Navigating An Ancient Faith Podcast
Welcome to a podcast that bridges the past and present in a transformative exploration of the Bible and faith. At Navigating An Ancient Faith, we delve into the original context of Scripture, mirroring the perspective of its first listeners. Our travels have taken us to Biblical lands, such as Israel, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. Through insights from these travels, as well as engaging discussions around philosophy and mythology, we traverse the journey toward our own spiritual transformation. Join us on this journey from ancient faith to modern devotion.
Navigating An Ancient Faith Podcast
Parables of Jesus: Communing with the Divine
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In this episode of the Navigating An Ancient Faith Podcast, we revisit how to read Jesus’ parables, resisting the modern urge to pull out a quick moral. 📖 We explore the setting of Luke 15, where the Pharisees criticize Jesus for welcoming “tax collectors and sinners,” and unpack the parable of the Prodigal Son. We also connect these themes to the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20), reflecting on envy, generosity, and the upside-down nature of God’s kingdom. 🍇 Finally, we briefly consider Jesus’ parables about persistent prayer in Luke 11 and Luke 18, exploring how they challenge distorted views of God and reframe faith as a relationship rather than a transaction. ✨ Join us as we continue our series on the Parables of Jesus, uncovering the deeper layers hidden within these familiar stories. 🎙️
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You just kinda laugh about it. You're like, yeah, I know what you're up to swooping in 30 minutes for closing time, right? So, I don't know. I think it's something like that. Nope. I am, I'm a heathen. Yeah, I'm a heathen. That's still, that upsets me. Even that story right there, I'm like, Nope. Screw that guy. Get him outta here. All right. Maybe it's worth revisiting about why we're doing these parables the way we're doing them. And we did this, I think in the first episode, but you know, this is episode four now. So maybe it's just worth kind of reiterating our approach to this, right? So real quickly we're talking about parables because they're a way to combat maybe our modern, rational way of thinking because we tend to read a parable or a fairytale, right? And we tend to want to extract the moral of the story and then we discard the story. Right? But, one of the things that we're trying to do with these parables is saying that no, when we discard the story, we're actually discarding so much of the meaning, right? You, okay? So not to get us on a rabbit show, but you said you were reading The Odyssey 'cause I was like, dude, you've gotta read. You've gotta read the Odyssey. So it'd be like saying, okay, here's the moral of the story. Now you don't need to know the Odyssey anymore. And it's like, no man, you're missing so much information if you toss the story away, right? Yeah, well, you have the broad story of the Odyssey, but then, and we were talking about this before we hit record, is that there's so many details, just like in a good fairy tale or just like in the biblical narrative, there's so many details in there that you're like, no, go back and look at this. Why did they use this word? Why is this described this particular way? And you find out that it actually plays into the broader narrative, but you just missed it when you're focused on, let's say the story, the first time you read it, you know? It's almost like seeing a great movie two or three times. The first time I saw A Few Good Men, it was a good movie, man. It was great. And, you know, you can't handle the truth. And I was excited about it and I was like, man, that's a good movie. I've seen since seen it probably a dozen times, and every time I pick on something subtle and I'm like, oh yeah, there's a different vantage point when you know the end of the story and you know, kind of broadly what's going on, that you can pick up the details that you can't pick up the first time, the first go around. Yeah. You can not pay attention to some of the stuff. Not maybe so much focus on the storyline.'cause you know the storyline now, but now you can focus on the side characters, right? Or some of the details. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. And if you have a layered story, now I can dig into the layers. Yeah. Now I can focus on this layer, this time I watch it, right? Or something like that. Right. Yeah, I'm doing that right now with one of my favorite series on Netflix. I know I've said this before, is The Last Kingdom I heard that it's going away this year, so I said I've gotta watch it again. And it's probably like the sixth or seventh time I've watched the whole series. But yeah, a well-written series, every time you watch it, something new comes out, right? You go, okay, I see this thread that I haven't paid attention to before. Yeah, so that's what we're trying to do with some of these parables because they're very common, especially if you grew up in church, especially the one we're gonna look at today, the prodigal son, right? You go, yeah, I know that story. And it's like, okay, well let's try to approach this a different way and let's try and pull on those threads that aren't usually pulled on. Yeah. Right. And this has a bunch of 'em too. This is a great one because again, it's in the broader context or a criticism about Jesus. And so Jesus comes up with a few of these parables that we're gonna, we'll discuss here in a minute. But you know, again, you gotta have that context, you gotta have that backstory laid out for you because that does color how you interpret this parable, and you don't do it in isolation as, oh, this is about son who lost his way and then comes back. You know, it's like, man, it's a whole lot more going on than that. Right. And so we'll get into it. But, that's why we approach these in this type of way. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we're trying to do with these. Couple of things I'm learning real quick too, is man, the context before you just jump into the parable, go back to this verse in whatever chapter it is, where it says, here's what Jesus was doing, or here's who he was talking to, because that frames the parable, right? That frames the next couple parables or, whatever Jesus is gonna talk about. And the other thing I'm learning is that when you start to group all these parables together, when Jesus uses common imagery, he's used it before probably in another parable. So you start to pull on that thread and go, okay, what did he mean in that parable, right? I think we talked about that last time. And so those are just some of the things that I think I'm enjoying and I'm learning as we're going through these parables. Yeah. So today do you wanna talk about the initial verses? Before we get into, like I said, we're gonna talk about the prodigal son, do you wanna get into the initial verses of the backstory here of why he tells these stories? Yeah, maybe we could do that and then we'll let people listen to the actual story of the prodigal son. But yeah, you wanna start with the backstory here, because he tells two little stories leading up to it too, that are really interesting. yeah. Okay. So what's the backstory to this one? It's pretty simple, but they usually are, but what's the backstory going on here? Yeah. Yeah. It's just a couple verses at the beginning of chapter 15 that says the tax collectors and the sinners were all gathered around to hear Jesus, right? This is a common image of Jesus hanging around with the less than right. The prostitutes and the tax collectors, and then it says, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered this man welcomes sinners and eats with them, and then it starts off. Then Jesus told them this parable, right? So, yeah, that's the backstory. It's just, it's basically that the religious leaders, the religious elite, we're looking at Jesus saying, I don't really like the crowd that's starting to follow around him. I don't like the people that he's pulling toward him. And so, yeah, so it's this interesting thing that's going on where the religious leaders who should be out looking for the down and out, the people that society has pushed away, those are the people that the religious leaders