Hear Then, the Parable

Parable of the Father and Two Sons: Retelling the Story

There once was a man who had two sons. Now, this old farmer had left everything to these sons in his will: the house, the farm, all the family heirlooms, and a decent (though not extravagant) sum of money in the bank. His youngest son just couldn’t wait for the day he’d inherit his share of his father’s possessions, but it seemed like the old man just wouldn’t die. He reached 60 and looked no worse for the wear. He reached 70 and was as spry as a chicken. 80 and 90 both came, and the old man looked as healthy as he’d ever had.

Finally, the younger son had had enough of it. “Won’t you just die already old man?” the son said to him one day in the tobacco fields. “I’m tired of living under your shadow all the time, I’m ready to move on with my life! Just die already!” Surprisingly, the old farmer stopped what he was doing and went straight to the bank. He had everything he owned divided up between his sons right then and there. The young son, having recieved his share of the inheritance, ran off to California. The older son, having seen all that went down, didn’t try to stop him. He quietly, but very happily, took his half of the inheritance too.

California was a very different place than the rural tobacco fields the younger son had grown up in. The younger son pawned off everything he’d inherited: the family land, grandma’s quilts and fine china, granny’s jewelry, all of it. With his newfound wealth, he lived like a king for a few years: he ate only the finest avocados, he bought a nice new sports car, the works.

But, very suddenly, the market crashed. The younger son found himself with an empty bank account, and was forced to find work cleaning bathrooms, working with sewage, and all other number of nasty things. He barely made enough to pay rent in California, so he was forced to rummage around for left overs in the city dumpsters. Finally, he remembered where he’d come from. He decided going back home and asking his father for a part time job on the farm would be better than this. So he packed what little he had left and caught a greyhound back to the tobacco farm.

On the way, he planned out this whole speech to give to his father, but when he stepped off the greyhound his father sprinted up to him and wrapped in a big bear hug before he could get a word out. Before he knew it, His father had dressed him new clothes, and had even given him keys to everything on the farm. He threw a big bonfire party that night to celebrate.

The Older brother, however, didn’t join in the festivities. When the old man noticed he wasn’t around anymore, he went looking until he found him. “Why aren’t you at the bonfire son?” he asked. “Are you serious?” his older son yelled at him. “I’ve spent my whole life working my butt off on this farm, and for what? You haven’t given me a thing, but this boy of yours shows back up and you’ve thrown him a party and everything!” The old man just smiled back at him. “Son, you’ve been here for many years and I’m happy for that. We’ve worked together, and I’ve already given you everything I own. But I thought your brother was dead, and now that he’s alive, we have to celebrate.”

Speaking in Parables: Jesus’s Teaching Ministry

Today is Epiphany Sunday. It’s the day on the Church calendar where we normally read about the three wise men, and we celebrate the “epiphany”, that is, the realization that Jesus is God among us.

Jesus is the clearest, most beautiful and vivid picture of who God is that we can see. While the three wise men is a lovely story, It is oddly not given a very prominent place in the Gospels. Most of the stories we have about Jesus are about his ministry, which eventually lead to his death and resurrection. Now, most of us are pretty familiar with the cross and the empty grave, but much of Jesus’s teachings are poorly understood, almost as if Jesus walked around speaking in tongues!

This is because over 1/3 of Christ’s teachings were spoken in parables. Why parables though? Well, the disciples actually asked Jesus the same thing. His response is a little shocking:

The New Revised Standard Version The Purpose of the Parables

The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’

Some, as they read this, think that Jesus taught in parables because he had some secret to keep, as if he didn’t want anyone to understand what he was saying. This is actually the opposite of what Jesus means here though. Parables were, in fact, already a common way the Rabbis taught in Jesus’s day. They were meant to make Torah, God’s word, easier to understand. More than that though, they were a way to communicate truth subversively. They can say things to obstinate people in order to get them to hear the truth. Think of David for example: How well would it have gone if the prophet Nathan had barged into the courtroom and accused David bluntly: “You’re a sinner and what you did with Bathsheba was wrong!” That probably wouldn’t have gone over too well! Instead, by telling David a parable, Nathan was able to get David to agree with the truth before he even knew what was happening. The point was not to keep the truth from David, but to make it harder for him to ignore!

