Prodigal Pasta...

On Sunday we visited what might be the most commonly taught / preached / discussed / analyzed parable in the New Testament- the parable of the Prodigal Son. Jesus taught a lot when he went on His roll of "Lost" parables in Luke 15. We discussed some of this on Sunday. Here is a quick recap.

The first two verses give us the context for the telling of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son. It seems the Pharisees were grumbling, (again), about Jesus welcoming sinners and tax collectors. Like usual, Jesus knew what they were thinking and saying, and their attitude and response to how Jesus treated sinners was what prompted the telling of the parables.

With that in mind we would have to conclude that there was a message to the Pharisees in the telling of the "lost" parables, and indeed there was. More about that in a minute.

There are some interesting things to note in the first two parables. Both the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin are about people who lost possessions. Granted- they are valuable possessions, but they are possessions nonetheless. But the point that Jesus seems to be making in the first two parables is that the way we feel about finding a valued possession is how all of heaven feels about the repentance of lost people.

The fact that Jesus started the first parable with the words, "Suppose one of you..." shows us that Jesus is trying to get the people who are listening to identify with the feeling He is describing. He could have started by saying, "How would you feel if you lost one of your sheep?" And, once He invoked the feeling, He followed up by expressing the idea that the way people feel about finding lost things is how heaven feels about finding lost people- there is great rejoicing when the lost is found.

In fact, in the first two parables, one could even say that there was a rather extravagant search effort and a rather extravagant response to the finding of the lost item. Reasoning from a strictly human frame of reference, I am not sure I would leave 99 sheep unprotected to go find one. But "heaven" would. I am not sure, if I found one lost coin, that I would throw a party that would cost me several coins. But heaven would.

And so, perhaps we can agree that the first two parables help to establish the supreme value that God has for each human life- that for even one lost human, God would launch an extensive search and, when found, there would be extravagant celebration.

And then comes the third parable in the set. The prodigal son. This one is different. And then its not. The third parable drives home some of the same things, but in a little different way.

In the Father, we see one who allows free will in letting the son seek his own way for a time. We see one who is continually watching for the return of the son who walked away. We find one who is so familiar with his son that "while he was still a long way off" he knew it was his son who approached. We find one who is full of grace- ready to forgive when the repentant heart returns. Um, I think we see God.

In the younger son we often see ourselves- at least at one point in our lives. We have walked away, we have been foolish, we "come to our senses" and returned to our father. But also in the younger son we see a model of true repentance- the son returned to his father and did not bring a list of demands. He did not make any claim to his place in the family, for he know he had forfeited it. He was truly repentant.

In the older son, we see that attitude of the Pharisees- that which Jesus was trying to point out in the telling of this story. The older son had the blessing of the father right before him the whole time. He could have had a party any time he wanted. He had all of the father's resources at the palm of his hand. But rather than enjoy being with the father, he chose to be jealous at the return of the son. He was upset because he did not feel he was being rewarded for his "hard work". And so we see that the older son in the story thought that the blessing of the father should be attached to the works of the son. The Pharisees thought the same thing- that blessing came from outward works- from following every jot and tittle of the law.

In the end I think the parable is really about relationship. At one time or another, neither son wanted to be with the father. They wanted to party and celebrate with their friends and not with the father. Apparently they did not think that they could find joy with the father. They did not think they could celebrate with the father. They both wanted to celebrate apart from the father.

And so, perhaps the thing that we learn here is that, no matter how good things might look elsewhere, being home with the Father is to be desired above all.

Just Keep Swimming...

Jon

Pasta for Your Thoughts...

When it came right down to it, I couldn't talk Melanie into painting her face. So disappointed...

However, on our way to the Colt's game we did continue to discuss this parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16. One of Mel's comments was, "That's just kind of a strange parable..." I have to agree. It is not one that just jumps right out and says, "Here is your bible lesson of the day!" The bible lesson is in there, it just doesn't jump out immediately.

I mean, when you read it, there are all kinds of things that seem to not jive with what you would expect from the bible, (thus the tension of the passage). Here we have a property owner who pretty much gets hosed twice by a less than exemplary manager... and commends him for it! If we make the logical leap that you would make with most parables and assume that the property owner in the story represents God, then we have God condoning dishonest and irresponsible behavior. Not likely.

So the inescapable conclusion is that the property owner does not represent God in this story. And that is what leads us to the idea that this is another one of those "parables of contrast." The behavior of the characters in the story shows us not how we ought to act, but how we ought NOT act. The manager was irresponsible with his masters' resources in the first place, and that drove him to further action that only made things worse. Faithful managers of the master's resources find no need to take the kind of action shown in the parable.

But, the manager did figure one thing out, (well, ok, two things). The manager knew his days were numbered and he knew that the money was going to run out. The property owner had given the manager a period of time to "get accounts in order", and then the manager would not have access to it, (the money) any more.

Are we really much different? In terms of our life on this earth, our days are numbered. And the access we have to the earthly riches around us will end. (Of course, we look forward to a day when we are surrounded by the riches of heaven which makes this world pale in comparison.) So we come to these two conclusions- we won't be here forever and we won't take anything with us when we go. Nothing really new there. But, these two conclusions should move us to action. We are not going to take the earthly riches with us, so we may as well use them while we are here for the best purpose we can find.

We can afford to be kind and generous with what we have. Jesus always was. And you will notice that Jesus did not offer himself only for those who He knew would respond. He gave His life once and for ALL. If He can do that, then we can use
what we have now to help people along in this life. And, to bring them to Christ.

I want to return for a moment to my analogy from Sunday that came from, (gasp), Star Wars. When Han Solo says, "Thanks for coming after me", it sounds pretty routine. Like, "Thanks for the ride". But the truth is that Luke, Leia, Chewy, and Lando went to extremes to get Han out of clutches of Jabba the Hut. There was an elaborate plan, they got thermal detonators, they had voice changers, they had disguises, they traveled for light years... this was no routine thing! They put it out there! Not everything went perfectly, but they laid it all out- they were all in- they sold out for the cause. And because they did, Han was freed.

Again I say, we are not so different. There are people in the clutches of Satan all over the world. We can use the resources we have in this world to free them. The challenge for all of us is, just how sold out will we be?

We all have to answer the question of how we will use our resources here. We have to provide for our families. We have to render to Caesar. But one thing that comes from this parable in Luke 16 is that we must also manage to use worldly wealth in such a way as to make friends in heaven.

Just Keep Swimming...

Jon