by Harry BuererIn Luke 15 we have three parables that Jesus told, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In the case of the sheep and the coin the issue is simply the single-minded searching for the lost item and the rejoicing upon finding it as a metaphor for the rejoicing in heaven over a sinner who repents.
The story that we have called the prodigal son, on the other hand, gives a lot more detail and builds more of a plot. Perhaps there is more in the symbolism of this story than meets the eye.
To recap the story, a man has two sons. The younger son wanted to receive his inheritance early so he could go live it up. He did, and he went to a far country and squandered it all in wild living. Being broke, he took a job feeding pigs, and the pigs ate better than he did. Finally he resolves to come home and apologize to his father. His father, out watching, saw him coming and ran to embrace him. There followed a big celebration. The older brother, who had remained with the family, was jealous at all the attention that his brother got. The father assured him that he was still loved and the rest of the inheritance was his, but it was still right to celebrate the return of his brother.
It doesn’t take a big stretch to imagine that the older brother represents the Jews to whom Jesus is telling the story. He expects them to absorb the lesson of rejoicing when a sinner repents. If this is true, then perhaps the younger brother is intended to represent Gentile believers in Jesus. As it happens, the trajectory of the Gentile church follows pretty closely the story of the younger son.
As I’ve explained in other posts, in the late first century Rome imposed a heavy tax on Jews, the Fiscus Judaicus. Gentile believers, under the instruction of Paul and others to no longer live like Gentiles (Ephesians 4:17), were embracing much of the culture of Judaism, which God had commanded his people to follow, but were doing so as Gentiles, not converting to Judaism. But the way that Rome determined who should pay the tax was by people’s lifestyles. Who lived like Jews?
Understandably the believing Gentiles didn’t want to be taxed as Jews, since they were not Jews. Over a period of time they began to separate and contrast themselves with Judaism. They chose new holy days and rejected the Sabbath and festivals given by God in scripture. They abandoned much of the law that God gave his people, justifying it by misinterpreting some of Paul’s words. And they began to identify themselves as “Christian”, a religion in contrast to Judaism. They began a process of hating and persecuting Jews that was to last for many centuries.
This trajectory of Christianity and its departure from the instructions that God gave his people seems to parallel the younger son in the parable who left home and got into all kinds of trouble. His feeding of pigs recalls the departure of the church from God’s instructions for eating, where pork is prohibited as food. The effect of the church’s departure from God’s instructions continues to this day.
But if we consider the parable to be prophetic, there is coming a day when the church will realize its error and return to God. The Father is watching every day for that repentence to take place. That’s one of the main reasons that I started this blog, to encourage Christians to return to the scriptures and the faith that was embraced by the first century followers of Jesus, which was essentially biblical Judaism, with the addition that the identity of the promised Davidic king (Messiah) was to be Jesus (Yeshua) of Nazareth.
Repent and return to God. He will be ever so happy that you do.