The Lost Prodigal. Luke 15:11-24 - through the eyes of the patriarchs

Introduction

Observe Jewish History:

"Younger brothers are 'traditionally rebels'. The older is worldly - niggardly - orthodox - hypocritical. All the patriarchs - after Abraham - were younger brothers:

Abel - Jacob - Joseph - Gideon - David - Judas Maccabeans. What happens here is in line with Jewish Tradition.

A parable is not an allegory. The father is not God incognito; but an earthly father(v. 18) Yet he is a symbol of God.  Jesus was too great an artist - and too good a psychologist to put all truth about God in one story. And this story is but the 3rd of a group of 3 stories; they're trying to project God.

This prodigal's request for his share of property - in the way he wants it ... was something unheard of.  

Since ancient times in the Middle East a request for property rights - whilst the father was still alive was something unheard.  Was this story then - a true actual case.. but an isolated one that actually happened?  He requested for his 1/3 share of the inheritance. It was granted. Under the Misnah... that only gives him ownership but with no right of disposal.  He then pressured his father for the right to dispose.

Surprisingly, the father signed off that right of disposal as well - and to both sons. Luke did not give any hint .... but we can impute that objecting would come to naught. Relationships in that family were far from warm.

The Land in Early Jewish History 

Abraham and family lived a partially nomadic and settled life.   They moved about with their flocks; but also did some cultivation.  In Mesopotamia, where Abraham came from, the allocation of land was the feudal system.  The king provided gifts of land ("fiefs:) - in return for the promise of personal service. This land would be passed on from father to son.  When the Israelites entered Canaan.. God became the owner of the land.  Each family received their land by lot(Joshua 15)...Each family's plot of land was/is revered as the gift of God:

".......His Hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.."(Isaiah 34:17)

Picture of the Land of the Israelites - and of Galilee

Normally.... heirs receive their share of the property ... at the death of the father(Hebrew 9:16-17) Hence, the prodigal's request can be interpreted as a profound break in relations between father and son.

That boy was indeed - already lost.  Properties often passed to the oldest son - to carry on the family name and to perpetuate the property...

 

Picture of the Dry Hills and Fertile Valleys of Lake Galile and the Fertile Basin Lands around Galilee

1st century Palestinian Ceremony: the "Qesasah" = "Cutting Off"

If a man sold his field to a Gentile;  his relatives would bring barrels of parched corn and nuts - and break them open in the presence of the children.  They would all proclaim, "So-and-so" is cut off

from his inheritance."  This custom was in force at the time of Jesus...  This prodigal took his property ... and wasted it in a foreign country - not at the time of his departure.  Hence both Luke and Matthew mention no details.  This "Qesasah" Culture ....is extremely significant - as it sought the Preservation of the Solidarity of Life both in the Family and the Community.

The prodigal had wronged not only his father - but also the community, his extended family.  And this explains why the father ran ... when he saw him at the edge of the village.  

 

The father had to get to this returning son first - before he fell into their hands. An old man ... never runs.  More so - a rich old farm owner.  He has to make public - his acceptance of the prodigal.

What the father did was - unusual ..... in similar ways to what he did earlier on. He granted the prodigal(s) both possession and disposition - jeopardizing his own position in old age. What the shepherd and woman did in the previous 2 stories of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin was not anything out of the ordinary. But what the father did here - was Unusual - and Unique. This has never been done by any father in the past.
 

 

In the Far Country...".... he joined himself to a citizen of that country"(Luke 15:15)

"..... there arose a mighty famine .. he began to be in want(Luke 15:14)  There was a series of ten famines.... in and around Jerusalem from 169 B.C. to A.D. 70 - excluding those resulting from wars.

Luke's Gospel was written in the early 60's - just before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. When he first arrived - either in Egypt or Antioch or Rome - as was common amongst wealthy young men of Jesus' time on earth - he was known to have plenty of money to throw around ... and is expected to have some respect left.  

So the polite way a Middle Eastener wants to get rid of such 'hangers on' was to give them a job he knew this upstart would refuse.  To his shock the prodigal accepted the job of a pig herder.  The pride of this youngster has not yet been completely broken.  No Jew would ever go near pigs.

The wild carob berries, fed to the pigs - but edible to humans .. could not sustain him. It lacks nourishment.  So he tried begging. The text portrays him ".... and no one gave him anything." His

subsistence dole from herding the pigs could not keep him alive. ".... I perish here with hunger'' He was starving.  Hunger .. significantly pushed him to Sensible Thinking.  He came up with a Face-Saving Plan.

He schemed to be a "hired servant'. Hired servants were 'outsiders' - a casual worker to be employed as and when required.  He was a freeman - unlike the bondsmen and slaves; the latter two were considered as part of the family.  His social status would be lower than the bondsman and the slaves; but it would give him independence from his father - and he will not be eating his brother's bread.  

The Mishna enlightens: "Whatever is not consumed... is added to the capital which the elder brother will inherit ... hence the elder brother will resent the prodigal's presence." The prodigal wants to be free from both the father and his elder brother.

Conclusion

The prodigal began in self-will. He was not wicked at first. He only chose to live his own life - his own way. The father could have tried persuading him to stay back; but could not have obliged him to be filial.

There was already one prodigal at home.  Be aware that the boy who came back was thinking more for/of himself than about his father or/and his elder brother.  Know that this story cannot be a Full Theology; it only seeks One Central Truth.  God welcomes the Outcasts. 

Jesus stressed this ... because the Publicans and Sinners did not - could not believe it and because the Pharisees and Scribes did not wish to believe it.  The story ended - with the prodigal inside the house; the elder brother stayed outside! How tragic!

Jesus is walking away from His Church....this scene comes to me very frequently and constantly - in my dreams.!! We shut Him out... Is God proud of what we are doing.....Aren't we ashamed?

- Pastor Edwin Khoo

The Story of the Lost Coin - through the eyes of a peasant and a bedouin

The Story of the Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10)

 

Jesus often used parables in pairs. The story of the Lost Sheep revolves around a man; this one - around a woman.

Observe 

 

1. One makes a man, the shepherd the chief actor; the other - a woman.

2. In one, a sheep is lost - outside the fold; in the other - a coin is lost - inside a house.

3. In one, the sheep's ignorance is the cause for the loss; the other, the woman's carelessness.

Nevertheless, each story can stand on its own and on its own right. Each has its own amazing depth and simplicity.

These two stories are viewed by most commentaries as a Double Story:

A woman has ten silver coins; she loses one coin in her house.
She then lights a lamp - sweeps the floor; she seeks diligently until she finds it.

 

 

photo of the Bride's head dress

 

Having found it, she tells her friends and neighbours - and cries, "Rejoice with me -
for I have found my lost coin."

The emphasis is on the preciousness of that coin. - and of the sadness turning to joy when the woman found it.

That lost drachma of a coin was one tenth of her pathetic savings; and one-half of the Temple Tax. But the real value lies far more than the monetary worth of the single coin.

 

# the Beauty of a Necklace as a Whole is not there - when one coin is missing.

 

# a Bride's Betrothal-Wedding Gift - her most precious, treasured gift.
 

 Hence - the intensity of her search. She searches until she found it - followed by Joy.

 

 

 

 

Picture of the Wedding Couple-

A Jew would accept an aggrieved man crawling back to God; but not a God - seeking and searching
No Pharisee would dream of a God - like that.

 

Understand. Appreciate the Cultural Elements

Searching of money of the poor makes the loss of a coin a sad event. Most peasant villages are self supporting.

They make their own cloth; grow their own food. Hence the loss of a silver coin is of greater value in the homes of these peasant women. 

 

Kenneth Bailey who lived and worked amongst Middle Eastern Culture for over 20 years says that
"a distinction must be made between a bedouin and a villager. Bedouin women wear their dowry in the form of coins hanging on their veils.

 

Village women do not. Village women, however do wear coins on necklaces."

The Coin can be found. Movements of peasant women in village houses are extremely limited - as most houses are crammed. The woman has not been out; the coin has to be in the house. It can be found... if she keeps on sweeping the floor - though made of packed and pounded earth.

Why did Jesus tell these stories?!

 

He used the proscribed, denounced shepherd for the Lost Sheep Story. Now.... Jesus used the inferior status of a woman.

He is challenging and rejecting the Pharisaic Discrimintion - against the Outcasts and Common People.....

Insight reveals deeper meanings.  One out of ten coins is lost - against one in a hundred sheep.

And the coin has - Values beyond monetary worth. The search is now the confines of a small villlage house as against the wide open wilderness.  And the Assurance is the more intensified - that lost one can be found - if foresight and effort are there.

Witness the Drama of Life. The tragedy of life is followed by the grief stricken search - and then comes the Joy of Finding.

We share our Griefs.. Share also our Joys! 

 

Never return a Kindness. Pass it on 

 

And that would warm God's heart as well.

 

 

Pastor Edwin Khoo

Story of the Lost Sheep - through the eyes of the Peasants

Dear ....

Preface

These essays on Lost and Found .... by Kenneth E. Bailey - including comments by others and self -
pinpoint a "penetrating, theological and pastoral approach .. with careful attention to subtle details - making it very stimulating."

