The Prodigal Son As Heard in Jesus Day

The last year of preparation for the Great Jubilee is 1999, and it has been dedicated to God the Father. Since the beginning of the year, Pope John Paul II has been heralding the good news of God's Fatherhood, and in doing so he has often drawn on Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. The story of the prodigal son captures the essence of the Gospel for the Holy Father, so much so that he never seems to tire of drawing forth rich insight and encouragement from this timeless tale.

The Pope compares the pilgrimage that will be made for the Jubilee year with the pilgrimage of the prodigal son back to his father's house. Indeed, he goes so far as to say, "The whole of the Christian life is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father." [1] Let's turn our attention to this favored story that reveals the nature of God's Fatherhood, and the story by which Jesus gives a road map to set us on the way home.

Although the story of the prodigal son is a familiar and favorite one, too often its retelling is done apart from its larger context in chapter 15 of Luke's Gospel. [2] The setting in which Jesus tells the story of the prodigal is at a seemingly large banquet. Jesus is dining with many "tax collectors and sinners," which prompts the Pharisees to murmur, "This man receives sinners and eats with them" (Lk. 15:1-2). This murmured comment provokes Jesus' teaching that follows in the remainder of chapter 15, of which the parable of the prodigal son is the climax. Why are the religious leaders of Israel scandalized by Jesus' table fellowship with sinners?

BAD TABLE MANNERS

The Pharisees represented the most popular and powerful movement in Judaism in the time of Jesus. The very name "Pharisee" is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic term, parush, which means separated ones. (Remember that Aramaic is a dialect of Hebrew, and Aramaic was the language of the Jews of Jesus' day.) The reason the Pharisees were called the separated ones is that their way of being Israel was defined by their attempt to be holy through separation from all things unclean and pagan. This vision of holiness did not allow for table fellowship with sinners. In the view of the Pharisees, to eat with sinners was to reject the call to be separate, to be holy. Indeed, one of the identifying characteristics of a Pharisee was how and with whom he ate. According to some scholars, of the 341 rabbinical laws that go back to the Pharisees of Jesus' day, 229 concern table fellowship. [3] How a meal was conducted was of great concern to the Pharisees, which is why Jesus' table fellowship will enkindle such heated controversy.

The Pharisees used exclusion to punish those who refused, or simply failed, to live by a strict adherence to the Torah. By ostracizing anyone who was not obedient to their teaching, or to the Torah, the Pharisees aimed at stamping out disobedience. This helps explain their remarkable anger and shock when Jesus eats with sinners. Such actions undermined their efforts, since eating with sinners signified, in their minds, acceptance of not simply of the sinner, but also of his sins.

Even more scandalous for the Pharisees was the question of how a prominent rabbi - not to mention a would-be prophet - could defile himself by eating with sinners. According to the Pharisees, to eat with someone ritually unclean made one unclean as well. Why does Jesus fly in the face of the social expectations of his time by eating with all the wrong people?

LOST AND FOUND

Jesus answers this question, as He so often does, by telling a story. In fact, He tells three stories that serve to explain why He is eating with sinners and why the Pharisees should quit their grumbling and pull up a seat at the table.

The first two stories are quite similar and serve to prepare the audience for the final, climactic story. In the first story, a shepherd sets out to find a lost sheep. The image of a shepherd seeking a lost sheep would make good sense to those familiar with the agrarian life of much of Israel. Sheep are rather stupid, and when grazing they move from one tuft of grass to the next without any sense of their surroundings. The role of the shepherd, therefore, was to guide the sheep and keep them from straying. If a sheep is lost, the shepherd is responsible for finding it. By juxtaposing his presence with sinners with a shepherd seeking a lost sheep, Jesus clarifies His motives for being at the banquet. More than that, Jesus is also showing how misguided the Pharisees' approach toward sinners is. The Pharisees were Israel's self-proclaimed shepherds. But rather than going out and seeking their lost sheep, the Pharisees' way of leading was to usher the flock away and separate them from the lost, and then lock the gate to the sheep pen so that the lost could not return. What kind of shepherd abandons his straying sheep? [4]

