All the publicans and sinners came to hear JC. Oh the Pharisees were certainly upset about that. He eats with the sinners and publicans. JC tells them…. a story, and analogy, another parable.
If a man has a hundred sheep, and he loses one, he leaves the ninety nine sheep in the wilderness and finds the lost one. Find he finds the lost sheep, he pick it up and rejoices. When he comes home he invites his friends and neighbors to celebrate having found the lost sheep.
It’s just like the joy in heaven when a sinner repents, its better than ninety nine people who don’t need to repent.
If a woman has ten pieces of silver and she loses one, she lights a candle and sweeps the house looking for it. When she finds it she invites her friends and neighbors over to share in her joy.
I’m telling you the angels will rejoice over the one sinner who repents.
And now JC tells us the story of the prodigal son.
A certain man had two sons. The younger son asked his father to give him his inheritance. He took all of his wealth and moved far away, wasting his money on riotous living! Sounds like fun! When he spent all the money, the land had a famine and he really began to suffer. He eventually got a job feeding pigs, and he would have been happy to eat the husks that the pigs ate but he was not given any food. He thought about how his father treated their servants, how they always had bread to spare. He was hungry.
He thought to himself, I’m going to go home. I’ll tell my dad I’ve sinned against heaven, and against you and I’m not worthy to be your son. Please hire me as a servant. As he came upon his old home his dad saw him. His dad recognized him from a great distance and immediately ran over hugging and kissing him. Awww… he’s a nice dad!
The son tells him I’m sorry dad, I sinned against heaven, and in your eyes and I’m not worthy to be your son. But the day loved him anyway and told his servants to bring the good robe, and ring and shoes. Kill the fatted calf, let us eat and be merry. My son was dead, and he is alive again, he was lost and now he’s found! And they began to make merry!
But his elder son was in the field and as he came home he heard the music and the dancing. He asked the servants what was going on. They told him his brother was home and they killed the fatted calf because he was home, safe and sound. Well the elder brother was pissed, and wouldn’t go celebrate. So his dad came out to talk to him.
His elder son told him, dad, I’ve been a good son who stayed and helped you, and never did anything against you. You never gave me even a goat to make merry with my friends. But the second my ne’er-do-well brother who spent all of the money you gave him, whoring about, comes home you kill the fatted calf!
And dad tells him, son, you have always been with me and all I have is yours. But you should make merry because your bother who was lost has been found, and who was dead was alive.
You know I’ve never minded that the prodigal son gets a big fuss made over him. But why didn’t the dad appreciate all that his good son had done. Where was his fatted calf? And did the dad ever learn to appreciate the good son? I mean I get it. Good people are going to be good whether you put the fear of god into them or not. Being good is supposedly its own reward. I get that they want to entice the people who aren’t being good to be better with stories of reward. But dude it’s just not fair. This story just goes to show, if are good even for its own reward, you will get taken advantage of. Oh sure good people might turn the other cheek, but friends, I don't care it's still not right.
This story is incentive to go be rebellious for as long as you want because you can always return later and get a big deal made about you. There's not a lot of good parenting happening here! Although, I like this story because I recognize it. I'm always happy when it's one I remember from childhood.
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