should be looking for, and they're starting to hang around Jesus. And Jesus is getting this following, and the religious leaders don't like that. What do you think is going on with the religious leaders not liking the fact that Jesus is hanging around with the very people that they should be reaching out? I think a lot of these parables we're gonna talk about today actually address that very issue. The picture I Have is it says that tax collectors and sinners were talking with Jesus. Well, that's the wrong crowd. Right? And it's if tax collectors are basically turn-coats, right? They're working for Rome. They're Jews who are working with Rome. And of course sinners is a broad term of, it's not like, well, we're all sinners. It's more like, these are the unsavory people. Right? Jesus shouldn't be hanging around. And so the picture I have is Right. the Pharisees are in the background. They want to hear what Jesus is saying, but they're not going to be part of this crowd. They're above it, right? right. I guess you'd go back to this idea. We talked about this previously, especially the Pharisees. The Pharisees thought that the kingdom of God would be ushered in when Israel adhered to the covenant and the commands of God. And so if you are a quote sinner, you were part of the problem. Now you could say that, well, yeah, that's part of the problem, but you should be leading them back end. But that's not really their perspective. They just were thinking, you're part of the problem here. You're why God's kingdom hasn't come yet. Right? Yeah. No, I'm glad you pointed that out because well, they just couldn't get over that mental hurdle. And I think that is what Jesus is actually addressing in a lot of these parables. Yeah. And I'm glad you pointed that out because it is important to understand how the leaders in the ancient time in Jesus' time viewed sinners. Because it's easy to say, well, you know, what kind of pastor, what kind of modern pastor would say look, we don't wanna mess with the homeless. That's beneath us, or we want only the rich people to come to our church. It's like that's a terrible way to view. I can't even imagine a pastor doing that. But in Jesus' time, exactly what you just laid out is that they thought that the sinners were the problem. Where the reason Israel wasn't being redeemed to the prominence that they thought it should be. That's the way the religious leaders were interacting with Jesus at the time. And the other thing that to think about is the way the rest of the people interacted with what Jesus was saying. And so, again, we're gonna get into it in just a second, but Jesus used a couple of parables to sort of paint a picture about how the Hebrew God views us pitiful humans, right? And remember the culture of the time. You know, we just talked about what the religious elites thought, the culture of their time is that God's interfered with the plans of humans, but they certainly didn't want a relationship with us, right? Yeah. I meant, they were disconnected at best and they were petty and vengeful at worst, right? And so we mentioned The Odyssey earlier, and one thing that's obvious when you're reading Homer's, depiction of humans relating to the gods, you know, you have Calypso falls in love with Odysseus and keeps him from getting home by trapping him on the island and then Neptune or Poseidon sees him sailing toward the coast and he interferes again, right? There's example after example of the god's interfering with human endeavors, and that's pretty much how the listeners in Jesus's time, the non-religious listeners in Jesus's time, would've thought about a limited relationship they could possibly expect from the divine. That's how they saw it. So it's kind of these contrasting ways of how people are interacting And we're gonna get into that. Yeah, we're gonna get into that stories, too.'cause I do think in some of the later ones we talk about today, some of the ways you explain, wow, that's a weird story, is Jesus is actually kind of pressing, okay, how is it that you see God? How is it that you view interacting with the divine, right? And so some of them are intentionally almost absurd. Extremely absurd because I think Jesus is almost pushing that button of saying, yeah, this might be how you view God and that might be part of the problem. So there's all that wrapped up in these stories. But yeah, not to get too much ahead of ourselves. So you had the Pharisees, their worldview, right? And that tainted the way that they hear the stories of Jesus. So instead of like really wanting to understand what Jesus had to say, a lot of times they're like, Nope, that doesn't fit our paradigm right? That doesn't fit the way we view God. And so this is gonna be a problem. And so Jesus tells these stories, right? And so should we jump into the first one? The first one is the parable of the lost sheep. Okay? So really quickly in response to the Pharisees muttering, you know, this man welcome sinners and eats with them. Jesus told them this parable."Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and loses one of them, doesn't he leave the 99 and go into the country and find the lost sheep. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. And then he calls his friends and neighbors and says, rejoice with me. I found my lost sheep." So very simple story. Yeah. And then the coin, we'll go ahead and talk about both of these. Then he tells another one, the lost coin."Or suppose a woman has 10 coins and she loses one. Doesn't she sweep the whole house, search everything carefully until she finds it. And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice with me. I found my lost coin. In the same way I tell you, there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God when one sinner repents." Okay, so those are two very simple stories, but why do you think, well, let's start out by saying, why do you think Jesus told these in response to this interaction with the Pharisees? Yeah, well, obviously the first thing is yeah, if something's lost, you wanna find it. So that's the simple explanation of why he uses these stories. But the first thing I thought, well, the first thing I thought when I read the story of the sheep specifically is, you know, what is it that he goes out and he finds it. And then he calls all his friends together and celebrates and says, I've lost this. I was thinking, does that really happen? Is that the way a shepherd would deal with this? You know, because I would think that the real shepherds in the crowd are thinking, dude, I lose them all the time. And, you gotta go track 'em down and they wander off and, you know. No, I don't come back and have a big celebration. But maybe that's part of the sweetness of this story is that this story the shepherd comes back and he says, Hey, you know, I had a sheep and he is gone, and now I've got him. Let's all have, let's throw this big party. So that was kind of a funny thing that I had thought about. The other thing that I thought about, I think it's kind of interesting that you don't wanna miss that he has, because we love numbers. Is that the pattern kind of escalates, right? You know, you've got one lost sheep out of a hundred, you've got one lost coin out of 10, and then of course we'll go into the prodigal son where you just have one lost out of the two sons, you know, so you kind of see this escalating, this kind of, the emotional stakes sort of increase, I guess, you know, the more intimate it becomes. So he kind of tells these escalating stories. And I also think it's interesting that sheep and the coin are really short. But then he gets into this long, drawn out more complete story. It's almost like he's priming the crowd for the big story, right? He's throwing out a couple little ones and they're like batting that around. Okay, what is he talking about? You know, where's he going with this? And it's almost just like, I'm reeling you in for the big story to come. Right? Something like that. I gotta tell this story real quick. Yesterday my wife and I were cleaning out our closet. We're trying to make more room, incorporating some stuff, but my wife is in one corner. She's pulling stuff out and she pulls out a pair of shorts and she goes, are these yours? And I'm like, I don't think so. And she's like, they were stuffed way down in there, and I pulled 'em up and I'm like, these are mine. I used