Unit Four:
And He said, A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to the father, Father give me that part of the property falling to me. And he divided the living to them. And not many days after, gathering up all things, the younger son went away to a distant country. And there he wasted his property, living dissolutely. But having spent all his things, a severe famine came throughout that country, and he began to be in need. And going, he was joined to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he longed to fill his stomach from the husks which the pigs ate, but no one gave to him. But coming to himself he said, How many servants of my father have plenty of loaves, and I am perishing with famine. Rising up, I will go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I sinned against Heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.
And rising up, he came to his father. But he yet being far away, his father saw him and was moved with pity. And running, he fell on his neck and fervently kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you, and no longer am I worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, Bring out the best robe and clothe him, and give a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet. And bring the fattened calf, slaughter and let us eat and be merry; for this son of mine was dead, and lived again, and was lost, and was found. And they began to be merry.
But the older son was in a field. And having come, as he drew near to the house, he heard music and dances. And having called one of the children, he inquired what this may be. And he said to him, Your brother came, and your father killed the fattened calf, because he received him back in health. But he was angry and did not desire to go in. Then coming out, his father begged him. But answering, he said to the father, Behold, so many years I serve you, and I have never transgressed a command of you. And you never gave a goat to me, so that I might be merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, the one devouring your living with harlots, you killed the fattened calf for him. But he said to him, Child, you are always with me, and all of my things are yours. But to be merry and to rejoice was right, for this brother of yours was dead, and lived again; and being lost, also he was found.
Luke 15:11-32
Now we come to the fourth segment of the parable and the longest: The Lost Son. The third element of lostness, one out of two. The ratio of loss is now 1/2 or 50%. This is a huge loss, not to be tolerated on anyone’s terms. This time the action moves right into the very centre of the family. Do you like movies or stories with lots of intrigue and switches in the plot or surprise endings and other literary techniques which make stories interesting? Well this parable is full of them. Remember I am not just talking about what most of us know as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Primarily the son is in focus, that is true. Look at how much significance is given to each segment. The introduction took 3 verses, the lost sheep was covered in four verses, the lost coin in 3 and now the lost son takes the rest of the chapter, Luke 15:11-32 or 21 verses. It is clear to see where the emphasis is. But remember again that the whole chapter is one parable. It all comes together to make one sense unit. This fact makes us look at a familiar story with new eyes. It is hard to bring something new out of a passage that is so familiar to almost everyone. But in this case when you see this whole chapter is ONE parable and not THREE as we have been led to believe then there are lots of things to note. It always helps to look through a new perspective. I think you will shocked and amazed as we proceed. There’s lots to look at here. I would not be surprised if this takes me a month to work through like the one Greek Sentence of Ephesians 1 or the Lord’s prayer or other familiar passages that require us to pay more attention.
It always helps to look at familiar passages in a different translation. To help you do that with the Prodigal Son story, here is a very different translation I am sure you have not come across before. More frivolous than deep but still fun.
Feeling footloose and frisky a featherbrained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the family finances. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered away his fortune, feasting fabulously with faithless and foolish friends. Finally facing famine and fleeced by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged foods of the fodder fragments left by the filthy farmyard fatlings.
‘Fooey”, he said, ‘My father’s flunkies fare far fancier,’ the frazzled fugitive finally figured out, feelingly facing facts. Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding, he fled forthwith, to his family’s fertile farmstead.
Falling at his father’s feet, he floundered forlornly. ‘Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favour’. But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching festively flagged the flunkies, “Fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a fabulously fine feast.” But the fugitive’s faultfinding frater frowned on the fickle forgiveness of the former foolish folderol. His fury flashed. But fussing was futile, for the farsighted father figured, such filial fidelity is fine, but, forbid such fervent festivity? Fie! on such fuming! “The filial fugitive is found! Unfurl the flags, with fanfare flaring! Let fun and frolic freely flow!” Former failure is forgotten, folly is forsaken! And forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortitude.
[The Freely Formatted F Version]PHEW!!
Because it is such a familiar passage, take a moment to “remember” what it’s about. See how much of the story you can remember, the details included and ponder on what you think the Parable of the Prodigal Son is teaching. What do you think Jesus meant when He told this parable? What was His purpose? See how much of the Word of God is stored within you and if it is accurately stored or not. One way to test this is to write your version of the story / parable from memory. See what parts you remember and what parts you miss out. That might be revealing.
On the day this story was told it was shocking. There are shocks all through the story! I will examine the shock elements in the next Gem. See if you can spot the parts of the story that would shock the audience. Hint: you are not going to pick them up in the F Version. It’s not accurate enough. It’s too FREE. Search for the shocks in the version above. I will start with the first of them. After that we will analyse this segment piece by piece.
You can’t escape problems thru a vacation because you take YOU with you.
Rick Warren
God has never had a bad thought about you.
Rick Godwin
Getting along with people doesn’t mean changing them, but letting them be who they are.
Joyce Meyer
I am not needy. I am wanty.
Diah Mintara