By Neil Earle
David A. Redding wrote that “when our space ships take their place on the shelf beside the steam engine and the buggy whip, when the last sun sets, this story will still be young” (The Parables He Told, page 15).
In our survey of Jesus’ parables we have come at last to what many consider the greatest of them all – the Prodigal Son. “Prodigal” does not mean “Wasteful.” It comes from “prodigious” – a foolish young son who spent prodigiously. It could better be called the Lost Son or the Loving Father since it is in a chapter (Luke15) which features three lost items – a lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost boy.
The trigger for this grand trilogy is the critical questioning of the enemies of Jesus – “Why does he eat with sinners?” (Luke 15:2).
Answer: Because Jesus has a lot of time for sinners.
You see, when Jesus came into the first century world preaching the message of the Kingdom of God, the people he met had their own ideas about what that Kingdom meant.
But Jesus talked of a different Kingdom, a Kingdom where the first were last, the last were first; where women were as good as men and sometimes better; where the poor and social outcasts were able to feast; where rich men suffered in hell while starving people went to Abraham’s bosom; where the greatest ruler was the greatest servant.
This was an Upside Down Kingdom to be sure.
To make it clearer and to defend his message from critics he told those marvelous stories, stories that showed a lot about what God was really like, what his Kingdom was about and what he expected. The stories cut through the fluff and the theology to get to the heart of it all.
So begins the well-known words: “A certain man had two sons…”
Many details escape us from over-familiarity. Note they both got their inheritance earlier than normal because of this request (15:12). We know the rest: the young boy impulsively and foolishly wastes his living with harlots and false friends. He sinks so low as to work with the pigs – anathema to the strict religious Jews in Jesus’ audience (verse 15). Finally he comes to his senses. “I am starving to death! I will set out and go to my Father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against God and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants” (Luke 15:18-19, NEB).
This was real repentance, no doubt about that. But we puny-brained sticklers for details (“God only forgives upon repentance!”) should remember something. Real repentance is a gift of God. It is not something we engineer on our own. It is a grace conferred by the goodness of God (Romans 2:4) who loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). So even the act of repentance by which we return to God is stimulated and set in motion by the loving activity of the Holy Spirit gently beating against our thick skulls. “Prevenient grace,” if you want the technical term.
The boy comes back. Again we know what happens, the whole world knows what happens. The father meets him, and the boy gives his sincere little speech – except… except the father won’t let him say, Let me be one of your paid servants. No. No. NO! Not at all. In God’s Kingdom real repentance leads to restoration. In that society the ring, the robe and the sandals signified being promoted to high estate, just as Joseph experienced when he was called from prison (Genesis 41:42). There is merriment and feasting.
All’s well that end well, yes?
Well…this is where Jesus’ brilliance as a teacher and story teller really shines.
The older brother comes in from the field. He hears the sound of music. He is angry. “Where’s my calf, you’ve never made a feast for me,” he hurls at his father. He then incriminates himself in the eyes of Jesus with the words, “I never once disobeyed your orders” (Luke 15:29). The lesson here is, obedience makes you a good citizen in man’s kingdom, it may not count as much as we’d like in the Upside Down Kingdom. God looks for the heart – heartfelt obedience, not loveless performance.
To many commentators the reaction of the older brother is the real point of the parable. The acknowledged parable expert, Joachim Jeremias, says that “the parable was addressed to men who were like the older brother, men who were offended at the gospel” (The Parables of Jesus, page 131). To them Jesus has been showing by his words and deeds, The Hour has come. The Kingdom is at hand. The Great Reversal is here. “Behold,” says Jesus to his sour critics, “the greatness of God’s love for sinners. The harvest is being reaped. The spiritually dead are rising to new life. The lost ones are coming home and God – well, God is throwing a party. Rejoice along with me!”
Rejoicing. This is not the reaction of Jesus’ critics. They are like the older brother whom Mark Twain called a “good man in the worst sense of the word.” Redding adds that when you see the attitude of the older brother you see perhaps why the younger son left home! Those are all good points. This is one of Jesus’ double-edged parables, one where the surprise twist comes at the end, like the laborers who labored all day and only got the same reward as those hired near quitting time.
Go figure.
If you’re a legalist it’s hard to trust this God. You can never depend on this Judge to go all out work for a conviction. This God is exquisitely merciful. The Psalmist said his loving kindnesses were better even than life. So it is not wrong to drink in and enjoy the obvious meaning of the story – God’s ocean-wide love for sinners, repentant and otherwise. What a story. What a Gospel. What a storyteller. What a Savior! Remind anyone who has doubts about what God is really like to reread the story of the Prodigal Son. You can’t miss the lesson. God is definitely biased towards sinners. Try him, you’ll see.