TGBC: prodigal
The Good Book Club
Monday, March 12. Luke 15:11-32
Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. The 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. A 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. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 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.’ ” So 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. Then the son said to him, “Father, I h ave sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
But 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”
And they began to celebrate.
‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But 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. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”
Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But 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 FOR MONDAY. Along with the Parable of the Good Samaritan, also found only in Luke, this is easily the most beloved of all Jesus’ parables, why? Because of the pathos, and it’s so very personal. And we understand, don't we. For a parent nothing compares to our love for a child, so intense it is indescribable, sometimes excruciatingly, almost unbearably intense. I have and do love each of my children so.
And for a young person it tells not only how we would hope our parent to love us, but our experience of feeling the most loved child under the sun.
The parable is easy to allegorize, and in discussions people always try to do that with it, the Father of course as the boundless and forgiving and welcoming love of God the Father, and the younger son is the contemptible Gentile sinner, and the older son is the scribe or Pharisee or the Jews in general, and so on; but one of many problems with that is that Jesus told parables not allegories, and especially that if we insist on allegorizing it, our Lord's beautiful story becomes retrospectively Luke and/or the early church looking back and therefore not a parable of Jesus at all, but a tale by the evangelist (Luke) or of the early church itself. No, it is a parable. Luke sets it among other parables about repentance and forgiveness that demand the loving sacrifice of welcoming sinners and eating with them.
Again and finally, unlike some stories in the gospels, this one is unmistakably Jesus, not an allegory for the later church to justify itself, but truly and solidly Jesus himself painting a word picture of the kingdom of God, of God's grace that is unconditional love, chesed, lovingkindness; in New Testament terms, agape’.
For myself, sort of reversing the parable, I remember the spring morning in early 1970 when my ship returned to SanDiego from our deployment to the Western Pacific during the Vietnam War. When I stepped out of the car at our house in SanDiego, my young son was playing with friends down the street. Spotting me, he dropped what he was doing and started running, running, running, arms wide open; getting within about ten feen of me, he jumped, leapt, collided with me, as I staggered back to keep from falling, Joe’s arms around my neck and he wouldn’t let go, clung, clutched, held onto me, held and held and held. It was my own prodigal moment that is with me forever. Joe was nine. Always his daddy's boy.
Back to Jesus’ parable. As for the sullen older brother, he is invited and welcome to be part of the celebration. Does he see? Does he come? We don't know. Jesus doesn't say. Neither does Luke. Jealousy and resentment are consuming, consumptive. I leave him to the ages of ages.
the art available for this parable is so abundant, some of it emotionally so overwhelming, that I’ve tried to squeeze in as much as I could. All pinched off the internet. TW+