[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]The Bible Lesson: Luke 15:1-3a, 11b-32
1Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he 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 traveled 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.’”
General Comments:
1. Our lesson, mostly composed of what's probably Jesus' second most famous parable, that of the Prodigal Son, is taken from a spot in which He tells three parables in a row, this one being the last and the longest. The other two, which appear in verses 3b-10, are the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. A central theme of all three is: Those who wander from God and God's will are lost; but God never tires of looking for us so that our relationship with Him can be restored.
2. I gave my own definition of a parable last week in one of these passes. Since I want to be sure to talk about what a parable is again here, I'll refrain from repeating myself and instead, give the floor to the wonderful New Testament scholar Archibald M. Hunter as he defines parables in his book, The Parables Then and Now:
The word 'parable,' Greek in origin, means a 'comparison.' We may then define a parable as a comparison drawn from nature or from daily life, and designed to teach some spiritual truth, on the assumption that what is valid in one sphere--nature or daily life--is also valid in the spiritual world...I'll have more to say about this business of polemic in the verse-by-verse comments and a little bit in point 4 below, because Jesus clearly told this story in part as a polemic against those whose religion prevented them from embracing faith in Him.
The next point is that parable is a form of teaching--often, if you like, polemical teaching...
3. Hunter also warns us against viewing the parables of Jesus particularly as cute little stories. He writes:
When I was in my early twenties, I used to think of [the parables] as picturesque stories with morals attached, eminently suitable for teaching children in Sunday School. Forty years later [he wrote his book in 1971], these same parables seem to me more like Churchill's speeches in 1940--weapons of war in a great campaign against the powers of darkness which took Jesus to the cross...4. The scribes and the Pharisees to whom Jesus first told this parable would have been deeply offended by it. They believed that God's blessings were earned by those who obeyed His laws and lost to those who failed to keep the law perfectly. They also believed that they kept God's law perfectly and looked down their noses on the sinners with whom Jesus associated.
For Jesus' original hearers then, this story of the sinning son who returns to the father and the self-righteous son who has always obeyed, would have called into question the entire basis of their religious system. They couldn't have helped but see themselves in the older son who, with rectitude, refuses to join in the party thrown by the father, the party clearly the Kingdom of God presided over by the Father.
To the original readers of Luke's two volumes, Luke and Acts, the implications would also have been clear. Luke believes that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jews' law and prophets. And while the first Christians were Jews, most first-century Jews who heard about Christ wouldn't accept Him as Messiah, Savior, and God-in-the-flesh. In addition, Acts is quite honest in describing the disputes and debates that arose over the admission of Gentiles into the fellowship of those who believed in Christ. The parable of the Prodigal Son also speaks against those Jewish-Christians wanting to lord it over those Gentiles on whom they could feel they had spiritual seniority.
It was in anticipation of this openness to Gentile believers to which the Holy Spirit would lead the early Christians that on the first Pentecost, Luke records the apostle Peter reciting a passage from the Old Testament:
...everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:21)5. Theologian Helmut Thielicke was fond of saying that the name we routinely apply to this parable is inappropriate. We should, he said, call it the parable of the Waiting Father.
And that's true. In a very real sense, the star of the parable isn't the son, who simply surrendered to the father's patient charity, what we might call amazing grace. So long as the boy is still living, the father doesn't give up on the young one's return. This is just like the Father in heaven: No matter how far we wander, He eagerly awaits our return.
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