The Prodigal God Part 1

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

"Most readings of this parable have concentrated on the flight and return of the younger brother- the "Prodigal Son". That misses the real message of the story, however, because there are two brothers, each of whom represents a different way to be alienated from God, and a different way to seek acceptance into the kingdom of heaven."

Two groups of people are present at this teaching..."Now the tax collectors and 'sinners' were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law..."

The younger brother is the sinner or tax collector. They have left "home" or "respectable society" to live however they want...wild living. The older brother is the religious leaders. "They held to the traditional morality of their upbringing. They studied and obeyed the Scripture. They worshiped faithfully and prayed constantly."

The sinners "were gathering" to listen to Jesus. The religious were scrutinizing every move Jesus made, in this case, why he was eating with sinners and tax collectors. It is in answer to this question that Jesus tells this story.

"Through this parable Jesus challenges what nearly everyone has ever thought about God, sin and salvation. His story reveals the destructive self-centeredness of the younger brother's moralistic life in the strongest terms. Jesus is saying that both the irreligious and the religious are spiritually lost, both life-paths are dead ends, and that every thought the human race has had about how to connect to God has been wrong."

I love this quote!! "So whose side is Jesus on? In Lord of the Rings, when the hobbits ask the ancient Treebeard whose side he is on, he answers: 'I am not altogether on anybody's side, because nobody is altogether on my side...[But] there are some things, of course, whose side I'm altogether NOT on'."

"...religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him." (Luke 7, John 3-4, Luke 19 and Matthew 21:31) "If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think."