Perhaps the greatest of all Jesus’s parables.
Tax collectors and sinners
were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and
scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners
and eats with them.”
So to them Jesus addressed
this parable:
“A man had two sons, and
the younger son said to his father,
‘Father give me the share
of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the
property between them.
After a few days, the
younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant
country
where he squandered his
inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent
everything,
a severe famine struck
that country,
and he found himself in
dire need.
So he hired himself out to
one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm
to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his
fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he
thought,
‘How many of my father’s
hired workers
have more than enough food
to eat,
but here am I, dying from
hunger.
I shall get up and go to
my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be
called your son;
treat me as you would
treat one of your hired workers.”’
So he got up and went back
to his father.
While he was still a long
way off,
his father caught sight of
him, and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced
him and kissed him.
His son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be
called your son.’
But his father ordered his
servants,
‘Quickly bring the finest
robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger
and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and
slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with
a feast,
because this son of mine
was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been
found.’
Then the celebration
began.
Now the older son had been
out in the field
and, on his way back, as
he neared the house,
he heard the sound of
music and dancing.
He called one of the
servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him,
‘Your brother has returned
and your father has
slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back
safe and sound.’
He became angry,
and when he refused to
enter the house,
his father came out and
pleaded with him.
He said to his father in
reply,
‘Look, all these years I
served you
and not once did I disobey
your orders;
yet you never gave me even
a young goat to feast on with my friends.
But when your son returns
who swallowed up your
property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the
fattened calf.’
He said to him,
‘My son, you are here with
me always;
everything I have is
yours.
But now we must celebrate
and rejoice,
because your brother was
dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been
found.’”
-Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
This is just a superb clip from what I think
is the greatest of the Christ movies, Franco Zefferlli’s Jesus of Nazareth.
And then the wonderful Brant Pitre explains an aspect of the parable I didn’t realize.
That he connects the older son with the Pharisees
and scribes from the beginning of the passage is so on the mark.
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