The same culture which underlay these stories in Jesus' time can be discovered today in isolated peasant communities in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Time has made almost no impact on these cultural pockets.

 

photo of Shepherds and flocks
gather at the entrance of this
typical village in Syria



Introduction

Jesus told this story to the Scribes and Pharisees to defend His association with the common people/the outcasts

- the People of the Land (as William Barclay puts it) and to stress God's concern for these 'lost' people.

Interpreters' Bible Commentary pleads that we observe carefully 

* that Jesus told this story to the Pharisees and Scribes

* the Significance of the Direct Approach of the Good Shepherd seeking the lost sheep..

Barclay puts it explicitly. It was an offence to the Scribes and Pharisees that Jesus associated with men and women... labelled as the Outsiders. There was a complete barrier between the Pharisees and the People of the Land.

The Pharisees looked sadistically forward not to the saving but to the destruction of these outcasts..


Shepherds in Jesus' days were prescribed as "unclean'

Leave open the whys and hows.  Jesus' Story of the Lost Sheep and the Good Shepherd - addressed to the Pharisees was a direct challenge against the Issue of Social Status - "Which one of you having a hundred sheep..." came not only as a shock but an insult to these aristocrats.

Social Status - identified with particular professions then and today - is still very much alive. Pre-judging and Prejudice are very much alive even in churches. How can we overcome prejudice...?!

Barclay gives the complete picture of the Judean shepherd. His task was hard and dangerous. Pasture was scarce. The narrow central plateau was only a few miles wide.. and then it plunged down to the wild cliffs and the terrible devastation of the  deserts below.

George Adam succinctly describes the role of these peasant shepherds.

"On some high moor across which at night the hyenas howl, when you meet him - sleepless, far-sighted, weather beaten, always leaning on his staff and looking out over his scattered sheep, everyone of them on his heart... you understand why the shepherd of Judea sprang to the front in his peoples' history; why they gave his name to the king and made him the symbol of providence; why Christ took him as the type of self sacrifice.

The shepherd was personally responsible for the sheep. If a sheep was lost, the shepherd must - bring home the fleece to show how it died. It was all in the day's work that a shepherd was prepared to lay down his life for his sheep.. Many of the  flocks belong to the village - as is the case in this story of the one hundred sheep. The average villager owned but 5-15 sheep.

Photo Picture Cluster of Village Houses...

... a sheep lost

A lost sheep would lie down helplessly - cries loudly - bleats incessantly - refuses to budge.

The Peasant Judean shepherd knows such plight - and peculiarities. He carries the sheep - on his shoulders.

The ground the sheep travels during a day is not intensive. And there's the assumption that the lost sheep can be found...These peasant shepherds are experts at tracking; they could follow the sheep's footprints for miles.

Finding comes first. Restoration follows thereafter. Hence the Rejoicing Joy..... A peasant shepherd on finding a sheep lost - whilst still in the wilderness - uncultivated land ... leaves the 99 sheep in the care of the other shepherd(s). In Syria, Palestine or Mesopotamia .. it is common to see a flock of sheep attended to by 2 or even 3 shepherds.

The other shepherd(s) would lead home the 99.... On arrival.... the neighborhood notices the absence of one shepherd..

The whole village waits anxiously - concerned over the safety of both shepherd - and sheep. Peasant shepherds are armed only with a rod/staff - and the most important sling; they're experts in the use of them....

Peasant shepherds come back at night; the returning sheep are kept in the Courtyard(s) of the Viilage Courtyard(s)

 Photo of a Village Courtyard...


Do not confuse Peasant shepherds with Bedouin shepherds; the latter are wanderers. Bedouin shepherds and their sheep sleep in the open - or in the Caves. And they are the more endangered to wild and bigger predators or even robbers.

Except to get lost, the sheep does nothing to prompt the shepherd to seek/search for it.  In the story, the shepherd found the lost sheep. JOY is reported over the Recovery of the one sheep that had been lost over/against the ninety-nine - not  endangered. (Matt 18:13b)  

Jesus psychologically intended to emphasise God's Magnanimous Concern for the 'lost' as well as
God's Joy at his recovery - return...




The Story ends with Theological Themes

* JOY in Restoration to the Community

* JOY in the Burden of that Restoration

* GOD'S Magnanimous Grace of/in Seeking the lost

* JOY in the Safe Return of the Seeking Shepherd
- much as he could be blamed for the sheep's loss.




When the night is very dark;  that's when one candle makes all the difference.
"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not fear.." Psalm 23:1





Pastor Edwin Khoo