to love these shorts. I'm like, I thought they were gone. I'm, yeah. I'm like, I'm wearing'em right now, you know? And so it was like rejoicing over something. Yeah. So Did you I'll, I will add one, the parable of the lost pants too, because like, yeah. And I didn't call my friends together. But no, there's something about the excitement of going, oh, look at that. There's my shorts. I love those shorts. You know, so maybe that idea. Yeah. So maybe that idea of like, he calls his friends together. It's more of like the, internal frame of mind. You're like, man, let's party, let's go out, man, I found my shorts, or I found my sunglasses. You know? Yeah. No, that's a good way of thinking about it. That it's not necessarily that the shepherd would call his friends and, slaughter one of the sheep and eat 'em and stuff like that, right? You know, 'cause that doesn't make any sense. But it is sort of a, it is sort of a, that's what's going on in the person's mind. It's like, yes, I found this. And it's funny 'cause yeah, I did the same thing with a pair of sunglasses that I love. I texted my kids, they'll leave my sunglasses at your house. Is are they at your house? And everybody's like, no. And I forget where I found 'em now, but I tracked 'em down. I was like, ah, there, oh, Oh yeah. Okay. I. in a jacket pocket. I was like, that's where they were, a jacket that I never wear, you know? And I'm like, ah, I told you, you know? Yes. I'm all excited. Well, the thing I was also gonna say is that I like that in both of the parables, the thing that's lost isn't asking to be found. You know what I'm saying? Does that make any sense? Like, in other words, the lost sheep. And the lost coin don't seem to require a recognition of their lostness, right? They're simply misplaced. And for that reason alone, they're worth being sought after. And again, Yeah. You know, to think about it in the way that relates or the gods relate to humans. Remember, this is a pagan crowd and a religious crowd. But the way the Gods relate to humans it's not necessarily how we traditionally how they would've traditionally seen the way the gods interact with us. So Jesus is laying this story out, and it's also not really the way moderns interpret this story. In church this story would be interpreted as a metaphor about salvation. It's almost more about like intercession or advocacy, maybe. The lost item doesn't have more value. It's inherent value is never realized, I guess, so long as it's missing. Okay. Something like that. So, I think one of the things that I picked up on is okay, so a lot of this is Old Testament imagery, and we're gonna talk about more of this through some of other parables. But when you think of a flock of sheep, that's the way Israel was sometimes described in the Old Testament. So as soon as you hear Jesus starting to talk about a herd of sheep or a flock of sheep, I think the people, and maybe especially the Pharisees would pick up that maybe he's talking about Israel, right? And so that's the first thing I'd point out. I like the idea that you said whatever is lost, I forget how you said it, but you said it didn't intend to be lost. Right. And so you Yeah, Yeah, they don't recognize they're lost. right So that's a little different. does, I think Jesus initially is addressing the crowd, right? Where the Pharisees are looking down on the tax collectors and sinners and being like, why is Jesus hanging out with him? And Jesus tells the story then about a lost sheep. And I like what you said, because if you're paying attention, one of the things Jesus is saying is look, you're saying these are the lost sheep, right? And you're saying you're the problem. And, I'm saying that sheep didn't intend to go get lost, but it's the job of the shepherd to go get them, right? And so in a subtle way, he's pointing out what their role should have been. Here's what you should be doing, but instead you're too, you know, think about the absurdity of getting mad at the sheep for getting lost. You know, you dumb animal, what's your problem, Right. No, it's a sheep. It just wandered off, right? Like what? And it's your job to go get it. Yeah, it does what it does. Yeah. Yes. No, that's a great connection because you're right. I think that was a subtle jab at the religious leaders saying exactly what we said at the beginning. It's like, Hey, these are the people that you're supposed to be going after, but instead, you're blaming the sheep or you're blaming the coin. And how ridiculous is that? That's right. That stupid $20 bill. If I ever find that, I'm wading it up and throwing it away. Yeah. I'm ripping it up, man. I'll show that. Yeah. I mean, it's like you're only hurting yourself. Yeah, you're right. Alright, so any other comments about these little parables that sets up the story of the Prodigal son? I don't know, again, I just I'm gonna keep going back to this probably because I'm reading The Odyssey. I am gonna keep going back to this idea that the way the non-religious listeners of this parable viewed the gods right. Again, the gods traditionally, you know, to start off, it's in response to the religious leaders clearly being upset that Jesus is getting like some unsavory following. But then the other side of it is the Pagan listeners are thinking the gods don't traditionally mess with beggars and degenerates either, right? If they interact with humans at all, they attach themselves to the brave and the beautiful and the powerful. Even the religious leaders seem to buy into this way of thinking. So in this really interesting way, I've never thought about this, Jesus is addressing the two incorrect ways that people are viewing God. And so Jesus comes along with this story and implies that everyone, right, no matter what their social standing is a valuable lost treasure worth searching for. And that's just not the typical mindset of the religious leaders or the gods little g gods that, the yeah. And that's why maybe he explicitly says there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. It's like, let me tell you exactly how God views this. Let me tell you exactly how this is playing out in the heavens, right? Just so you don't have your own preconception of what God or the gods are doing right now. Jesus says, I'm gonna tell you explicitly how they view this. Yeah, I like that. Right. Okay. So then we get into the deeper story or the longer Yeah. And we'll pause and let the listener listen to this story'cause it's probably familiar. But again, pay attention to the little clues and then we'll come back and talk about it. Jesus continued. 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 then 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, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, so they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing, so he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father. Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him. My son, the father, said, you are always with me and everything I have is yours, but we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Alright. So obviously this is a very familiar parable. It's probably one that even if you didn't grow up in church you could convey the gist of what this story is about, right? So this is one, especially we have to pay attention to the details and we have to think about it in maybe a little different way in our backdrop. So what's one of the first things that jump out at you? The little details of this story. Well, okay. It obviously starts out with the younger son saying, Father, give me my share of the estate. So right off the bat, this is something that doesn't normally happen right? Until the father dies, you know? And so he comes before the father dies and he says, give me my half of the estate. So, right off the bat, it's obviously disrespectful, but it's also kind of absurd, right? I would think the listeners would be thinking, oh yeah, if my son did that, you know how far I'd smack him? You know what I mean? It's like they would all be kind of almost laughing at the absurdity of the younger son's request. So also in that time, it was kind of not traditional for the younger brother to get anything sometimes. And, you know, go back to the parable last episode where the brother wants Jesus to demand that his older brother split the inheritance right? And I actually meant to say this last