How you ever been jealous of your sibling receiving better you? Even when you feel more deserving? I’m sure many of us have. There’s a story of a father and two sons in the Gospel of Luke chapter 15, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”. The younger son asked his father for his shares of the estate and then used all the money on prostitutes. After squandering his father’s wealth, there was a severe famine that led him to be in need. Then there’s the eldest son who stayed in his father’s home his whole life and served him obediently. You would think that the eldest son would be more deserving of his shares of the estate, right? Well, Jesus conveys the answer through this parable. See, what happens is that the younger son ends up working as a servant tending to the pigs in the fields. He longed to eat the pods that the pigs were eating, but the pigs would eat them all. Eventually, he came to his senses and decided to return home, not as a son but as a servant of his father for the rest of his life. He returns home and comes before his father saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (Luke 15:21). Now you would think that the father would be furious with his younger son or perhaps very disappointed, but that was not the case in this parable. The father was joyous and festive, and he instead told his servants to prepare a huge celebratory feast for his son’s return. He clothed and equipped him with the finest pieces of clothing, footwear, and accessories and killed the fattened calf to feed all the people at the feast. Keep in mind, that the fattened calf is significant because it is only slain for a special celebration of one’s return home. Very gracious and humble of the father, right? Meanwhile, the eldest son comes home from his day’s work and hears a great commotion from his home. He arrives home to find out that his younger brother has returned home, and his father has killed the fattened calf to celebrate. Instead of being joyous like his father for his brother’s return, he becomes infuriated and does not want to join the feast. The reason for that was because he was filled with envy and resentment. He envied his brother for receiving such great treatment from his father even though he did not deserve it. Additionally, he had resentment for his father due to never receiving any feast or show of acknowledgment after all these years of staying by his father’s side obediently. His father, however, reassures him that everything of his father is also his and that his father has always been with him, so there’s no need to be envious nor have resentment. The parable ends with the father saying, “But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:32).
So why does Jesus tell this story? What does the parable mean? Professor Nancy J. Duff in her article “Between Text and Sermon: Luke 15:11-32”, breaks down the components of the parable and conveys what is significant from it morally, historically, and politically. According to Duff, it may seem like the parable is meant for many to resonate with the wandering sinful ways of the younger son, but when diving deeper into the significance of the parable you can actually realize that many resonate with the eldest son. This is because many can empathize with the righteous indignation of the eldest son (Duff, 1995). Many would agree with the older brother on the fact that the younger son is an unworthy prodigal who should not be celebrated for his return. We may instead think that the younger son should’ve been met with punishment for his sinful actions. Hence, we can feel the bitter resentment that the eldest son would have towards his father. There are many times when we may feel like we deserve more than others due to our efforts, obedience, and behavior. When we don’t receive what we ought to receive, we will surely feel bitterness and resentment because all our efforts led to nothing. However, Jesus is telling us to self-reflect on our actions because many of us resonate with the eldest brother. Professor Pablo Polischuk points out in his article “A Metacognitive Perspective on Internal Dialogues and Rhetoric: Derived from the Prodigal Son’s Parable” that we are unable to realize the significance of the return of the younger brother due to our resentment and bitterness. Because we think that we shouldn’t welcome back those who are sinners and unworthy, we fail to understand the joy of the father in the return of his son. The father in this parable is widely known to represent God, the Father. Many would think that those who are obedient and behave righteously only deserve to enter into God’s Kingdom (Polischuk, 2015). Moreover, it’s as if it’s owed to them. However, Jesus is asserting that righteous acts and good deeds are not what gets you into the Kingdom of Heaven (Polischuk, 2015). Rather even if one has faith in God and sins, if they truly repent for their sins and return to God, then they are forgiven of their sins and have a place in His Kingdom (Polischuk. 2015). This is because God is a just and merciful God who unconditionally loves us and is waiting for us to return “home” every time we stray away and sin. Every sinner that returns to Him is worth slaying a fattened calf and celebrating. Hence, we too, like God, should be gracious to others and be joyous of their return “home” instead of having bitter resentment like the eldest son.
