Sunday, September 12, 2004AD
24th Sunday in Greentime
Going to the Block Party??
Jesus delivers His greatest parable, His greatest zinger, in today’s Gospel when we hear the “Parable Still Unnamed”, viz., the Prodigal Son, the Unforgiving Brother, the Merciful Father, the Dysfunctional Family. His original audience was people who resented that Jesus dined and ate with sinners and those outside the Law.
Sociologists of Scripture have been looking at the parable from several different slants in the past twenty years and they have nuanced what Jesus was saying. There is more here than meets the eye.
Whatever the proper name of the parable that works for you, there are other dramatis personae mentioned in passing who are affected by the storyline. It comes down to two questions. 1) Did the older, unforgiving brother go into the party? 2) If he did not, what happened then?
Certainly, a disciple of Jesus would hope that the older brother would follow the father’s lead and receive the brother back. The question with which Jesus zings the audience (that’s you and me) is, “What would you do in such a case?” Only you can answer that question.
However, there is the question of the older brother’s role in the local community as a result. The father slew the fatted calf and prepared the meal for the returning son. There was so much food available that, of necessity, the father had to invite the neighbors for the reunion of the family. That such is the case is the reference to the music and the dancing. There were people inside celebrating what the father ‘s happy family reunion.
If the son went in, then he is at one with his father, his family (including the returning son) and the village community who were in attendance at the party.
If he did not go in to the party, he has shown disrespect to his father. In a society that to this very day is predicated on honor and shame balance, the elder son would shame his father by his breaking of the family unity. In addition, the unforgiving brother would have delivered an insult to his community by implying that he would not go along with the generosity of the forgiving, party-throwing father. Therefore, he would reject his local community. His lack of participation would say to the village, “You are wrong; I am right.” In his isolation, he might have brooded over the possibility that some of the neighbors were sponging off the affluent father’s stupidity. (If the father owned cattle enough to single out a fatted calf, then the family would have been in the upper 5% of the socio-economic structure.)
Let us hope that the son followed his dad’s example. If it were “like father, like son”, all would be well. If not, the older brother has isolated himself from his family and village.
