Manna, Parched Wheat and Fatted Calf
Lent 4 27 March 2022
Joshua 5:9-12
10 While the Israelites were encamped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. 11On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
3 So Jesus told them this parable: 11 ‘There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’ ” 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” 22But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.
25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” 31Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” ’
Thoughts and Reflections
Each week for me one of the exciting mental exercises I like to do is to work out how the different Sunday readings connect to each other. Sometimes it is easy, other times it is a bit cryptic. And the Fourth Sunday in Lent in Year C is one of those days.
Old Testament Reading
The Israelites are finally in the promised land where they eat the parched grain produced in the land. Certainly, the Exodus had been a tough time for them. In any desert there is always the threat of no water and no food. Water from a rock and food that was magically good came from the hand of God to sustain God’s own people. We have always known the magical food that appeared to be ‘manna’ but I only recently discovered that the word is derived from the Hebrew word ‘Man Nah’ directly translated as “What’s that?”. That question was answered when they tried it and found it unbelievably nourishing, delicious and light. It had something of the taste of coriander about it; and there was a suspicion of honey in it, too. Who would want to give up manna? But when the Exodus ended, the manna did too.
One night the Israelites ate the parched grain from the promised land, and the next day there was no more manna. I am not sure what parched grain is, but it doesn’t sound as nice as manna. It certainly doesn’t come from the hand of God and you have to get it for yourself. You have to work to grow it. It doesn’t just magically appear on the ground in the morning. However, the parched grain was the beginning of life in the promised land, where the Israelites found a home. The comforting sweetness of manna came out of the harshness of the conditions of the Exodus. Out of the sorrow of trading manna for parched grain there came the consolation of home.
This is how this reading and the Gospel are connected. They both talk about coming home.
The Gospel Reading is one of the most famous parables of all. There is always discussion in sermons on this parable about what it should be titled. Some say, including some bibles in their heading, that it is ‘The Parable of the Two brothers.’ Others say it should be called ‘The parable of the forgiving father’. Tradition of course has called it ‘The Parable of the Prodigal Son’.
What does that word ‘prodigal’ actually mean? I don’t know about you but every three years, when this parable comes up in the Lectionary, I’ve got to go and look up the meaning to remind myself again. I keep on thinking it means someone who comes to his senses as in ‘The son came to his senses and returned to his father and so he became “the prodigal son”‘. Of course it doesn’t mean that at all. It more or less means the exact opposite! The online Oxford Language website gives it two meanings: 1. spending money or using resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant. Or 2. having or giving something on a lavish scale.
All of us, Christian and non-Christian, know the story of the prodigal son; some of us through the bible and some of us through our experiences in our families. We all know a family – or are a part of a family – whose child has gone astray through addiction, incarceration, mental illness, or alienation. We all know the “lost child” or “black sheep” of the family, whose relatives speak of them in whispers and with a sense of judgment. We know the embarrassment some families feel about a sibling or child who has gone astray.
As a genealogical researcher, I am always being told that ‘in those days our parents never spoke about him, because he was a bit of a black sheep’ and now they come to me and want me to find out more about the lost brother, sister, uncle, aunt or grand-parent. If is true now, it was just as true in Jesus’ time. One commentator, from a Palestinian background spoke about this in terms of ‘honour and shame’. Although the family’s black sheep is alienated, those who do the alienation feel bad because they think they are being judged by others and by God. They feel that they must have done something wrong to merit having a family member who is “lost”, who, they feel, is outside of the realm of grace. Maybe some of you who are reading this may have been the “lost” member of the family in need of acceptance and restoration.
Jesus told this parable of being lost and finding ones way home, as the third of three parables about things lost and found. Read the whole of Luke 5:1-32 to get the other two. He told these parables in response to an angry and judgmental audience, who were certain of who will be saved and those whom God had abandoned. Just like those old people from years ago who won’t talk about missing uncles or aunts or grandparents, they are so sure of their righteousness, they built a barrier between themselves and the sinners in their family. In response to this way of thinking from his audience, Jesus tells the story of two lost sons and a loving parent as the third of three of parables describing God’s care for the lost.
In the three parables in this chapter Jesus shows various ways of ‘getting lost’: the lost sheep, who simply wanders off, stupidly and innocently perhaps, like a toddler in the supermarket, pursuing something bright and beautiful, and then finding herself alone and frightened; a lost coin, misplaced and out of sight. Or for us today those who get lost simply due to the accidents of birth, intelligence, poor parenting, and poverty; and finally the lost son, who wilfully turns his back on his parents’ love and way of life, going into a far country, addicted, debased, and discarded.
In Jesus’ parable, a boy has turned his back on his parents and run away, seeking independence and ecstasy, something beyond the humdrum of family life. Although he falls off the grid, his parents continue to seek him. Perhaps they sent out servants or employees to see if they could find him. But it is the son who reaches the point of ultimate humiliation and rejection: But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’ ” By this point he would even have eaten the food of the unclean animals! The listening Pharisees would have found this scandalous. The phrase “no one gave him anything”, further demonstrates his humiliation. He had reached rock bottom.
We all know the end of this parable. How the son on returning is met on the road by his father, a father willing to lift up his robe and run down the road to meet his son. We know about the feast with the fatted calf and the older brother returning home and hearing music from the party. We know about how the father goes out to persuade the older brother to rejoice with the rest of the family. And the poignant phrase from the older brother in his angry response to the father: “You have never given me even a young goat…” (v29). Many of us may feel sympathy for this older brother.
Both brothers have a real or imagined scarcity and need. Whether or not they choose humility is the key to their different responses and why the story ends with one brother partying and the other outside in a furious huff. What is interesting too, is Jesus doesn’t tell us the final outcome. Does the older brother relent and go in to the party? What was the relationship between the two brothers the next day? The nest week? The next year? An open ended story because we are called to live the rest of the story.
Manna from heaven, parched grain from the promised, a fatted calf from a loving Father. imagine if the Israelites had said, ‘No thanks. We prefer receiving manna every morning.’ By taking that parched grain grown in the land that God had promised, they reached out in humility to do what God wanted for them. One brother chooses, in humility, to reach out towards the father and enjoys the fatted calf, the other, in pride, stays away.
‘Welcome home’ is still on God’s lips, whether to welcome the Israelites home in the promised land or the so-called prodigal son back into the bosom of the family. God never gives up, never abandons, never condemns.
One of the commentators I read gave this parable another name: The parable of God’s Prodigal Love. Here the second dictionary mean of prodigal comes into its own: giving something on a lavish scale. God gives us love on a lavish scale.
