prodigal son
 

Mike asked that I start a separate thread to discuss this after I mentioned it in another thread. Please feel free to post your own comments.

Read the parable of the prodigal son carefully. Was it about the prodigal son? The Father? Or the son who stayed home? See Luke 15:11-31

This parable can only be understood in terms of the audience. Jesus was speaking to the pharisees and the teachers of the law (Luke 15:1-2). He first addressed them with the parable of the lost sheep which the shepherd found and rejoiced over. He then told the parable of the lost coin in which the woman searched diligently until she found the one she had lost. Then he tells the parable of the prodigal son and uses it to indirectly challenge the pharisees and teachers. He was pointing out their failure to rejoice over the return of their brethren. The three parables have to be considered together to fully understand the meaning of the prodigal son part.

This requires a bit of delving into the class system present in Jerusalem at that time. The pharisees and sadducees were two religious sects dominating religious life, both accepted the law of Moses, but they differed over questions about resurrection after death, angles, and other details. A "lawyer" was a person who studied and practiced the law of Moses, a teacher was one who knew the law thoroughly enough to teach it to others. There was a sharp division between the average person and the upper class - composed mostly of pharisees. The common people were referred to by pharisees as "sinners" with great disdain.

The parable begins with the son getting his inheritance and going into a far country to enjoy himself. He wastefully spends until the money is gone and he begins to starve. You would think at this point that the parable is about a wastrel son who squandered his inheritance. It does not condemn the son, but distinctly points out his foolishness. Who did the prodigal son symbolize?

Then the father recognizes his son from afar and calls for a rich robe and a ring for his finger and to kill the fatted calf to celebrate. You would think at this point the parable is about the father is overjoyed to have his son returned in good health. The father allegorically represents God who is happy to see his children return to him.

The older brother - who inherited the bulk of his fathers possessions under Jewish law - then enters the picture griping and grumbling because he was never praised, not given even a goat to celebrate with his friends. Jesus uses this older brother to portray the attitude of the pharisees and teachers as not conforming to God's law. This is a repeated theme in his teaching, pointing out where the religious leaders had deviated from God's law. He used phrases such as "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel" and "get the log out of your own eye before complaining about the splinter in your brother's eye". So at the end, the tale of the prodigal son is about the older brother who stayed home and always did what he was supposed to do, but was unable to accept that his wayward brother had returned. It is this failure to accept that is the thrust of the tale of the prodigal son.

Did you ever do something that you regretted? Something that you wish with all your heart you had not done, perhaps that the person you hurt would forgive you? If that person were the brother who stayed home, do you think he would ever forgive you?

When I was taught this parable at a young age, I actually felt that the fatted calf got the worst deal in all of this. (I was forced to eat meat while still a boy but became a vegetarian as soon as I could.)

But aside from that, I was quite impressed by the forgiveness being shown and hoped that the son who stayed at home would come to forgive too (it was never clear to me if he did or not).

[QUOTE=Fusion_power;380539]... but they differed over questions about ... angles ...[/QUOTE]King Mitre would be upset about that. :razz:

[QUOTE]This parable can only be understood in terms of the audience. Jesus was speaking to the pharisees and the teachers of the law (Luke 15:1-2). He first addressed them with the parable of the lost sheep which the shepherd found and rejoiced over. He then told the parable of the lost coin in which the woman searched diligently until she found the one she had lost. Then he tells the parable of the prodigal son and uses it to indirectly challenge the pharisees and teachers. He was pointing out their failure to rejoice over the return of their brethren. The three parables have to be considered together to fully understand the meaning of the prodigal son part.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for another very interesting exposition on biblical topics. It certainly adds a lot of depth to the story.

Those "angles" will get you every time. Spell check does not find context errors like angels that become angles. :)

[QUOTE=retina;380542][QUOTE=Fusion_power;380539]... but they differed over questions about ... angles[/QUOTE]
King Mitre would be upset about that. :razz:[/QUOTE]

When I first hit that snip I thought perhaps the OP was just being obtuse. :)

More seriously - being away from home at present, I lack my handy-dandy Harpers Study Bible as a reference, so shall rely on [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Prodigal_Son]Wikipedia[/url] to provide some needed additional details.

To me the first and most important question one should ask is "was the prodigal son genuinely remorseful, or did he behave for a while and then sell the fancy robe and the ring and go on another bender?" This being a parable rather than a TV drama, the text does not address the latter question, but does indicate genuine remorse:
[quote]Upon receiving his portion of the inheritance, the younger son travels to a distant country and wastes all his money in extravagant living. Immediately thereafter, a famine strikes the land; he becomes desperately poor and is forced to take work as a swineherd. (This would have been abhorrent to Jesus' Jewish audience, who considered swine unclean animals.) When he reaches the point of envying the food of the pigs he is watching, he finally comes to his senses:
[i]
But when he came to himself he said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.'"

He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran towards him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
— Luke 15:17-20, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_English_Bible]World English Bible[/url][/i][/quote]

As to the older brother, it would be my hope that he would experience some hard life lessons as result of his own personal failings at some point, and come to understand redemption and the power of forgiveness.

Lastly, I can't help but wonder whether another intended conveyance of the parable is the idea that "the most important lessons are the ones learned the hard way."

Thanks for the food for thought, Fusion!

[QUOTE=ewmayer;380597]When I first hit that snip I thought perhaps the OP was just being obtuse. :)[/QUOTE]That is acute joke. My first reflex was to make the same joke but upon reflection I decided a plane response would be better.

The parable of the prodigsl pun(ster)"?

One of the things I enjoy about this forum is that we can have intelligent conversation and see humor even in topics we would not usually discuss.

Prodigal punster indeed! Noting for the record that Ewmayer cannot spell Prodigal any more than I can spell angel.

[QUOTE=Fusion_power;380603]Noting for the record that Ewmayer cannot spell Prodigal any more than I can spell angel.[/QUOTE]

Indeed - a vivid example of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law]Muphry's law[/url]. Did Jesus have a parable illustrating that?

I think that the parable of the talents is pretty good.
When I worked at Northrop, I was visiting my boss' house when some Jehovah's Witnesses came by. I invited them back to the garage where my boss was doing Tim Allen style tool stuff and got the conversation going on a discussion of the parable of the sower. My boss tolerated about five minutes of this before turning on a very loud grinder.