This is precisely what we see in Jesus’s ministry. Many people, like David, were hard of heart and trying to ignore the truth that Jesus came to bring. Jesus used parables to make them see the truth whether they wanted to or not. Indeed, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and other Jewish leaders understood Jesus’s parables very well. They understood them well enough that it made them angry with him, and eventually brought them to put Jesus to death.

But, while Jesus intended his parables to be easy to understand for his audience, they’re often difficult for us to grasp today. We live in a different time and place than Jesus’s audience, so we have to do a little extra work to hear what Jesus wanted us to hear. But his parables are important. He spent 1/3 of his ministry teaching with them! So, during the season of Epiphany, we’ll be looking at several of Jesus’s parables because it is through these parables that Jesus reveals to us the Character and the will of God. Epiphany is a time to reflect on how Jesus reveals God to us, and his parables are an important part of that revelation.

Character One: The Prodigal Son

Perhaps Jesus’s most famous parable is the “Prodigal Son”. It’s the parable I told just now (with some slight modifications!). But, let us hear it in Christ’s own words:

The New Revised Standard Version The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother

11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

This is a parable we’ve probably heard time and time again. The Father’s son is ungrateful. He wants his money, and he wants it now! This demand for an inheritance was as good as telling his father, “I wish you were dead.” Surprisingly, however, the father does give him the inheritance. Even more surprisingly, the father welcomes the son back with open arms when he returns from wasting that money.

Surely, Jesus wants us to learn from this story that no matter what we do, how bad we mess up, God will always take us back if we repent and come home. That’s very true, and it’s a message that some may need to hear, but it’s actually not all Jesus wants us to hear....

Character Two: The Elder Son

In reading this parable, so often we forget how it began, “There was a man who had two sons...” The elder son seems to sit quietly in the background for most of the parable, until the end. Even his silence, however, speaks volumes. It was the responsibility of the elder son, in Jewish culture, to settle disputes in the family. When his younger brother asked for his inheritance, the elder brother should have taken him aside to talk some sense into him. Instead, the elder remains silent, and yet happily takes his own share of the inheritance along with his younger brother.

When his young brother finally returns home, the elder, unlike his father, does not receive him back joyfully. In fact, he is furious that his father welcomed the younger son back. Strikingly, the elder son’s language shows his problematic relationship to his father. “I’ve been working for all these years....” the elder son viewed his father as an employer, a task master, and he worked for his father expecting a reward. In fact, the elder son refuses to even call the man “father”, and refers to his own brother only as “that son of yours”. The elder son did not leave like his brother, but his relationship to his father was no better!

The elder brother is, no doubt, a reference to the Pharisees and scribes listening in on Jesus’s parables. They’re the kind of people who work hard to obey God, but they see him not as father, but as employer. That is why, when Jesus was healing the sick and eating with “sinners”, the Pharisees became angry. Why should those people be rewarded? I am the one who actually stuck around to work for God. Where’s my reward? Their own self-righteousness prevented them from joining in the celebration for the returning lost sons and daughters of God.

Main Character: The Waiting Father

Both of the sons teach us very valuable lessons. And, yet, we still haven’t quite gotten to the real message Jesus wants us to hear in this parable. In fact, the very title we give this parable, “The Prodigal Son”, is a telling sign of how poorly we understand the parable.

An important thing to remember when interpreting parables is to always pay attention to every character in the story, and in this parable there are not two characters, but three. It is the Father who is the real star of this parable, and it is the Father that Jesus most wants us to understand.

As different as the two sons were, they had one thing in common: they both saw their father as a source of money, not as a loving father.

Hear Then the Parable: Christ’s Word for Us

A- Parable of the Father and Two Sons: Retelling the Story

-Prevenient Grace: Father runs to them

B- Speaking in Parables: Jesus’s Teaching Ministry

-Reconciliation: Story of a broken family, and the father’s work to make it whole again

C- Character One: The Prodigal Son

-For us: Learn to see God as Father

D- Character Two: The Elder Son

-For us: Learn to participate with God in reconciling the family.

E- The Main Character: The Waiting Father

F- Hear Then The Parable: Christ’s Word For Us