episode because it seems unfair that the older got everything, or at least the lion's share. But remember that we're not talking about cashing out a 401k or splitting up, 10 bags of gold coins or something like that. This was an agrarian society typically. And so oftentimes all the wealth is tied up in farms or in livestock or in vineyards. And so it wasn't like it was liquid assets that we might think of today. And so the primary concern is to keep the family farm or the family business going. And in that case, there really need to be one person that was one heir that was in charge of the daily operations. And typically that would be the oldest son. And so I just, that was worth mentioning because in the last episode we were thinking, yeah, that is unfair. Why didn't the older son split the assets with the younger son? But again, it's just, it's probably a business. It's probably a farm. It's not something that can easily be split. You know, you're not just gonna say, Hey, we're gonna sell everything. And so you can have half and he can have half. And that's just not the way it works. But anyway, to get back to the story, obviously the younger son didn't, typically, sometimes didn't get anything and certainly didn't get the lion's share. And he did it before the father dies. And so this whole thing is just absurd, right. On its face. It's one of these where the story's so familiar to us that we have to listen to it again for the first time and let it shock us. Let it go, what? What a disrespectful little, you know. Yeah, a little punk that guy is. Punk? Yeah. But you're right. I think the last time I read this, I picked up on that idea that it's not even the younger son place to even demand an inheritance. It's not like, well, you're splitting everything 50 50. Man, it's not even your place. It's the older son who's supposed to do that. And I'm glad you pointed that out 'cause you're exactly right. A lot of times splitting an inheritance would mean basically liquidating the family business, right? Well, if we're gonna pay you out, well, we're gonna have to sell half of that acreage over there and we can work it out as the older brother who would divide the inheritance. We can work things out. We can all live on this property, share the profits and all. But if you're asking to be cashed out, well now I'm gonna have to sell cattle. I'm gonna have to sell sheep. I'm gonna have to, you know, liquidate them. And so that very much is implied with what's happening here, where it says he paid him out. You're right, he didn't just cash in a 401k, they probably had to liquidate land or maybe get out a loan. And so it's not ever only disrespectful to the father, it's disrespectful to the older brother too. Yeah. And it kind of throws a monkey wrench in the whole endeavor, you know? You know, one of the cool things about you and I when we went to Egypt is, do you remember kind of we landed and on the taxi ride into Cairo, all these buildings had these, Oh yeah. rebar sticking out the top of it. Do you remember this? And so I said to the cab driver, I was like, man, there's a lot of construction going on here. And he laughed. He goes, where? Everywhere. Yeah. Unfinished buildings. And he's like, oh, no. Yeah Yeah. All of, there's no roof on. Probably half of them, maybe even 60% of them didn't have a roof. And they were all concrete and floor by floor, but they all had this rebar sticking out the top. He said, oh no. He goes, that's for another story in case another family member comes, and joins. And he explained how it worked, where, I think he said the oldest, the eldest, the grandparents or the great grandparents had the top floor, which is counter-intuitive 'cause, you know, I'd rather be out on the street. Right. You know? But anyway, yeah, you literally moved up the level of the building that you were living on, as more people in the family moved into the quote unquote house. Now these look more like, I'd say small apartments, some four or five stories, but in any case, it was just a good, it was a good demonstration of the way that they viewed the family assets is, it wasn't seen as, again, a 401k where we're just gonna split it four ways. It was this building that everybody lives in. And if we add somebody to the family, we're gonna add another story to it. And then, so for the younger brother to come along and say, yeah, take floor, take level three out of this building. I'm taking it with me. I'm cashing out. You're like, well, that's not the way this works. You know, you realize how much you're screwing up. And that's what he was instigating, that's what he was asking for. And so, yeah, it's just a crazy request. Alright, but the father gives him the inheritance, right? Which again, is a subtle, like it says something about God, right? The generosity of God. Just that little detail like, because as absurd as the demand was, it's also almost equally absurd that the father says, okay, here's your half. Yeah. I mean, it's almost like I would hear that story and think what kind of pushover, you know, spineless father is this, that he doesn't say, you know, put the son in his place, right? But again, you know, he's trying to paint a picture here. And so, he's basically saying this is not the way Yahweh, God interacts with his, you know, the lost sheep. This is not the way he interacts with them. He doesn't blame the sheep. He actually gives into'em even when they're The other thing I'd point out, and then we'll move on to the story, is this idea of inheritance. And again, that has a lot of Old Testament background to it, the idea of, Israel's inheritance was the nation of Israel, but then they were to be priest because the ultimate inheritance is all of creation, right? And so there's that thread in there too. There's that idea of, right. you know, here's the younger son. I even thought of this idea of Isaac and Ishmael, right? It's almost like Ishmael is the younger one who wants his inheritance. And it's like, well, A, you're illegitimate, and B, it's like God has given us the inheritance of Israel, right? And you're running off into the other countries and stuff like that. So I don't, I, I don't exactly know how that ties in, but that thread is definitely there too as a backdrop. No, that's good. Yeah. That Israel is the older brother received the inheritance. Again, we're not talking about bags of money, but the responsibility of perpetuating Yeah. Yeah. The family endeavor. Right. And so, they didn't properly carry out the wishes of their father, and so, yeah. No, that's a really interesting thread to pull on that Israel had their inheritance already, or at least they had their marching orders and they didn't carry. It's very similar to this idea of the lost coin, right? Or the lost sheep, you know, you're berating the sheep when you should be out going to find them. And so there's almost a sense right off the bat that the older brother, maybe you could say, isn't doing what he's supposed to do. And we'll come back to that.'cause I do think that's in there. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's worth talking about, but we'll get to the end. But yeah. Okay. So the next section. Yeah. Okay. So the kid goes out, and we can summarize this: obviously blows the inheritance. He goes to a far away land, which again, there's some symbolism there, right? He goes to another land, he blows his inheritance, he parties I forget exactly what it says, but, you know, wine, women, song and the inheritance is gone, right? Right. Well, okay. So symbolically I'm glad you said that about that faraway land. The inheritance is your future, right? It's your identity and it's your future. Because it, ties to, yeah, it ties to where the inheritance came from, right? So the inheritance represents identity and future. The distant country represents that we're separating from that identity. We're separating from the source, right? We're going to a far away country. And then I think the fact that it's the youngest son and he's, the early demand, let's say, before his father even dies, is sort of like this, it's like this desire for autonomy without the maturity to know how to handle it. And so that's what this story kind of lays out. It's more than youthful rebellion is what I'm saying. It's easy to look at this and say, oh, we all know a wayward kid. And it's like, yeah, that's a component of it. But