Can You Imagine the Story of the Prodigal from the Perspective of the Pig?
Good Morning Friends,
People seeking a controlling power prefer dualistic thinking…they separate the mind and the body. Deciding who is not worthy. It is prevalent in churches and business but not so much when we pray, for here when we come before God we might just discover that our inheritance of communion with God changes everything. Friends there are causes and effects but the world I can describe to you is not the world at all. The observer and the observed get intertwined. Sometimes like the Prodigal Son it takes coming to ones senses and facing our attitude of rebellion and our miserable condition. Can You Imagine the Story of the Prodigal from the Perspective of the Pig?
Scripture: The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.‘
Acts 10:15 (NRSV)
Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:8 (NIV)
“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.
Luke 15:11-19 (NIV)
Message: Jesus tells today’s parable in response to the Pharisees’ contempt that he would eat with sinners, something that the Pharisees would never do. In the story the lost son finds that he is hungry enough to eat with pigs which would have been even worse than eating with sinners for Jews. But as the story goes the lost son is not even allowed to eat pig slop for the owner valued his pigs more than his workers. Interesting twist given the reason for the parable. Here Jesus is basically calling the Pharisees swine at the trough. If pigs could talk, I would imagine them asking the younger son, with indignation why he was not acting like a Jew. Typically the younger son is a representation of sinners still trying to save themselves… The older son as the Pharisees and the father as Jesus. There is intended, inherent emotion in the story from the beginning. A son requesting inheritance prior to his father’s death was unheard of. To even ask meant that the prodigal son wanted his father dead. He wanted control from the start. Even in his return he crafts a speech to placate him. The intention is to manipulate not to repent. This is the tension and struggle of the human condition. The most surprising thing about today’s parable and its relevance for the Christian walk is the father’s response. It was not anger but a conscious choice of suffering. He still loves both his sons. He regrets the rebellion but loves anyway. He restores us even when we have yet to completely repent. The father divides his life between his sons. His covenant is one of love. It is our challenge to write the end of the story in the way we live….in the way we love for we can see ourselves from just about any of the characters perspectives…even the pigs. And the pigs add flavor to the story for they too get their own kind of redemption as noted in today’s passage from Acts. Now in prayer… let us clean out our pig sty and return to the extravagant, prodigal love of the Father as we nurture the true self of our inner life.
Pray we never want God dead. Pray we cling not to things, but to Jesus to find our security. Pray we ask God to meet our needs but not try to manipulate Him or others in the process. Pray we learn to love. Pray we fully repent and obey. Pray we become reconciled. Pray that we realize that Jesus came to forgive sinners so that we all might share in the abundant life. Pray we join the celebration. Pray we be a remnant. Pray we take off our sandals for we are on holy ground before the thrown of Grace…Pray we be bold. Pray we have a lasting home with God.
Pray we realize that listening is more important than speaking…that waiting is more important than acting…..that following is more important than leading…that interruptions are more important than plans….that wandering is better than hurrying but that running to what we love is ok…. that business is always about serving someone else…that life is not about problem solving or even being in balance… it’s about being available. Pray we move beyond the false self, the addictions of life, to a better way of thinking. Pray we come to our senses recognizing the dark and the light… the suffering and the joy connected. Pray we realize that the world needs to change but maybe it has to happen one person at a time. Pray that love binds us all together in sufficiently complex ways to glorify our maker. Pray that no matter what happens to us, Christ’s love is allowed to shine in and through us. Pray we realize that life itself is pointless without love. Pray we realize that our efforts and gifts are fruitless without love. Pray we believe this Word becomes flesh and dwells in us as the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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