It’s surely the best known of all of the stories that Jesus told - the parable of the prodigal son. But there’s a problem with that title, because the story doesn’t really focus on the so-called prodigal at all. Jesus was exposing the ‘big brother’ mentality of the Pharisees as He describes the stubborn, self righteous character of the elder brother. But the real ‘star’ of the story is the running father. Because Jesus uses the term ‘Father’ we have tended to associate this character with God the Father. But consider this - Jesus was defending His own actions from criticism - and then He is the One who has ‘come running’ to us in His incarnation. In my view, the ‘father’ figure in the story is Jesus Himself.
The parable has a shock factor, in that Jesus describes this father figure ‘running out’ to meet his wayward but retiring son. But in that culture, men didn’t run. Firstly, it was impractical, as they wore long robes, and to lift a robe to run was considered unthinkable and indecent. The pharisees taught that if a man discovered a bird under his cloak during the sabbath, he had to leave it there until the sabbath was over!
The rabbis of the day taught that ‘a man’s manner of walking tells you who he is’.
The picture of a man running was so shocking that for a thousand years the Arabic version of the bible edited out ‘he ran’, and replaced it with, ’he went’.
So why did the father character run - and why did he call for the ring, the robe etc., with the word ‘quick!’.
As I have said in the notes today, in those days, if a young man brought scandal upon his family with his behaviour and then tried to return to his home community, people would gather for a kezazeh ceremony of rejection. They would place parched corn and nuts in a jar, intercept the returning son, and hold it up before him and smash it, signifying that their relationship was shattered beyond repair and that he was now dead to them. But in the parable, the father rushes and calls for clothes and shoes for his son because….grace wins the race! Far from his son being dead to him, he says ‘this son of mine was dead, and is alive again’.
Thank God for the amazing grace that means that He runs out to us!