Blogging Towards Sunday, April 6, 2025
The story of the prodigal son may be one of the best known stories in the world. However, if you ask, “On what occasion did Jesus tell that story?” it is unlikely that many will know. While context is not everything, it often is with respect to parables. As Biblical Scholar John Dominic Crossan argues, parables show the “fault lines” beneath the comfortable surfaces of the worlds we make for ourselves. Parables can be unsettling experiences, challenging the reconciliations with which we have become comfortable, the ones that we have created, and replacing them with a deeper level of reconciliation, a reconciliation that is contextually situated at the level of the incarnation.
This is a dangerous story for several reasons. One danger is that it is so powerful and clear that it can take on a life of its own. It runs the risk of becoming mythic in nature. Myths are designed to do just the opposite of parables. They are designed to make us comfortable with that which is familiar. Yet Luke is quite careful to provide a definite setting for the story that discloses a deeper, richer meaning in an already powerful parable. Luke 15:1-2 establishes the setting in a single, clear sentence: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and easts with them.’”
Jesus responds with a defense of table fellowship with outcasts, and this time his strategy is to tell a story. His narrative grabs us because stories like these are the everyday stuff of our lives. Such stories are sacred because they are how we come to understand who we are in relation to ourselves, others, and God. As familiar as it is, this parable is full of surprises.
(J. William Harkins in Feasting on the Gospels. Luke, Vol 2. p 89)
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION & EXAMEN:
• What word, phrase or image grabs you in this reading?
• How is this parable challenging, confusing or uncomfortable?
• Why does Jesus tell the parable? Who is his audience as he tells the parable? Was there a character or action that pointed you to where God might be found? How does parable make you look at the world differently or God’s presence in your life anew?
• What invitation do you hear the Spirit of God speaking to you – or to us, as a church – to act, speak, be, or change, through this word of scripture?
CAPC Oakland 