By Josh Olds
After telling stories about a shepherd and a woman, Jesus – the God who spoke in Story – launched into a third story, this one about a figure that the Pharisees could identify with, because the main character in the story of what we call “The Prodigal Son” is really the father. The son goes to his father and demands his inheritance, literally saying that he’d rather his father be dead, so he could inherit his portion of the estate.
The Pharisees think they have this story figured out. Maybe they’re reeling a bit from the previous stories, but on this one, they’re almost applauding. What a great depiction of sin! And now the father is going to have his oldest son beat the younger for his insolence. A powerful depiction of the severity of sin, even if it is in crasser terms than the Pharisees would like. But that’s not what happens.
Instead, the father grants his request. This would have stunned Jesus’ listeners. Unlike the shepherd and the woman, who acted as one would expect them to act in their culture, the father does what no Middle Eastern father would do. He hands over the inheritance. Having received his inheritance, the son knows it’s not smart to hang around. He’s certainly aware of the disgrace he’s caused not only his family. He liquidates his inheritance, further shaming his family by selling off his fathers’ possessions to the public, takes his sack of cash, and gets out of Dodge. By this point he’s disgraced his whole community. No upstanding member of society in this community would buy the son’s inheritance out of respect for his father, so the son is selling part of the community to an outsider. His relationship with his community, and more importantly, with his father, is broken.
When the son leaves, the community would have performed something called the Kezazah ceremony. This was a literal excommunicating of the son from both the family and the community. Jesus’ listeners – Pharisee and commoner alike – would have understood all of this. From this point on, the story is fairly straightforward. The son gets off Daddy’s ranch and hits the Vegas strip. Pretty soon that pile of cash is gone and he’s working as a servant feeding pigs. Imagine the horror of the Jewish audience, especially the Pharisees. We think pigs are tasty, so we don’t get it, but this is like the most fanatical vegan ever working in a sausage factory, except you have to add in spiritual consequences.
It takes a while but the son finally decides to pull himself up by his bootstraps. Shoot. He can still beat this. He’ll say that he’s sinned against God and his father, repent, and maybe his father will give him a job. Then he can pay his father back. He can still save himself.
And so the lost son begins the long journey home.
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