Images of sheep and shepherds evoke more than scenes from the rural landscape of Israel, they also serve to evoke the even more vivid and enduring scenes of Israel's Sacred Scriptures. Talk of a good shepherd would remind Jews of Psalm 23, where God Himself is described as a shepherd who leads His flock to safety and good pasture. In addition to Psalm 23, one would think of Ezekiel's poignant prophecy where God warns the leaders of Israel that they have been bad shepherds who have mislead and abandoned His sheep (Israel). God's solution to this problem is to take up the shepherding Himself: "I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out." (Ezek. 34:11). [5] This is exactly what the Father is doing through Jesus' fellowship and ministry with sinners (the lost). The story of the shepherd ends with a celebration which, Jesus dramatically illustrates, is the appropriate thing to do when the lost is found.

The second story is about a woman who searches for her lost coin. Again, the lost is found and friends are gathered to celebrate the good news. A strikingly similar pattern between the stories unfolds: lost - found - celebration. Each story closes with a celebration that what was once lost is found, and that is precisely what Jesus is doing at table, celebrating the return of the lost sheep of Israel to the Father. This pattern is also the lens through which we are to read the third and final story, the story of the prodigal son.

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN

The story begins with a father and his two sons. The younger son tactlessly demands his father to immediately "give me the share of property that falls to me" (Lk. 15:12). Even Jesus' audience of "tax collectors and sinners" would be stunned by such a bold request. In their culture, to ask a father for one's share of an inheritance was, in essence, saying, "Dad, why don't you just die and let me get on with my life, with the share of inheritance that is coming to me." [6] Inheritance was not normally distributed until the time when the father was on his deathbed. [7] The audacity of the son! How does the father react? Dying to himself and his property, he acts as though dead and gives his younger son his share of the inheritance. "Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had" (Lk. 15:13) and moved away. In other words, he took his share of the family property, liquidated it, and then quickly skipped town. Again, Jesus' audience would be aghast. Selling one's family land in agrarian Israel was no light matter. Selling off land that had been passed down through generations was nothing less than a betrayal of one's own family.

The prodigal son then journeys to "a far country" (Lk. 15:13). In Jewish terms, to be in a far country was synonymous with exile. For the Jews, only the Promised Land, the Holy Land, was to be the home for God's people. The Promised Land was the great blessing promised to Abraham, and to live outside of the Promised land was considered the worst of curses (cf. Deut. 28:64). To all ears, Jesus' story was now a story about sin and exile, a story familiar enough to every Jew. It seems like the prodigal son could not sink lower, and yet he does. Famine strikes and the prodigal finds himself destitute and hungry. Taking whatever work he can find, the prodigal takes a job feeding swine. Surely this would bring a gasp or two from the crowd, for the Jews saw swine as the most unclean animal.

The prodigal had left his father for freedom; he had sold his inheritance to purchase happiness. Now, however, instead of finding freedom, he has fallen into bondage and the lowest form of servitude, feeding swine. He sought pleasure, but found pain, as he longed for the bread that filled his father's table. [8] In telling the fate of the prodigal son, Jesus unveils the nature of sin. All sin, at its root, is an abandonment of Our Heavenly Father for the pursuit of freedom and pleasure (cf. Catechism, no. 397). In the story, sin is a rejection of sonship, and this is precisely what Jesus is trying to teach His audience of sinners, tax collectors, and all of us who hear this tale: Sin is a refusal to be faithful sons and daughters of Our Heavenly Father. [9] Instead of finding freedom and pleasure, however, the wayward son or daughter ends up empty and exiled. Freedom from the Father is simply slavery to sin. The prodigal, like a lost sheep, has moved from one pleasure to another, only to find himself lost and alone. Sin causes alienation, the worst form of which is a self-imposed exile from our Father.

BACK TO LIFE

The prodigal's plight had brought him to the depths of exile and shame. But from the depths a conversion occurs. The prodigal comes to his senses and resolves,

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants" (Lk. 15:18-19).