there's so much, again, this is so absurd that it's more than a youthful rebellion. It's like relational severance. It's like, I don't want anything to do with this family anymore, but I still want to demand what the family owes me, right? So to speak. And so, yeah it's something different. It's something more than just Well, I think the far off land also, remember Jesus immediately is in the company of tax collectors and sinners, right? And this is a problem for the Pharisees, and it's almost like the far off country is, yes, these are the people who are not Israelites, who are not Jews. And the question is, how are you going to view them? Are you going to view them as the problem, or are you going to view them as your responsibility? And so the far off country right, is, and you go back to Right. Old Testament again, like the 70 Nations, right? So there was Israel and the 70 Nations. Well, he's off partying in these 70 nations. Mm-hmm. And it's almost posing the question like, how do you view this? Are you going to view it as God is going to restore these to his creation and his kingdom and you are called to be a steward in that? Or are you just gonna look down on'em and say, well, at least we're Israel, we're not one of those guys. And so all that is in there already in this story. Yeah. Well, I like the idea of the inheritance representing their identity, because that's what it is. And then when he wastes it, now that's dissipation of your identity, right? You've lost it. And the famine, obviously, is sort of this natural external crisis that exposes the internal emptiness of somebody without an identity now, right? Yeah, It's something like that. And so, man, I'm glad you brought up the Israel connection because all this really takes on a more colorful meaning when you understand yeah. another layer of this story is Israel's responsibility that was ignored, squandered. Yeah. And I like the idea that the famine, okay, the famine is the inevitable hardship that's going to happen, that's going to send your party crashing down right when you haven't planned for the future. Again I like that it's like the far off land, the inheritance. You blow the inheritance, you are like, oh, I can get by. Well, that's fine until the inevitable crisis happens and now what are you going to do? Right. And that's what the famine is. Right. Well, you, yeah, and you end up with the pigs, you know, I mean, you're now, I mean, you don't have to go, we don't even have to go into the understanding what a pig represented in Jewish culture. But yeah, you're at the lowest social position you can possibly be in, and it's because you didn't plan for the future, and it's because you demanded your autonomy without having the maturity and the responsibility to understand what that meant. And okay, so the idea of him feeding the pigs too, pigs were unclean. So in Jewish tradition to be cavorting with the pigs and feeding with the pigs like that is purely what the pagans do, right? So the youngest son is not only disrespectful, he doesn't know his place, but he is basically, what? You might say, he is fully indulging in every pagan appetite out there. Everything about him screams he is not part of Israel. He should not be part of the inheritance. Right? Right, right. So not only did he lose his inheritance, it's almost like he lost his religion as well. You're now fraternizing with the pigs. You're running around in their slop, so obviously it's a deeper meaning than it had a crap job. You know? Man he ended up having to roof houses, or he ended up having to dig ditches. It's like, no. It's more than that. It's, he's fraternizing with the unclean, and that's a way of saying that he's basically turned his back on his family, obviously. But he's also turned his back on his, his what? His people. He's, he's lost it all. He's, he doesn't care about the fact that they're unclean. And so that actually stands in contrast to this idea of the lost sheep. It's like, well, the sheep didn't do anything to be lost . Right? But now Jesus is actually upping that. It's like now the lost sheep has done everything in his power to separate himself from the flock. So what's the shepherd gonna do here, right? That's kind of the tension building. Yeah. Okay, man. I'm glad, man, this is really interesting because now I'm thinking at first you think that the, let's say the religious elites would represent the older brother in this story, but now I'm starting to wonder if maybe the prodigal son is a pretty good representation of the religious elites. Do you follow I mean, it could be a little bit of both. Not meaning that they ran around and Whored with foreign women or anything like that, but as much as they took their inheritance, they took what they took the family endeavor and said, we're gonna use this for our own benefit. We're not worried about what the purpose of the family farm was carrying out. I just want the benefits of the money that is coming to me. And so they took it. Right. And then of course they don't plan, and now they're slopping with the pigs. You know? don't know. I'll have to think about that a little bit deeper. But I think that the listener could go maybe even both, a little bit of touch of both, you know, relate both ways to both the older son and the younger son. And that yeah. There's definitely an inversion here near the end that we'll get to where the older son has been set up initially to be the good guy, the younger, the bad guy. But the inversion happens at the end where it's almost like, okay, who's the bad son here? Which one really is the bad son? Right? And so, yeah I think right? the Pharisees would definitely see themselves as the older son, but maybe there is a bit of an inversion going on here where it's like, look, are you any better than the younger son that went out and whored and is slopping with the pigs and like, are you really any better than that because you've squandered your inheritance as well? Maybe it's something like that. Well, okay, so we're at this hinge, pivotal phrase that says, "he came to himself," talking about the younger son. He's in the pigpen. He looks up and he came to himself, right? It's like he realizes where he is at. And so, again, to go back to the sheep and the coin, they didn't realize they were lost. It's just a dumb sheep. It's just a coin that obviously doesn't, you know, it just is misplaced. And so this is the difference between this is now the younger son recognizes his lostness as opposed to the sheep in the coin. But also in contrast to the older son who, again, we'll get to it at the end, the older son really doesn't quite recognize his lostness or at least we don't have a satisfactory answer on what happened with the older son. And again, we'll get to that in a second, but at least at this point in the story, the younger son came to himself. He looked up at the heavens and thought, what am I doing here? I mean, my father, the servants at my father's house they get along better than I'm doing. So I'm headed back home, right? He comes to himself, and so he doesn't merely regret his consequences. It's like the light bulb goes off, and that's what that phrase represents, and it's just a pivotal And I like that realization that he's thinking about the servants in his own household and he's like, man, they have it so much better than I do. I could just go back and be a servant, right? And it's telling too, 'cause It's almost like he's, he's rehearsing his speech, you know what I mean? because he's speaking out loud, and it is obviously for the listeners' benefit, but it's just, yeah, I can just picture him just saying, man, this is saying it out loud. