Rediscovering The Prodigal Son

What happens when you take a bible story you’ve heard a million times before and you find out it has a back story, except no one ever told you the back story?

I’ll tell you what happens, you get all excited and practically fall off your chair and start calling everyone you know and you talk too loud and use really big hand gestures even though the people on the other end of the phone can’t see you. That’s what happens!

So really, how many times have you heard the story of the prodigal son? You know, the one where the son gets all highfalutin and takes off with his inheritance and loses his shirt and ends up feeding pigs and then goes home with the intention of groveling to his dad but his dad welcomes him back with a ring, a robe and a feast and his older brother has a freak fest?

Yeah, that one.

I know you’ve heard it more than once. BUT! Did you know there’s a back story? Did you know that the people to whom Jesus told this story in Luke 15 knew the back story and that he just about blew their socks off with this one?

Well if you did, why didn’t you tell me? Cuz I didn’t know the back story and it’s so cool.

Here it is……..

In Luke 15 Jesus is in Jerusalem. Hoards of people are following him around and the Pharisees are watching him like a hawk. He starts talking to them in parables. (Parables, as you may recall, are stories with a purpose and a lesson embedded in them.)

So, there’s Jesus telling parables. He tells one about a lost sheep, another about a lost coin, and then he tells a story about a rebellious son. Now remember, Jesus is talking to Jews here, not Christians, not Gentiles, Jews.

He’s talking to Jews who know the law. They really know it. They have studied it. It is ingrained in them. It is the lifeblood of their community and the central focus of their lives. It’s all they think about. Think of it like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the first century. It’s the thing.

In knowing the law Jesus’ listeners know that there are 613 laws or commandments by which they are required to live their lives. And one of them is found in Deuteronomy 21:18-21.

If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail, his father and mother must seize him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his city. They must declare to the elders of his city, “Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say – he is a glutton and drunkard.” Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge out wickedness from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

Dueteronomy 21:18-21 (NET)

Wait. What? I think I’ve heard of this stubborn and rebellious son.

The son in Jesus’ parable basically told his father that he wished he were dead when he asked for his inheritance. By asking for it early, before his father had passed he was communicating his utter contempt for his father.

By law, what’s written in Deuteronomy 21, the father had the obligation and right to take his son to the city gate and have him stoned for his rebellion. But instead, he gave him his money and sent him on his way. (Keep this in your head for later.)

After much time passed the son returned home broken, dejected, and in utter ruin. He knew he was taking a huge risk by even going home but at that point, he had nothing to lose. If he didn’t try he would starve to death. If he did, he ran the risk of being rejected by his family, banished, or even put to death.

He really had nothing to lose.

OK STOP!

Here is where the back story comes in.

NEWSFLASH Jesus didn’t just make this story up. Oh no. The story of the prodigal son was actually an oral story passed down by the rabbis and scholars throughout Judaism. It was a story that all Jews, Jewish men, in particular, knew from their study of the Torah.

Jesus knew it. Everyone knew it.

The story probably came from the time of the Babylonian exile. When the Jews were getting ready to return to Israel after their time in Babylon the rabbis began to establish rules and regulations for living back in their homeland: Rules for citizens, rules for families, rules for living in community.

This story, of the prodigal son, was one of the ways they taught how to live in peace within their community.

Are you getting this?

The Jews knew the story Jesus started to tell. They had heard it all their lives. But they also knew it the way they had been taught it so they were expecting Jesus to tell it like this:

The son took off with the father’s money. He dissed his dad, big time. He completely turned against him. Then, when the son returned the father was not waiting for him. He is not watching for him. There is no robe, ring, or party. Instead, in the original story, the father opens the door and then slams it in the son’s face.

Then, get this, the older brother praises the father and gives him kudos for making the prodigal son an example to the community of how a son must be treated. A son like that should be turned out and disowned so that the community could continue to live in peace and a bad apple wouldn’t be living among them.

WHAAAAAAAAAT?

Yeah, totally serious. This is what happens in the original story.

Flashback to Jesus. Just think how excited the Pharisees were when Jesus started telling this story. They were proud that Jesus knew his Torah and the teachings surrounding it. Imagine what happened when he turned the tables on them and retold the story with this new, revolutionary ending!

Jesus’ ending included grace. Wide-open-armed, bear-hug-embracing grace. The father was waiting, anticipating, expectantly searching for his son to come home.

And this is just what God the Father does for us.

The implications of this are huge.

Jesus didn’t tell this story to make his listeners feel good. He told this story to change the world as everyone around him knew it. He shook up the establishment. He changed the ending of a classic story and it made all the difference.

It still makes all the difference. 

No longer do you have to worry about God the Father slamming the door in your face. He will not tell you that you are too bad, too poisoned, too far gone to be forgiven.

No, when He sees you coming He will run out to meet you, wrap you in a big bear hug and then throw you a party to end all parties. If you’ve ever dreamed of being a princess – here’s your chance.

Hopefully, this new take on an old, familiar story hits you right between the eyes today.

God wants you. Regardless of how you have rejected Him or turned your back on Him. He’s waiting for you to come home.

Welcome!

Now, it’s your turn. Grab your Bible and take another look at this story. You can find it in the book of Luke in the New Testament. Try reading it in more than one version.

Luke 15: 11-32

Ask the Lord to show you what He wants you to learn and know from this passage.

The message here is grace. Right? Yes, right. Now it’s time to start putting this amazing grace into practice.

Think about someone you could easily go a whole year without seeing. Grace, sister. Don’t be the older brother – wishing for that person to get his or her due. Be the father. Open your arms.

C’mon, you can do it – a little wider… a little more……

Now think about all the grace the Father gave you – poor, rebellious, despicable you. Give it to that person. All of it, don’t hold back.

Who else do you need to extend a little G-R-A-C-E to? Don’t put it off. Do it today!

When you find yourself slipping back into your old, dirty-clothed self remember the old story no longer applies. Jesus revolutionized it. It’s been made new. You’ve been made new.

Extending grace takes practice. I’ll be the first to admit, it’s not easy. You will probably be really bad at it in the beginning, but the more you do it, the better you get at it.

No, it’s not fun. Nobody likes to change. But you’ve been made new. You threw off your dirty clothes.  Don’t put them back on. Be the princess you were created to be. Love. Extend GRACE. Be Jesus to the person who needs it. You know who they are.

Photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash