I hope my family can read your book soon. It is very intriguing so far from what you have written. We have a neighbor that we have been encouraging in the Way of Christ and reading this reminds me of this neighbor in his unrepentant state and our prayer that he will repent and recieve the Lord just as the prodigal son retreats back to his father. Thank you for sharing this gem Pastor. God bless you and your family. May the Lord bless you with the ability to finish your book. In Jesus name, Amen.
Looking forward to your book. Reading the excerpt reminded me of Kenneth Bailey on the Prodigal son, that the father ran to meet the prodigal before he reached the village and the villagers who would kill him for his dishonorable acts. This isn't exactly the section, but you get the idea:
The word run in Greek (dramōn) is the technical term used for the foot-races in the stadium. Paul uses this word a number of times in this sense (1 Corinthians 9:24, 26; Galatians 2:2; 5:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Hebrews 12:1). Luke is a well-educated man who chooses his words carefully. Thus we can translate the phrase, “His father saw him and had compassion and raced.” It is not just a slow shuffle or a fast walk—he races! In the Middle East a man of his age and position always walks in a slow, dignified fashion. It is safe to assume that he has not run anywhere for any purpose for forty years. No villager over the age of twenty-five ever runs. But now the father races down the road. To do so, he must take the front edge of his robes in his hand like a teenager. When he does this, his legs show in what is considered a humiliating posture. All of this is painfully shameful for him. The loiterers in the street will be distracted from tormenting the prodigal and will instead run after the father, amazed at seeing this respected village elder shaming himself publicly. It is his “compassion” that leads the father to race out to his son. He knows what his son will face in the village. He takes upon himself the shame and humiliation due the prodigal.
It is not possible to capture in any parable the mystery and wonder of God in Christ. Yet in this matchless story we have a clear indication of at least a part of what these things mean. The father, in his house, clearly represents God. The best understanding of the text is to see that when the father leaves the house and takes upon himself a humiliating posture on the road, he becomes a symbol of God incarnate. He does not wait for the prodigal to come to him but rather at great cost goes down and out to find and resurrect the one who is lost and dead. These actions (seen in a Middle Eastern context) clearly affirm one of the deepest levels of the meaning of both the incarnation and the atonement. Paul affirms the same truth with the great phrase, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The mystery of the fullness of God in the Son in his incarnation is beyond us. Yet this parable depicts a father who leaves the comfort and security of his home and humiliates himself before the village. The coming down and going out to his son is a parable of the incarnation. The costly demonstration of unexpected love in the village street demonstrates a part of the meaning of the cross.
As the father runs through the street, half the village runs after him. The conversation at the edge of the village takes place with a full circle of people standing around them listening. The servants are clearly a part of the crowd, for the father turns to them there in the road. Everything that is said will soon be reported in every home in the village. The father’s actions are a drama of reconciliation that can restore the boy to his home and to his community. After this scene, no one in the village can reject or despise him.
Bailey, K. E. (2005). The Cross and the Prodigal: Luke 15 through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants (Second Edition, pp. 67–68). IVP Books.
I hope my family can read your book soon. It is very intriguing so far from what you have written. We have a neighbor that we have been encouraging in the Way of Christ and reading this reminds me of this neighbor in his unrepentant state and our prayer that he will repent and recieve the Lord just as the prodigal son retreats back to his father. Thank you for sharing this gem Pastor. God bless you and your family. May the Lord bless you with the ability to finish your book. In Jesus name, Amen.
Looking forward to your book. Reading the excerpt reminded me of Kenneth Bailey on the Prodigal son, that the father ran to meet the prodigal before he reached the village and the villagers who would kill him for his dishonorable acts. This isn't exactly the section, but you get the idea:
The word run in Greek (dramōn) is the technical term used for the foot-races in the stadium. Paul uses this word a number of times in this sense (1 Corinthians 9:24, 26; Galatians 2:2; 5:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Hebrews 12:1). Luke is a well-educated man who chooses his words carefully. Thus we can translate the phrase, “His father saw him and had compassion and raced.” It is not just a slow shuffle or a fast walk—he races! In the Middle East a man of his age and position always walks in a slow, dignified fashion. It is safe to assume that he has not run anywhere for any purpose for forty years. No villager over the age of twenty-five ever runs. But now the father races down the road. To do so, he must take the front edge of his robes in his hand like a teenager. When he does this, his legs show in what is considered a humiliating posture. All of this is painfully shameful for him. The loiterers in the street will be distracted from tormenting the prodigal and will instead run after the father, amazed at seeing this respected village elder shaming himself publicly. It is his “compassion” that leads the father to race out to his son. He knows what his son will face in the village. He takes upon himself the shame and humiliation due the prodigal.
It is not possible to capture in any parable the mystery and wonder of God in Christ. Yet in this matchless story we have a clear indication of at least a part of what these things mean. The father, in his house, clearly represents God. The best understanding of the text is to see that when the father leaves the house and takes upon himself a humiliating posture on the road, he becomes a symbol of God incarnate. He does not wait for the prodigal to come to him but rather at great cost goes down and out to find and resurrect the one who is lost and dead. These actions (seen in a Middle Eastern context) clearly affirm one of the deepest levels of the meaning of both the incarnation and the atonement. Paul affirms the same truth with the great phrase, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The mystery of the fullness of God in the Son in his incarnation is beyond us. Yet this parable depicts a father who leaves the comfort and security of his home and humiliates himself before the village. The coming down and going out to his son is a parable of the incarnation. The costly demonstration of unexpected love in the village street demonstrates a part of the meaning of the cross.
As the father runs through the street, half the village runs after him. The conversation at the edge of the village takes place with a full circle of people standing around them listening. The servants are clearly a part of the crowd, for the father turns to them there in the road. Everything that is said will soon be reported in every home in the village. The father’s actions are a drama of reconciliation that can restore the boy to his home and to his community. After this scene, no one in the village can reject or despise him.
Bailey, K. E. (2005). The Cross and the Prodigal: Luke 15 through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants (Second Edition, pp. 67–68). IVP Books.