This marks a radical reversal in the story. Before, the son acted as though his father were dead, by leaving home and taking his share of the inheritance. Now, the son decides to act as though he were dead, intending to ask that his father treat him as just another hired hand and not as a son. The prodigal realizes the weight of his sin, and begins a journey home to his father. The journey of the prodigal, which is symbolic of the Christian life, is an overcoming of sin by returning to the Father. Sin is an abandonment of the Father, whereas repentance is the return. At this point, Jesus carefully describes the prodigal's return, "And he arose (anastas) and came to his father" (Lk. 15:20). The word here for "arose," anastas, is the same word used later to describe Jesus' resurrection (cf. Lk. 24:7). The significance is clear: Repentance and returning to the Father lead to a "resurrection."

While the son was on his way home, the father sees him from a distance "and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him" (Lk. 15:20). The prodigal is given the welcome not of a servant, but of a son. The father's acceptance of his wayward son is unexpected. Even before the prodigal can speak his words of repentance, his father gives him a kiss, the sign of shalom or peace. The father lavishes his son with further tokens of acceptance, welcoming him home with the best robe, a ring, and sandals. And like the climax of the two preceding parables, the father calls for the fatted calf and says, "'for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry" (Lk. 15:24). Just as in the two preceding parables, there is a celebration in honor of the lost being found.

SHARING HEAVEN'S JOY

Given the context of the story, the point of the parable comes into stark focus. Jesus is justifying His practice of celebrating with sinners and tax collectors by telling stories about the resulting celebration when the lost is found. Jesus' table fellowship with sinners and tax collectors is a celebration of the lost being found, the spiritually dead being resurrected. The return of the lost is celebrated, not only on earth, but also in heaven. Jesus makes this clear when he says, "I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance" (Lk 15:7). Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, I am feasting with sinners to celebrate their return to the Father! Jesus is playing the role of the father, accepting the prodigal sons back into the family, the People of God. Those who were once slaves to sin are welcomed back, like the prodigal son, into the Family of God.

What is the Pharisees' response? That is the final point of the parable. As the older son comes home from the field, he hears the celebration and calls a servant to find out what is going on. The servant tells him the story of his younger brother's return and reconciliation with the father. "But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him" (Lk. 15:28). Notice that the older son symbolically refuses to go "in" while the father comes "out" to where he is, hoping to bring him inside, home, with the younger son. "It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found" (Lk. 15:32).

The father's words to the older son are intended by Jesus to address the Pharisees who stand outside the banquet murmuring. Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son in the hope that the Pharisees will come in and join the celebration. The story functions both as an explanation of Jesus' table fellowship and as an invitation to the Pharisees to join Jesus and the prodigals at the family table. Thus, the last lines of the parable question the Pharisees' own questioning of Jesus' table fellowship: "[I]s it not fitting to make merry over the lost being found?"

Jesus ends the story there, not telling us what the response of the older son is. This is intentional, for Jesus is leaving the door open to the Pharisees. Like the prodigal's father, Jesus invites them to come in and celebrate with Him the return of the lost.

ENDNOTES

1. Pope John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, no. 49. Back to text.
2. This article is in part a reworking of my account of this parable in my book, Mission of the Messiah (Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing, 1998), 115-19. Back to text.
3. Marcus Borg makes this point, drawing on the work of Jacob Neusner, in Conflict, Holiness, and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1984), 7, 95. Back to text.
4. Jesus answers this question in Jn. 10:7-18. Back to text.
5. The whole context of Ezekiel 34 is relevant to Jesus' ministry of seeking the lost. See also Jer. 23:1-8. Back to text.
6. Kenneth E. Bailey gives an excellent account of the cultural context for Luke 15 in his book, Finding the Lost Cultural Keys to Luke 15 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1992), 112-14. Back to text.
7. "At the time when you end the days of your life, in the hour of death, distribute your inheritance" (Sir. 33:23). Back to text.
8. Bailey cites the penetrating observation of the Egyptian scholar, Ibrahim Sa 'id: "This means the younger son considered it a misfortune to live under his father's roof and that he tired of obedience to his father, choosing rather separation and pleasure. For indeed, sin in its origins is the seeking of distance from God" (113; cf. 127). Back to text.
9. As Scott Hahn observes, "The essence of sin is our refusal of divine sonship." A Father Who Keeps His Promises (Ann Arbor: Servant Publications, 1998), 20. Back to text.