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, but at least you can make me one of your hired servants. It's almost like he's rehearsing this interaction of how he thinks the homecoming Yeah. Is gonna go with his father. Certainly he would've maybe even expected that his dad is not gonna welcome him home. He's just gonna like, look, I disowned the family. I wreck the family business, you know, I disrespected the older brother. I don't even presume to go home and be a son anymore. Right. I'll just be happy being a servant. no, it's pretty obvious that he assumes, Yeah. Yeah, he assumes his sonship is lost. alright, so the son comes home to his surprise, the father runs out and greets him and he says, quick, bring the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his finger, sandal on his feet. Kill the fatted calf. We're going to have a feast and celebrate. So it's interesting too, 'cause there's that celebration again, right? We're gonna celebrate what was lost is now found. Yeah. And something that the ancient listeners would've picked up on is that Middle East, patriarchal culture, fathers don't run, right? Fathers, that's just not something they do. And so the father running to meet him is almost like an image of the father absorbing the shame. That's the way I read that. You know, it's almost like when the father runs out, it's almost like a way to deflect this nasty mud-covered, crap-covered son coming up the driveway, right? And it's like, if I run out to meet him, everybody will be looking at me and my ridiculous shameful act of a man in robes running down the road. You know what I mean? It's almost like a deflection. And I think it's kind of him absorbing the shame, which is obviously a mirror of, Yeah. Christ's role in the future, taking on our shame on the cross. At least yeah. that's one way to look. It's almost like the father is setting the tone for how everyone else is gonna treat this lost son coming home, because by rights he should, be standing on his front porch and saying, well, I'm gonna make this kid grovel, right. I'm gonna make him come crawling up to me before I give him his room back, and stuff like that, right? But by running out, it's like he's setting the tone, he's setting the tone for the servants, for the neighbors. It's like, oh, wow. The son is welcome back, right? Without a doubt. Right. Yeah. And it's kind of cool because the son, while he's in the pigpen, is rehearsing this speech of Here's what I'm gonna tell my father. And he he doesn't even get that opportunity. You know what I Yeah, It's almost, yeah. And so before the son has the opportunity to finish, this rehearsed speech, you know, the father, he what calls for a robe, he calls for, oh, yeah. What do you think about that? He calls for a robe. He calls for a ring, he calls for sandals, and we have this feast. Do you see the symbolism in any of those things? I haven't thought about that, but put on the best robe, put a ring on his finger. My guess is the ring probably represents like his status in the family, again, you know, it's not just like, You know, a PA ring you got at Hot Topic or something like that, right? This is your status in the family. So my guess is the robe and the ring and the sandals all represent don't even ask questions. Like, this is my son. He is back maybe in charge of whatever part of the business even. My guess is something like that. Yeah. Right. Well, okay, so yeah, I noticed that right away. I was like, okay, man, you know how it is now that we think in these symbols, I'm thinking, all right, does that mean anything? You know? And so I thought, okay, the robe is restored dignity or something like that. We're assuming that he's like, covered in mud, or at least he's dirty and unshaven, so we're gonna put a robe on him. That's restored dignity. And then you've got the ring that is, Yeah. That's sort of that family identity. It's the bond. It's the covenant, right? Yeah. Right, right. And so it's authority, it's, he's restored authority. And the sandals are interesting because he is now a free son. He's not a barefoot servant, right? He intended to go back as a barefoot servant, but the sandals, it's not just that, oh, he doesn't have any shoes. It's a representation of servants went around barefoot. Sons don't do that. And it's like, put the sandals on him. Let's not have any more of this talk about you're coming back as a servant, 'cause that's nonsense. You were a son, and then of course you got the fatted calf, which is a public celebration, a public announcement that my son has come home. It's the celebration. Yeah. All that I think is something like, 'cause you might expect the father to say, go wash up and then we'll have a big feast. But it may be the robe and the sandals it's all just like. I don't know. I'm covering all the filth, right? You don't even have to go wash up. I'm covering it for you. Right. You're gonna wear my robe, put your ring on. Here's some new sandals. Don't even take time to wash up. Let's just party. It's something like that. Yeah. And so again, it's like, yeah, it's like he's absorbing the shame. Which again, is that Christ figure, you know, is what he's doing. Everything he's doing, he's either covering up the dirt or he is absorbing it himself by running. Yeah, I think it's just kind of a beautiful image. Even getting past the simple dad running down the driveway to meet you, you know? Man, there's a lot of weight to the words and the symbols that Jesus. All right. So we're having the celebration and then we pivot to the older brother. Then the older son was in the field, and when he realized what's happening, he said he heard music dancing, right? The DJs showed up and all that. So he calls the servant, says, what's going on? Your brothers come home. Now, it's really interesting because it says the older brother became angry and would not go in and at least in the NIV it says, he says to the father, 'cause the father comes out, he says, look, all these years I've been slaving for you. That's really interesting and it's probably been serving you, but there's something very disrespectful of like, I've been your slave for all these years. Like, that's a very disrespectful thing to say to your father, I'd have never disobeyed you. I highlighted that. And so you never gave me a goat. Basically he starts whining and here's my other brother. He goes and screws off and comes home and you celebrate him and basically this isn't fair. Right? Right, But it's interesting because obviously the younger brother has his problems and that's been outlined, but then you got the older brother and that line, all these years I've been slaving for you. He sees himself not as a son, but as an employee, you know? And so that's the way he views himself. And so, I don't know, there's something about that makes me think, what is it, proximity to greatness doesn't equal greatness. And it's something like, proximity doesn't equal intimacy. And so here's this son who's right by his father's side in a literal sense, but he feels like an employee, or at least he sees himself as an employee. And so he's not intimate with the father. He's only close to him by space. And the fact that he's on the same property and he never ran off. Right. And so, it's kind of this picture of like, obedience without love becomes transactional or something like that. Is the way I see the older brother kind of making his case. Really exposes the motivation of the older brother. He's coming across as, or he wants to present himself as the dutiful older brother. Right. You know, dad, I've worked for you. I've done everything right. I've done everything you've asked me to do. Right? I've never disobeyed your orders. I don't know where the mom was, but I'm sure the mom's like, yeah, I can tell you a Yeah. A number of times. this? Our Yeah. And give that look really, you've never disobeyed your father, right? Anyway, but I think he's really exposing what his true motivation is. Right? And there again it translates into that here's how I view God. Here's my relationship with God, right? If I do everything right, I'm gonna get the inheritance. It's not only I'm just gonna serve you, it's like I'm gonna slave for you. I'm gonna do everything right. You're gonna have no cause to question my loyalty. So when you die. I get that inheritance, right? And it's like, okay, now we're getting, yeah. Now we're getting to your actual motivation here. I also thought, 'cause when it said that the son was out in the field, the older son was out in the field and he heard the party and he comes in. I kind of felt bad for the guy. I'm thinking, the younger son's shown up, the least you can do is send a message to the older son out in the field and say, Hey, you know, your brother's back and, you know? Fly straight, you I know he is been gone, but we're gonna make this a celebration and blah, blah, blah. Right? But it's like, he didn't even get wind of it. And so there's a part of me that's like sympathetic to the older brother because it's like, yeah, well thanks a lot for telling me I would've liked to have <Yeah.