The Parable of the Prodigal Son--I

The parable of the prodigal son, contained in these verses, is too long to reproduce here, yet it deserves your closest attention. Even today, as I was working through the details of the Greek text I was amazed by so many turns of phrases and images that emerge from the text. It is a story that can continually teach us, even if we think we know what it is about.

I offer you two essays on this passage. The first one describes what I call the "problem of the parable of the prodigal son" before providing two ways (a "traditional reading" and a "new" reading) you could present the parable in a Bible study or message. The second essay combs through the text of the passage, stopping off to look at the rich language and powerful story-telling technique used by Jesus. In the second essay, then, I am a sort of hermeneutical "tour guide," pointing out for you the interesting "rock formations" and other features of the Biblical landscape.

The Problem of the Parable of the Prodigal Son

In a word, the problem of the parable is that the hearers of it today are primarily "elder brothers" and not "younger sons." The parable is taught and preached to those "on the inside," i.e., those who have been faithful members of churches for years and decades. The primary hearers of this text in our day are the faithful workers, are the ones who haven't squandered their money in loose living, are the ones who get there early to turn on the coffee and stay late to make sure the kitchen is cleaned up. How can this passage speak to those Christians since it seemingly is written to emphasize the grace of the father towards the wayward son?

There are two principal ways you can handle this dilemma. One way to do it is to try to consider all of us prodigals even though it doesn't look like that is often the case. I remember a pastor I had in the 1970s take this approach to the (at the time) new phenomenon of liberation theology. The basic assumption of liberation theology was that there were oppressed and there were oppressors, and that Christ came to liberate the oppressed. The only problem was that this quasi-Marxist analysis tended to result in the hearers of the message being "oppressors." Indeed, most of the hearers around me had advanced degrees and were leaders in their fields--hardly the stuff of being oppressed. But the preacher put us all in the oppressed category so that we could be freed by Jesus. After all, you need to be in that category to be liberated. So, you can take that kind of approach with the parable today; you can sing the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and emphasize the verse which says, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love..."

I don't think that this is a very satisfying way of handling the parable because it leads to the question of who the older brother represents. If we all are prodigals, then the older brother is just some kind of curmudgeonly old guy who is more of a caricature than a real person. But the care taken in Luke's description of the older brother belies this approach. He is meant to be a real "type" of person, whose character I will delineate in the next essay.

The other way you can handle it is to emphasize that the parable is really about the elder son. I love the Greek word used to describe the elder son. He is called the presbuteros huios, the "Presbyterian son." I say that because my roots and ordination are in that denomination, and I have met many an 'older son' there over the years. However, if you choose to emphasize the reaction of the older son, you really have a lot to work with. In this case you see the mercy of God at work in teaching a lesson to the one who has always had everything of God's and alway done the right thing.

Two Possible "Outlines"

Thus, if I were to preach a "traditional" message on this passage I would emphasize three points: (1) the Anatomy of the Younger Son's Actions; (2) The Father's Response; (3) The Elder Son's Indignation. The heart of this message would be the unexpectedly powerful mercy of God. We cannot stray too far; we cannot burn through the inheritance so much that there isn't enough mercy still in God to offer us a place at the divine table. If we did a more traditional sermon the emphasis would be on the "lost and found" langauge in v. 32. And, you could make another potent point. One of the interesting dances of language in the parable is on the multiple appearances of "your son," "your brother" language. Let's go through the list:

v. 24. The father says "this son of mine" was dead..
v. 27. A servant says to the older brother, "Your brother has come..."
v. 30. The elder brother says to the father, "this son of yours.."
v. 32. The father says to the olde brother, "this brother of yours..."

There are all kinds of relational triangles in these words.

A Different Message

I would tend to preach or teach with a different emphasis. Mine would be on the elder brother. I find him increasingly to be the more interesting character of the two sons for me. What is it like to "stay on the farm," to do the right thing, to be at the father's beck and call? What kind of things does that tend to do in one's mind, to work into the marrow of one's being? I would make two major points: (1) the character of the older brother; (2) the father's "handling" of the brother.

Two things that leap out to me regarding the older brother's character are in v. 29. Indeed, the first 10 words in the Greek open up a world of hurt and entitlement that is the assumed world of the older brother. First he says, "Behold I have slaved for you so many years..." The Greek word used is douleuo, the typical term for slavery in the Greek world. This one word captures the elder son's world view. He is a son but feels like a slave. Isn't that a message that can go right to the heart of our hearers, and ourselves, today? It mirrors the tendency and capacity of the human mind to interpret its condition in the most negative terms. We in America are rich, but many people live their lives thinking of how poor they are. We have rich scenery around us, wonderful gifts of learning, and treasures of all kinds in people that come into our lives, but we think of ourselves as poor. The older brother sees himself in this way. Second, he says, "I have not once transgressed your commandment." Ah, that is what is on his mind. Life is all about following commandments and keeping them. Indeed, he interprets his younger brother's action in demanding a share of the inheritance to be an example of breaking a commandment. But it really isn't. It is an insult to the father, but it isn't a breaking of the law. Nevertheless, since law and duty and slavery are the major mental categories of the older brother, he tends to see everything in life through those lenses. The younger brother has broken commandments, unlike the elder brother. And, the implication is, he has gotten off scot-free! How unjust is that!

The Father's Reaction

The heart of the message will be how the father responds to the elder son. In the words of the hymn "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy," we have:

"For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man's mind,
And the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind."

This will be at the heart of the Father's response to the elder son. I would emphasize the words which entitle this essay: "All that I have is yours" (15:31). The problem of the older son is that he has forgotten the mercy of God. He tends to see his life as one of service that has, over the years, become interpreted as slavery. In seeing one's life in this way we lose the capacity to understand mercy. We lose the capacity to recognize the riches that we do have because we are always focusing on what we don't have. The father's response to the Son in v. 31 stresses the fact that the son always had what the prodigal is getting now. "Child (note that he doesn't say, 'my son') you are alway with me, and all that is mine is yours." Emblazon that on the name tag of every elder son in the congregation, and let your preaching reflect the wild and hugely generous love of God--the love that is showered on the prodigal. If that can be done, then the interest in the younger son will increase. And not because the elder sons want to live that life, but because they see something in the father's mercy that they want to embrace anew.

The next essay looks at the flow of this most powerful passage.

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