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(Date Posted:22/07/2008 23:16:42)
Without a Middle Eastern perspective, we miss Jesus' message writes Kenneth E. Bailey in The Cross & the Prodigal.
It is often said that the turning point of Prodigal Son parable is when the younger son "comes to his senses," confesses his sin, and returns home a repentant sinner-but this is not what Jesus is saying. And the difference between this popular interpretation and what Jesus is saying is the difference between a God who is "just" and a God whose love is as far as the East is from the West. From a Middle Eastern perspective, the younger son wishes his father dead; leaves with a third of the money; spends it in wild living; and later is left starving. ONLY when he is starving does he think of home where there is enough to eat. However, the father's expected response to the son's return is to slap the son IN ANGER in the face with the left-hand back-side of his hand. (This is more degrading in the Middle East than the right-hand or open palm.) So the son CRAFTS A PLAN to ask his father to be a hired servant, NOT A SLAVE, so that he can eat and pay back the money. With this plan in mind, he heads back home. Yet even when the son is at a far distance and BEFORE THE SON SAYS A WORD, the father runs to the son and kisses and hugs him. Further, in spite of the death-wish for the father, the father restores his son with joy. It is at this point-AND ONLY AT THIS POINT-that the son sees the love of the father for him, perhaps for the first time. Now the son sees the father's broken heart. Previously, the son didn't even consider his relationship with his father. NOW PLEASE DO NOT MISS THIS POINT: Had the father not been willing to run to the son-to show a costly demonstration of unexpected love, the son would not know the father's heart. And there would be no right-relationship: Jesus explains, in part, why he needed to die on the cross: "The father's suffering at the beginning of the story has no effect on the prodigal son. The son isn't even aware of it. The son must first witness a demonstration of the father's suffering. WITHOUT WITNESSING this demonstration, the callous son will NEVER understand that he is the cause of the broken relationship. Without the father's visible demonstration of suffering, the prodigal will return to the house as a servant. He will-quite likely-take on more and more of the characteristics of his older brother. Without this visible demonstration of costly love, there can be no reconciliation. Isn't this the story of the way God deals with the sin of the world on the cross? "
(Message edited by brolga on
22/07/2008 23:18:49)
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REVIVALISTS, RECOVER YOUR ABILITY TO THINK FOR YOURSELVES AND RECAPTURE YOUR LIFE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Salvation = God's grace alone through faith in Christ alone.
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