> joined in this celebration. Now his response kind of exposed that it wasn't the case, but it's almost like he didn't even get the chance. And so when I thought about that, when I thought about the fact that, yeah, I'd be upset if I were the older brother and I wasn't invited, then it says that the father leaves the party to go talk to the, goes to the older son, right? And so I think it's this dual image. The father leaves the party for both sons, Okay, yeah. Right? The father runs outta the house and runs down the road to meet the younger, and then he has to leave. They're in the middle of this party, right or wrong, whether they invited the brother, but he leaves the party to go out to the older brother. And it's painting now this picture of God pursues both the rebellious and the resentful or something like that. You know, he, so. Anyway, that's how I made peace with the fact that they didn't, that they didn't let the older brother know that he had to find out secondhand from a servant. Well, and maybe you could read into the, but maybe the dad. I mean come on, dad kind of sees through a lot of this stuff, you know, and so maybe the father actually, he sees the dutiful older son and he knows it's kind of an act and he knows he's gonna be angry when the screw up son comes back, right? And so maybe it's just like, I'm not gonna bother him. He's just gonna throw a little temper tantrum 'cause I know what's going on beneath. Maybe it's something like that. I don't know. Yeah. Well, what did you think about when he said he told the son? All I have is yours. Yeah. I mean, he's still saying, look, the inheritance is yours. Yeah. It's almost like he's saying, calm down. I'm not gonna blow the whole family farm on this celebration, right? This is all yours, son. You know, it's like he's done what he's done with his inheritance. Everything I have is yours as he tells him. Yeah, he's almost like, reiterating. Don't worry, we're not running outta money yet, and everything I have is yours. I just think it's interesting that both sons that the first half of the story mirrors the second half of the story, right? Both sons misunderstand sonship. You know, the younger son says, I'm unworthy to be your son. And then the older son says, I deserve more as a servant. Right? It's this misunderstanding by both sons and both think of in terms of earning, you know, that the younger son says, look, just gimme what's owed to me and I'll get outta here, I'll get outta your hair. And then the older son is upset about, obviously he's afraid that the father doesn't realize that everything he has is his, he's gonna waste it on this younger son. And it's just both in terms of kind of what I can get out of the deal or in terms of earning and very little relationship in I also think you said earlier that we tend to think of this as, well this is how an individual, get saved or something like that. But you've also, I think it really helps to see this corporately as Israel versus the rest of the nations. And there's a little bit of foreshadowing with the prodigal son coming home of, there's a little bit of this foreshadowing of, you're not gonna like this, but this message of the kingdom of God is going to reach throughout the Roman Empire, and Gentiles are going to be a part of it, right? So you have this I don't know, you have this like inversion, I use that word again because the older son's done everything right, but at the end, he's like resentful of everything. The younger son has strayed, but at the end he's actually being folded back into the family. Well, again, that's the tension. Jews and the Gentiles, right? Yeah. Well, to go back to the younger son, I'm unworthy to be a son. That's sort of the unified voice of the Gentile. And then the older son says, I deserve more. And that could represent the unified voice of the, you know, the Jews of the original covenant. You know, it's like, we deserve more, shouldn't we have a higher status place than these gentiles? And I'm sure those were conversations that went on all the time as Jesus kind of came and created this new covenant and almost as if Jesus is sitting with this crowd of tax collectors and sinners. And Jesus is subtly saying, look, this rabble is who's going to inherit the kingdom of God and pay attention to the younger brother.'cause you're not gonna be happy about it. You're the older brother who's going, well wait, what about us Jesus, we followed all of the 613 laws of the Torah and we tithe meticulously and we're in synagogue every Saturday. And you're gonna let this rabble in. And it's like Jesus is saying, yeah, you're exposing your true motivations here. Because it was never a about how do we keep, Yep, yep, how do we keep creation together? Right? How do we do our part to find what's lost? How do we bring the younger brother back in? It's like you're just in it for yourself. Yep. Well, the younger son rebels openly, right in front of everybody, makes a mockery of the whole family. And the older son rebels, but it's internal. And that's just a perfect picture. That's a perfect image that the older son, if it represents Israel, is like, there's a rebellion going on there too. Don't miss that, right? It's just internal, and so one is lost in wild living and the other is lost in moral superiority or something like that, right? I mean, it's Well, it, I don't know. yeah. And it reminds me actually of another quick teaching that Jesus, I didn't put this together till now that Jesus said I'd have to look it up. But basically he says, there's a story of two sons where he says, one son, the father says, go do this. And one son says, sure, father, I'll go do it, but he doesn't. And the other one says, you know, oh, forget you. I'm not doing that. Oh But then he feels guilty and he comes back and he does what the father asks. And Jesus says, you know, which one was obedient? And it's almost like that's a CliffNotes version of this parable right here, right? Yes. That's excellent. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. No, that's great. And I love, I think it's interesting that there's no resolution with the older brother to kind of wrap this up. It's almost like it's saying that the stories end is yet to be seen or something like that. It's deliberate. I, right. It's almost like, yeah, it's up to you how this ends. Right. Yeah. Something. Yes. Yeah, that's right. And then also it's just kind of, again, this is Jesus saying, this is how God works, right? This is how God is represented. And if you take this whole story, you see that God allows freedom. He what absorbs shame publicly. We talked about that aspect of it that he restores identity without having, you know, before the performance of the son actually earns his sonship back, right? He restores that identity before that. He celebrates the repentance more than the obedience because the son coming back as a repentant act. And that's what we're celebrating, not the obedience of the older son, so to speak, right? And so it's just kind of this whole package that Jesus is tying together and this brilliant story is that I don't know that God's joy over repentance, it almost like it's disrupts our idea of fairness, right? And I think that's what this is supposed to do. I think you're supposed to leave thinking, well, what a terrible story that wasn't fair. You know, you're gonna take this son back. You're gonna diss the older son, not invite him the party, and you know what I mean? And I think that's what's supposed to, it's supposed to be a shocking story of grace. And it's almost like Jesus is saying, if this bothers you, get used to it because you're about to see, a more shocking display of grace here in a few years. Yeah, well I, that actually plays into this idea of fairness. I think it actually plays into this next parable we're gonna talk about. So this one's found in Matthew chapter 20 and it's kinda long too. So why don't we just pause and we'll let people listen to it and then we'll come back and talk about the workers in the vineyard. For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About nine in the morning, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, you also go and work in my vineyard and I will pay you whatever is right. So they went. He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing about five in the afternoon. He went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing? Because no one has hired us, they answered. He said to them, you also go and work in my vineyard. