I’ve referred to a number of parables from the New Testament in recent weeks primarily because it turns out that for many years, I had the wrong idea about what many of them actually meant. For instance, the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14-30, is not about money and making more but instead about doing our best to use the gifts we’ve been given. Or the parable of the vineyard workers, Matthew 20:1-16, is not about workers’ pay but instead about entry into the kingdom of heaven. More detail will follow on these parables in future articles but this week brings me to the parable that has confounded me for many years, the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.
Maybe being the eldest son in my family had something to do with how I understood the parable. I don’t know. Even in reading the story, more than half of the verses are about the “reckless” son. In the ESV translation, the word “reckless” is even used in the parable, instead of prodigal. But until this week, I didn’t realize the title was describing the younger son. I’d made the mistake with my assumption of what prodigal means. I was thinking of the words ‘prodigy’ or ‘prodigious,” which both look and sound similar to prodigal but mean something quite different. They mean phenomenon or extraordinary versus the meaning of prodigal: reckless or uncontrolled. Add to that how the second part of the story reads that a father’s eldest son who did what he believed were all the right things to do ends up not getting what he thinks he deserves. One could almost imagine that the eldest son even thinks he’s extraordinary and better than others—the prodigious son. While his younger brother, who takes advantage of their father and wastes all that he is given, is celebrated on his return to the family estate. That was how I viewed the story. After this week, I don’t think that’s what it’s about at all.
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