The
Parable of the Lost Son
11 Jesus
continued: “There was a man who had two sons.12 The younger one said
to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his
property between them.
13 “Not
long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant
country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After
he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and
he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a
citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.16 He
longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one
gave him anything.
17 “When
he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have
food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and
go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven
and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make
me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his
father.
“But
while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with
compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed
him.
21 “The
son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I
am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But
the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on
him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring
the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For
this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’
So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile,
the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and
dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was
going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father
has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The
older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out
and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these
years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never
gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But
when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes
home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My
son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But
we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is
alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
We return this Sunday to the story in Luke 15:11-32, traditionally called the story of the Prodigal Son, but which should, perhaps, be called the story of the lost son, the forgiving father and the bitter brother. This story has been the source of much art, particularly in the Renaissance, where both Protestant and Roman Catholic artists presenting artistic interpretations of the story.
“The return of the Prodigal Son to his father was a popular subject in seventeenth-century Christian art,” Hornik and Parsons write. “The [Roman Catholic] Counter Reformation embraced it as an example of forgiveness and healing between family members; Protestants viewed it as a return to God the Father despite their break from the Roman Catholic Church.”
The first image below is Guercino’s painting; the second, is Rembrandt’s painting which illustrates a
Protestant interpretation.
In Rembrandt’s painting, the light falls on the father’s hands, which “are disproportionately larger than the other parts of the father’s body,” Shiell notes. The father offers welcoming, noncontrolling love. In contrast, “the older brother stands to the far right, dressed like a Pharisee (ironically) with his hands and arms folded. Another man sits with his arms pridefully folded. They are afraid to love as the father does.”
Guercino emphasizes the father’s and son’s hands in a different way. They “are entwined in a classic gesture of reconciliation and…positioned at the centre of the composition.” Hornik and Parsons say, “The classicizing elements of the composition create a painting less of emotion and passion than of recognized rhetorical gesture of reconciliation.”
In his very famous book on the Rembrandt painting, Henri Nouwen writes,
“Often I have asked friends to give me their first impression of Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son. Inevitably, they point to the wise old man who forgives his son: the benevolent patriarch.
“The longer I look at ‘the patriarch’, the clearer it becomes to me that Rembrandt has done something quite different from letting God pose as the wise old head of a family. It all began with the hands. The two are quite different. The father’s left hand touching the son’s shoulder is strong and muscular. The fingers are spread out and cover a large part of the prodigal son’s shoulder and back. I can see a certain pressure, especially in the thumb. That hand seems not only to touch, but, with its strength, also to hold. Even though there is a gentleness in the way the father’s left hand touches his son, it is not without a firm grip.
“How different is the father’s right hand! This hand does not hold or grasp. It is refined, soft, and very tender. The fingers are close to each other and they have an elegant quality. It lies gently upon the son’s shoulder. It wants to caress, to stroke, and to offer consolation and comfort. It is a mother’s hand....
“As soon as I recognized the difference between the two hands of the father, a new world of meaning opened up for me. The Father is not simply a great patriarch. He is mother as well as father. He touches the son with a masculine hand and a feminine hand. He holds, and she caresses. He confirms and she consoles. He is, indeed, God, in whom both manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood, are fully present. That gentle and caressing right hand echoes for me the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no pity for the child she has borne? Even if these were to forget, I shall not forget you. Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”