Now, I want to talk about how this parable can be seen as a political message in the time when Jesus preached this parable from reading Polischuk’s and Duff’s interpretations. That is, through analyzing the parable from the time in which Jesus told this parable. Jesus utilized this parable not to just preach to the people of Israel but also to deliver a message to the Pharisees and other religious leaders at the time (Polischuk, 2015). This can be known because of Luke’s goal of writing a historical and political Gospel as highlighted in New Testament scholar Bart E. Ehrman’s The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Because of Luke’s goal, he places Jesus in the setting of an empire and creates a political story of Jesus the Messiah and his teachings (Ehrman, 2019). Ehrman contends the fact that Luke challenges the values and systems of the world he writes his Gospel in. Luke creates a space where outcasts and sinners have a place in God’s Kingdom, which opposes the conventional beliefs of the Pharisees. Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, hence, shows grace towards those who are outcasted and instead criticizes and rebukes those who are affluent (Pharisees and other religious leaders). This allows Luke to continue with his goal and portray Jesus’ death as a righteous martyr who has gone against the values and systems of the higher-ups for the sake of giving justice to the outcasts and sinners (Ehrman, 2019). Therefore, it is possible to analyze this parable of Jesus as a political scheme.
So, what message did he deliver? Duff states that the message was that “the Pharisees need to change their attitude towards sinners”. In the Gospels, the Pharisees are known to outcast those in Jewish society who are sinners according to the Mosaic Laws. This is because the Pharisees have inflated perceptions of themselves, deeming themselves to be self-righteous in their ways. Therefore, they judge those who commit sins and punish them according to the law. Afterward, they reject sinners and treat them as outsiders from God’s people. Are the Pharisees truly righteous people though? Jesus disproves the Pharisees’ self-righteous attitude through this parable. The eldest son in the parable is essentially symbolizing the Pharisees in Jewish society, believing that they are following God’s law, so they are more deserving and better “people of God” than sinners (Duff, 1995). The father is representing God the Father in heaven. The sinners are represented by the younger son who left but returned home. From seeing how Jesus symbolizes the different groups of people in the parable, you can see that the eldest brother’s attitude towards his brother and father is a direct representation of the Pharisees’ attitude towards sinners in society. Looking back at the parable, the eldest brother is angry with the celebration for two reasons. First is because he believes that his brother is not deserving of the feast and that he deserves a celebration more than anyone else (Duff, 1995). Second, he fails to understand his father’s reason for preparing a large feast for his brother, hence, feeling resentful (Duff, 1995). This is the same way the Pharisees feel when they witness Jesus’ grace towards sinners. They don’t believe that sinners are deserving of the forgiveness of their sins and that they should receive punishment according to the law (Polischuk, 2015). Furthermore, they can’t possibly understand why Jesus shows such grace and love towards the outcasts: the poor, the disabled, the sick, and the promiscuous (Polischuk, 2015). As said before, the Pharisees don’t deem outcasted people to be forgiven for their sins. So, when Jesus forgives their sins and gives them the way of salvation, they are enraged with him. Lastly, the Pharisees have the same anger as the eldest brother instead of being happy like the father. They don’t want sinners to receive forgiveness and salvation because they believe that they are owed a seat in God’s Kingdom (Duff, 1995). From comparing the parable to the current situation in the Gospels, Jesus is delivering an awakening message to the Pharisees and religious leaders who were criticizing him for his unconventional teachings throughout his ministry. That is, to show the same unconditional grace and love that Jesus shows to sinners. Furthermore, it is to self-reflect and change their attitude toward sinners because just having even one sinner repent for their sins and receiving redemption is something that God’s people should celebrate.
This is a lot to take in, so to sum things up, I’ll simplify this so that anyone can understand this parable and its political significance. This parable is about an unworthy son who leaves home but returns to receive his father’s love. This resembles God’s unconditional love who will always be waiting for a sinner’s return to His Kingdom. The eldest son, however, is furious and doesn’t approve of his father’s celebration. This stems from his sense of self-righteousness for being obedient to his father for his entire life which causes him to believe that he is more deserving of a celebration, nonetheless, a spot in his father’s home. Jesus teaches through this parable to allow the Pharisees who were monitoring Jesus to self-reflect on their inflated self-perception. The Pharisees believed that outcasts and sinners are not worthy of salvation and should be separated from themselves, who are “righteous”. Hence, they are just like the eldest son from the parable. Instead of judging and looking down on those whom they don’t deem to be worthy of entering God’s Kingdom, Jesus is contending that they should be more like God who is merciful and just to all people. They should seek to align their heart with God’s will. God desires all people to seek His Kingdom including those who are outcasted and are sinners, therefore, Jesus shows such grace and love towards those groups. This parable at first glance may seem like just a religious and moral teaching, but by analyzing it from a historical context, you can pick up on the political agenda of Jesus during his ministry – to criticize the Pharisees and other religious leaders on their false display of self-righteousness and to help them understand what it means to be righteous in the eyes of God.