The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

This week’s homily reflected on Rembrandt’s famous painting The Return of the Prodigal Son and how it brings the parable in Luke’s Gospel to life. The painting shows not only the prodigal son, broken and worn, kneeling before his father, but also the elder son—standing in the shadows, cold and resentful.

Just as Henri Nouwen and others have observed, the story is not only about one son who wandered and returned, but about two sons who were lost in different ways. The younger son had to admit his rebellion and ask for forgiveness, while the elder son faced the harder challenge of forgiving his brother and letting go of bitterness.

The sermon reminded us that in God’s plan of redemption, both Jews and Gentiles, both the wayward and the self-righteous, need to come home to the Father. Luke’s Gospel shows us that Jesus came to lead a “second exodus,” gathering the lost, the lonely, and the broken into God’s family.

The heart of the message was clear: coming home to God means both asking for forgiveness and extending forgiveness. While it is often easier to seek forgiveness for ourselves, the harder conversion is to forgive others. Yet this is the way back to the Father’s embrace.