The Prodigal

I wrote a piece for a Lenten meditation about Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son, and thought I'd post it here.  (And I added some extra images of a Prodigal Son statue that I am so intrigued with.)

Scripture:

  Then Jeus said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father. When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’ But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.

All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’ The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’ His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”

Perhaps the most well known of all parables, the Story of the Prodigal Son, is really misnamed. The story Jesus told had two sons in it – both prodigals in their own way – but they are not even the central characters in the narrative. The father is. This father who gives when disgraced, who runs, who embraces, who showers with generosity, who throws a party, and who goes out to both sons is the central focus in the picture Jesus painted. The same is true of Rembrandt's painting. Jesus' story and Rembrandt's picture are both about two prodigal sons. Both of these boys traveled “to a far distant country” - one physically, one on the interior. Both needed to return home. Perhaps, a more fitting name for the account would be Returning to the Embrace of the Father.

Focal Points:

Looking for light: Rembrandt's use of light in this painting tells us where he wants us to look. Three people are illumined in a golden light – the father, the younger son and the older son standing on the right. In addtion, the light falls mostly on the hands of the father, the back of the younger son, and on the hands and face of the older son.

Father and Younger Son:

Clothing: The father is dressed in fine clothes of rich, regal red. Though elderly, he has a fullness to his stature. He is substantive and has a presence that takes up most of the left side of the painting. His red robe is in an arch shape, like an open door welcoming in those in need of shelter. The kneeling son, on the other hand is dressed in rags the color of dirt. He is emaciated and is dwarved in comparison to the more substantial frame of his father. The sandals on his feet are worn out – perhaps depicting his long journey home or that he has come to the end of his own resources (or both!)

The father's hands: Two hands embrace the younger son's back, but on closer examination, they are very different from one another. The father's left hand is strong, muscular and quite masculine. The fingers are spread out and active. There is a certain pressure about this hand, as though it is not just touching the son, but holding him with a gentle strength. The father's right hand is refined, soft, tender, looking almost feminine. It does not hold or grasp, but just touches with an elegant quality to it. Its feminity offers comfort, consolation and a tender caress.

Interestingly, this caressing hand is right above the bare, wounded foot of the kneeling son, while the masculine hand parallels the foot dressed in the sandal. “Is it too much to think that one hand protects the vulnerable side of the son, while the other hand reinforces the son's strength and desire to get on with his life?” (Henri Nouwen)

Older Son: The man standing to the right in the painting is thought to be the older son. He wears the red robes of his father, showing he belongs to the household. However, his illumined hands show a marked difference from that of his father's. His hands are clasped, closed and held close to his body. While his eyes are totally focused on the interaction before him, his face is stern looking with no smile or emotion. There is a good distance between him and what is going on before him. (This could depict physical distance, as in the story Jesus told, the older brother was not there when his younger brother actually returned, or perhaps it represents the distance his heart had traveled from his “home” in the father.)

Looking for darkness: “The return”, though central to the scripture in Luke 15, is not centered in Rembrandt's picture. All the action between the father and younger brother is positioned on the left side while the older brother is on the right. In the Luke account, both boys have a choice to make. Will they leave their darkness and move into the light. We know the younger son makes his journey through darkness back to the father, but what of the older son? We are left wondering. Jesus tells us he is invited in by the father to join the celebration but we do not know what he eventually chooses. In Rembrandt's picture, his face is illumined, but he seems so be unmoved by the father's joy. Right in the center of this picture is a large, dark, open space, perhaps creating the tension of the question, “Who will truly come home?”

Reflection:

Spend a few moments looking at the picture, allowing your eyes to rest on places that pique your curiosity. As you settle into gazing, move your eyes back to one area of the picture that intrigues, evokes emotion or disturbs you. Ask the Father why He has brought your attention to this place at this time. What is it He wants to say to you? Don't be afraid of whatever comes forth, remembering that the embrace of the Father is generous enough to hold it all.

Perhaps you see yourself in the face of one of the main subjects of the painting. Which person do you most identify with? Are you one of the people sitting in the darkness, just watching and inquiring about this Father's great love? Are you the younger son who believes he is “no longer worthy to be called a son”?(Luke 15) or are you the returned younger son who lays his head on the Father's chest and senses His embrace? Are you the older son who “has been working hard on the father's farm, but has never fully tasted the joy of being at home?” (Nouwen) Whoever you identify with, can you hear the Father who reminds all sons (and daughters) of who they are? “You are extravagantly loved. Come home to Me.”