Luke 15:1 Now
the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers
of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." 3 Then Jesus told them this
parable: "There was a man who had two
sons. 12 The younger one said to
his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his
property between them. 13
"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for
a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything,
there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to
a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with
the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 "When he came to his senses,
he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I
am starving to death! 18 I will
set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against
heaven and against you. 19 I am
no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired
servants.' 20 So he got up and
went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw
him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms
around him and kissed him. 21
"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against
you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the
best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill
it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24
For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So
they began to celebrate. 25
"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house,
he heard music and dancing. 26
So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 'Your brother has come,' he
replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back
safe and sound.' 28 "The
older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and
pleaded with him. 29 But he
answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never
disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could
celebrate with my friends. 30
But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes
comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' 31 " 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and
everything I have is yours. 32
But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and
is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "
For the 4th
Sunday of Lent (Year C) we turn our attention to one of the most well known,
and usually beloved, passages of all of Scripture, the so-called Parable of the
Prodigal Son. The paragraph heading in the TNIV translation calls it the
"Parable of the lost son" which actually fits better with the rest of
chapter 15. This parable, after all, is rightly understood within the context
of the other two parables of the chapter. It begins with the fact that the
Pharisees are murmuring (KJV translation) that proper boundaries aren't
being maintained; Jesus is consorting with the riff-raff.
A sidenote
comment... while I typically prefer the more up-to-date translations such as
the TNIV, every now and then I have to admit that a sacrifice gets made in the
process of updating. The KJV pretty consistently translates the Hebrew 'tluwnah' (see Exodus 16:8) and the Greek 'diagogguzo' (see above, Luke 15:2) as MURMUR. Other translations,
however, seem to bounce around. Sometimes it's grumble, or complain, or mutter,
etc. etc. And while I will grant that often times the context can introduce
different nuances of the word, there is a THEOLOGY behind the fact that it's
really only one word that's being used (well, one in Hebrew & one in
Greek). The point is this... the theology behind the word is that God is
doing something gracious in the midst of people and the response is to murmur! In the case of the wilderness
wandering, God was graciously sustaining the lives of his people in the middle
of nowhere. Their murmuring was all about not desiring to live by the gracious
hand of God; they preferred self reliance, even if it meant returning to Egypt
and enslavement. In the case of Luke 15 the murmuring is even more intense. God
in the flesh has come; Like the story of divine visitation with Adam in the
cool of the day in the garden, God has come down in Jesus of Nazareth, with a
gracious desire to be with all of his children--even the marginalized ones. And
this elicits MURMURING on the part of the legalists.
In
response Jesus tells 3 consecutive parables: The Lost Sheep; The Lost Coin; and
The Lost Son. In all 3 great efforts, great love, and great GRACE are shown.
Taken as a group, the Parable of the Lost Son stands out, however. Regarding
the Lost Sheep, the shepherd calls
together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I
have found my sheep which was lost !' (v6) Regarding the Lost Coin, the
woman calls together her friends and
neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had
lost! (v9). While the text doesn't say one way or the other, the flow of
the story seems to indicate that friends and neighbors DO REJOICE with the
shepherd and the woman. But the trilogy takes a turn in the story of the lost
son where the invitation to come in & rejoice is refused: "But he became angry and was not
willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him.(v28).
It is at the refusal of the older son to rejoice with the father
that we come full circle to the murmuring of the Pharisees. God is allowed to
be loving, but not too loving; gracious
but not too gracious; merciful, but
not too merciful. It strikes me that
as common as this story has become to the collective Christian consciousness,
we need to KEEP HEARING IT. It is a great sadness that "Church
people" are known primarily for being judgmental, vengeful, hateful,
narrow-minded bigots. Many Christians would be just as scandalized and murmur
just as loudly today if Jesus were seen consorting with today's version of tax
collectors and sinners. How can we continue "ignoring our Heavenly
Father's pleading?"
cheers,
TM
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