Coming Up Sunday, February 1

As we continue our study of the parables of Jesus, we come to another often-told one: the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This story, found in Luke 15, follows two other parables, the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, which make clear the central meaning (at least to Luke): this son was lost, but now is found.

But that is only the meaning of the first half of the story. When the older brother is introduced -- and is angry at his father fawning over the prodigal -- he changes the meaning of the story. In some ways, this is a story about the son that was never lost too.

An comparison with another parable makes this clear. In Matthew 20, Jesus tells of a man who hires day laborers for his vineyard. As the day progresses, he hires more and more workers, some at the third hour, some at the sixth hour, some at the ninth hour, and even some at the eleventh hour (yes, that's where that saying comes from) of a twelve hour day. When the day is over, he orders that all of the men, from those that worked one hour to those that worked all twelve, receive a full days wage.

The point of the vineyard story is that God will accept all who come to him, regardless of how much of their "day" -- read life -- they devote to God's work. And no one has the ability to question or challenge God's justice regarding this. When the workers who worked all twelve hours complain, the master replies, 'I paid you a day's wage for a day's work. How have I wronged you?' But in the case of the prodigal son, the point of the story is not just that God can reward people as he sees fit, on an individual basis, but that there might be some rewards that we don't fully appreciate.

BONUS - Here's a bit of information that likely won't be in the sermon, but which you might find interesting about the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Considering this story this week, I've realized that Jesus is using a Jewish context, rather than a Greco-Roman context. Under Jewish practice, both sons could receive inheritances from the father, though those inheritances would likely be unequal with the elder son receiving more. Under Roman law, the elder son would likely have inherited the whole estate, leaving the younger son to earn his own way (usually via the military). In the parable, the younger son follows the Greco-Roman practice of leaving his father's house to make his way, but it seems that he receives a Jewish inheritance to do so. (And, to confuse you more, I've slightly simplified the context in my description above.)

This gives some motive for the younger son's request, which might seem to us to be rather presumptuous. It really isn't. In a larger sense, however, it raises questions about the intended audience of this parable (and the gospel of Luke as a whole). Many historians and scholars have speculated that this history -- Luke-Acts -- was meant to explain Christianity to Gentile converts, but this parable (and some others) would have baffled such converts. But for our purposes, such details are probably more distracting than helpful. At least, though, it is probably good to understand that the socio-economic particulars of this story were much more complex in the first century than we recognize today.