There’s a story in Luke 15 about a father and a son and a brother. This story has a few popular titles: The Lost Son, The Prodigal Son, etc. this story, like most of Jesus’ stories, packs a great message and translates well into any setting. The synopsis is this: a younger brother wants his share of his father’s estate (basically, his part of the inheritance). The father gives it to his son. The son goes off and parties all the money away. The son hits rock bottom. The son soon realizes that he should return home and seek to be his father’s servant rather than live destitute…good survival instinct of college students: go home. The father welcomes his boy home and throws a party and forgives him. The older brother is mad and that’s how the story ends. Common themes: independence, hitting rock bottom, and forgiveness. Great one-two punch from the King of Kings, no?
The reality is that this story, when studied in Jewish culture, packs better punches that leave us a bit uncomfortable but grateful.
Here's the passage for the story:
1-3By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.
Then he 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.'
12-16"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.
17-20"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.
20-21"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.'
22-24"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.
25-27"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.'
28-30"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!'
31-32"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!'"
Luke 15:1-2; 11-32 (Message)
Ok, let’s correctly get the setting of this story. Jesus is hanging out with people of “doubtful reputation” and treating them like “old friends at meals.”
Last Friday night Shauna and I went out on one of those “married people” dinners with some good friends. We got to the restaurant around 7pm and didn’t leave until like 9:45. We laughed and told stories and made fun of people; it was great. I told the story of how my family packs and does weird things when we used to go on vacation together. You don’t need the movie theatre when you have friends like this.
So is this what was happening here? Was Jesus laughing so hard sometimes that the wine came up through his nose? Did they snort when they laughed? I don’t know, but it was obviously making the religious people mad (mainly, jealous).
You see. If Jesus really is the “Messiah,” that he claims to be, and that the Jewish people had been waiting for so long…then why would he be palling around with people of “doubtful reputation?” I mean, let’s be honest, these people were probably prostitutes, thieves, government thieves, and probably a sex pervert or two. No wonder the “religious people” were angry. “Messiah was supposed to come and vanquish the world of these heathens!” I bet the heathens even enjoyed radiohead now and then.
So Jesus then goes into three stories; we’re going to focus on the third.
We call this story “The Lost Son”, but it’s really about people’s reaction to the “Lost Son.”
1. First thing in the story: the younger son wants his independence.
What’s so wrong with that? Dad, I want the family jewels so I can be independent. For our culture this is basically a rite of passage, right? But in Jewish culture this is a slap in the face of his family.
That statement says this to the Jewish family:
- Dad, I want what is coming to me from your will. Basically, I wish you were dead so I could have the $$.
- Also, the inheritance was basically land. So, the boy sold the land and took the money. Land was how the family was identified and gained their wealth…so, basically, it’s like: Dad, I know this property is valuable to you, but I don’t want to be a part of it. I want to make my name for myself and I am going to sell it. I know everyone in town will look at our family in disgrace because I am doing this, but I plan on getting out here, anyway.
- Dad, I know all of this stings, but I don’t want to be in this family any more. It isn’t important to me. I want MY life, here. I don’t want to be identified because I am your son, I just gotta be me! Peace out!
How heartbroken must dad have been, huh? When Jesus told this part of the story, I guarantee you all of the Jewish males in the area became angry and infuriated with this younger son. See, the younger son brought disgrace and no honor to his father or his family. Father’s were treated as kings of their land and family. Most of the time, a son would be frightened to make this kind of request to a father in the ancient Jewish culture. The dad had every right to deny him the request, and send his own son to prison because of the shameful request.
But if you were an ancient Jewish person, and if you knew the Jewish book of Wisdom, The Sirach 33:19-23, says “To son or wife, to brother or friend, give no power over yourself while you live; and give not your goods to another so as to have to ask for them again.”; then you would know how un-wise and detestable this decision will be if the father says, ok.
Now, to everyone’s dismay and amazement, the father complies. This is huge and unlikely. The story has a twist. So, the younger son sells the inheritance and takes the $$ and goes away. Many interpretations say he went to a far away country…we’ll go with Australia…makes it a bit more exotic, right? So now the son has wasted ALL of the money; I wonder how long it really took him to do that?
And to top it all off, now there is a famine…El Nino. No food, no money, no job…
2. Second thing: the younger son hits rock bottom.
Now the younger son finds work from a local citizen…in a barn slopping pigs. Not horrible, right? Well, if you consider Jewish culture, pigs are considered unclean. Jewish people weren’t supposed to even touch a pig, much less clean them and feed them and be with them all day long. Ceremonially, this boy would have had to do a lot of crap just to be considered clean again.
At this point in the story, the Jewish religious leaders were probably really listening. Everyone there detested this boy at first, but now he is really without any help at all! I mean, he is really unclean…can’t be fixed, really. No one back home will talk to him because of the disgrace and now he is feeding Hell’s animals? This is rock bottom!
It’s at rock bottom the boy makes some decisions:
· My dad feeds his servants and treat his servants way better than this
· I am unclean and detestable in this pig slop
· No one cares for me, but maybe my father would take me back
· I’ll admit to my father that I have sinned against him and god
· Maybe dad will take me back as a servant
So the boy decides to go home.
3. Final thing: the father welcomes his son and the brother hates the younger son.
The father sees the son from a far way off. So, is the father looking for his son? I think so…the indication here is that the father is looking, right? The father runs to his son and embraces him. Happy reunion…great ending.
Shocking ending for a Jewish person hearing this story: the father ran to meet the son. The father, even in every day situations, usually waited for the son to address him with respect before even paying his son any attention. This calls for the father to ignore the son a great deal while the son begs for forgiveness, no? The father’s love for his son is exceptional…even with the disgrace and humiliation of his son saying “I want my money even if you aren’t dead…separate me from you.” The Father forgives the son.
The older brother gets mad and jealous and wants to be loved also…and misses the point of how happy the father is that his “son was dead and is now alive.”
Jesus put a lot of heavy symbolism in this story, too:
- The younger son was a symbol of a sinner/gentile/alien/ungrateful Jew/ “dishonorable reputation”
- The older son was a symbol of the religious leaders/ religious fanatics who don’t practice what love truly is…
- The Father represented God and his immense and crazy compassionate love for his child
You see, we can identify with the three main points in Jesus’ story:
- Independence: almost, and sometimes blatantly, disrespectful and love-less
- Rock Bottom: Where we know we need God
- Forgiveness: so many levels here…God models true love and forgiveness
Maybe you have hit rock bottom and maybe you haven’t, maybe you have scrapped for your independence and hurt another, or maybe you need to forgive…this story has lots to look into.
You see, forgiveness, mixed with all these other factors, is one of the hardest things to grasp. Whether you are forgiving, and you finally worked through all of that mess to be able to forgive…or you are being forgiven…it packs a very powerful punch.
Jesus’ main point was that forgiveness from the father is perfect…his love is perfect.
Think about your own situations and your life…what are you going to do with this information, now? To hoard it and abandon it would be the action of the religious leader of Jesus’ day. To work through some stuff of your own and work toward healing would be the way of the Father.
