotten. 

So that’s why they would rather have their remains scattered than have it buried or put into some niche.

In a certain sense, that is quite true because we may remember what happened when the old Bidadari cemetery was reclaimed and the graves had to be exhumed.

There were a number of graves that were left unclaimed and eventually the authorities had to do the exhumation.

It is a sad thought and an even sadder sight of those graves that lie there, forlorn and forgotten.

Yes, time has a way to make people forget about the deceased. 

Maybe that’s where we get the saying: Out of sight, out of mind.

More so if the deceased had done something wrong or shameful and brought embarrassment to the family. Then all the more that person’s memory would be erased and forgotten quickly.

There is this story of a noble family who had a great tradition.

Their ancestors came to America on the Mayflower. Their lineage included Senators, industrial CEOs and military heroes.

They decided to compile a family history as a legacy for the later generations, and so they hired a fine author to do that.

But there was one problem – how are they going to talk about that great-grand uncle George, who was executed on an electric chair for committing murder?

So they discussed it with the author and he said that he would handle that part tactfully.

When the book came out, it read like this: Great-grand uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties, and his death came as a great shock.

Well, it was nicely put, and without further questions, it would also be nicely covered up.

But of course that’s just a story. Certainly it is not so in real life.

Because wrong-doing and shame are not easily forgotten, neither in life, nor in death.

And that was the issue the Pharisees had in the gospel. They complained that Jesus welcomed tax collectors and sinners and ate with them.

For the Pharisees, those tax collectors and sinners should get lost and get out of sight.

And their sin and shame will be remembered, and it will neither be forgiven nor forgotten.

It was in the face of that kind of attitude and in that stand-off that Jesus told the famous parable of the Prodigal Son.

It was a parable that seemed too good to be true for the younger son and yet at the same time too bad to be fair for the older brother.

Yet we need to remember that a parable is not just a story, regardless of whether it is true or not.

A parable is a story with a heavenly meaning. And in this case, the parable tells us a meaning about ourselves, and a meaning about God.

Well, we know of some people who can be identified with the younger son who had committed such a deplorable act of insult against his father.

We may even think that his sin is unforgivable and that his memory should be erased and not to be mentioned again.

But this is where we need to be jolted to a halt, and realize that we are just like that older son who does not want to forgive his brother nor forget the wrong he had done.

Yet the parable is not about sibling rivalry and jealousy. Neither is it about who got off the hook and how unfair it was.

Rather it is about forgiveness and the task of reconciliation.

And here is where the highlight is on the father, yes the father, who seemed to be pushed to the background in the drama between the two sons.

The parable that Jesus told is often called the Prodigal Son, which means the careless or wayward son.

But the parable can also be rightly called the Forgiving Father.

The parable points out to us that we have that sinfulness of the younger son, and yet at the same time we too have that unforgiveness of the older brother.

But the overriding important meaning of the parable is the unconditional forgiveness of the father.

God our Father forgives us our sins because He wants us to be freed from the clutches of our own sins.

When we don’t forgive a person, we hold that person captive and indebted to us. Unforgiveness is a form of control over a person.

Because we will say things like: Remember what you have done! 

And we make that person feel small and we clutch that person into our hands again.

Maybe that’s why some people want their remains to be scattered. 

They want to be freed from the clutches of their own sins, and they don’t want to be remembered for their wrong doings.

Yet, God wants to forgive us our sins. He doesn’t want us to go down to the grave chained by our sins.

God wants to free us by forgiving us. He wants to remember us, and not our sins.

So let us remember to forgive others. Because we too want to be remembered by others as someone who forgives, just like God who forgives and forgives unconditionally.