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the workers and pay them their wages beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first. The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came, who were hired first, they expected to receive more, but each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. These who were hired last worked only one hour, they said, and you have made them equal to us who have born the burden of the work and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them, I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first and the first will be last. Alright, so there you go. Yeah, this one's always kind of bothered me because it just the previous parable, it just doesn't, this even more so it doesn't play into our modern idea of fairness.'cause you listen to it and you're like, well, I'd be upset too. You know what I mean? So let's take this from the top. What are your takeaways right from the beginning? Well, so first of all, the setting is that Jesus is in Galilee, says he's been teaching to crowds that Pharisees are there and his disciples. So this is several chapters of the teaching. So at least, you know, as Matthew arranges all this, this is all in the context of Jesus teaching. It also starts off with the kingdom of heaven is like, but probably this is better. You could think of it in terms of, your heavenly Father is like this.'cause it's more about God, right? Than just the kingdom, broadly speaking. But that's the setting anyway. Yeah. So the first thing I guess is you need to know that a denarius is a day's wage. So today, I don't know, maybe $150. And another quick thing I'll point out and then see what you think about some of the details is this is another one where it says it was harvest time and he needed workers for the vineyard. Okay. The vineyard is another symbol of Israel. Alright? So again, and people sitting there listening to Jesus talk would pick that up. Okay. Jesus is talking about God's relationship with Israel. Okay? So this isn't just a common, at the harvest time, people would need to go reap their fields. But again, the vineyard is code for Israel. So I need workers in Israel because it's harvest time and harvest time is another code for judgment, right? And we're gonna talk more about that the last episode. So those are some of the nuances I see. Right. Well, we've talked about other parables. Yeah. We've talked about other parables where the wheat and the chaff, you know, so yes, harvest is always tied So there's all that symbolism then going into it, which might help make more sense of it because again, like you said, on the surface it is very unfair, you'd like, I'd be upset too. Right. I, and the short story is that he goes off at certain times during the day because more people are needed to finish the harvest. And it's also interesting too, because it says he went out, at least in the English verse, it said he went out at five o'clock and I believe that the day ends in Jewish times at six. So basically these last workers who were brought in at 5:00 PM they worked one hour, right? That's even worse, man. Yeah. So they worked one hour. Yeah. So those are some of the details. I don't know I have a story to tell, but I want to hear if there are any other details that jump out at you first. Yeah. Not really particularly other than the fact that the obvious details of, I'm glad you pointed out the vineyard and judgment, because it does give you a little bit better perspective than simply Yeah. Working eight hours uh or 10 hours in a day versus one hour, and you get paid the same. You're like, well, on anybody's metric, that's unfair. But when you're looking at, look, the harvest is coming, time is of the essence. We need to get people out there. Everybody needs to be doing their job so we can bring the harvest in, you know, and there's more of a time crunch idea. it's almost like the closer you get to judgment the more valuable every single worker pitching in is. You know you can kinda look at it that way. Yeah. And actually, my understanding is that's true when it comes to harvest time when it comes to vineyards. You and I've been to a couple of vineyards. I've been to Napa before and my understanding is time is of the essence. Like there is a short window or you start losing fruit, right? Or that fruit isn't at that peak readiness. So it is all hands on deck. So there is that aspect to it. So it's a great image actually. No that's a helpful image because I've always taken this parable to kind of mean that just because someone has lived a horrible and selfish life, and at the end they come to accept salvation. It doesn't give us the right to say that's not fair. Right. You know, I kept the commandments my whole life and this guy comes along at the last second, like the thief on the cross, you know, and receives the same salvation as me. But with you saying that it lets me know that there's a little bit more going on than being that simplistic. Yeah. Part of this parable is that time is of the essence. This is the urgency of the kingdom of God coming, right? So this is also Jesus again, talking about his own ministry. Like things are going to come to a head, they're going to move quickly, and time is of the essence that's definitely built into this. Okay. Yeah, no, that's helpful. What do you take about the whole, the last will be first and the first will be last, right? Because we've read that comment before in other places and I always read that as a sort of a comment on status, right? The rich and powerful got their reward in this life maybe, but the poor and meek didn't. And therefore they'll be elevated in the next kingdom or something like that, right? Why in this parable are the last to be hired, the first paid?'cause I think that's an interesting aspect of it. That's takes it a little bit deeper than what? Man, I think there's a couple things going on and I think it helps to tie it into some of these other parables as well. Like the older brother versus younger brother. If you see the last in as being the Gentiles, right? So the last will be first and the first will be last. It's that Older brother attitude again, right? Hey, we've been faithful the whole time. You know, why the heck are you paying him a full day's wage? I've worked here all day. And it's almost like, Right, right. it's almost like those who see, well there's the individual level too, where, you know, those who see themselves as above everyone else as actually going to have a lower status in the kingdom of heaven. But there is also this corporate thing where it's like, if you have the attitude that look, I've done everything right. I deserve whatever's coming to me. And Jesus is like, no, that's gonna put you at the end of the line. Right? Right. Okay. because I read it, it's like, okay it's already a benefit to come late in the day because you got paid as the people working the whole day, but then on top of that, you're getting paid first. Now at the end of the day, I guess everybody gets paid, but it's almost like, it's almost. It's like an extra insult. Not only do we all get paid the same, but the people who came last, I'm paying them first, so you better hope I don't run outta money on them. You know, something like that. I'm like, what? That's crazy. That's absurd. But you're right. When you layer on the Israel connection then it helps frame this a little bit clearer than simply a status thing. You know, the person who thinks there's something special is gonna go to the end of the line versus the meek and the poor. Yeah. I think it also speaks, gosh, it speaks to humility, right? That if you are going around thinking, man, I'm this super Christian, God must be super proud of me. It's like, man, you're gonna have to go through a period of humbling, right? Not necessarily back the line, but like, you're gonna have to, because you have to enter the kingdom of God with humility. You can't see yourself as more deserving than everyone else. But yeah, that corporate dimension really helps. I said I had a story, I'll tell the story real quick. When my wife and I moved from up north back down to Florida, where we're from for about six months, I worked at a florist and it was actually a really fun job. If it paid better, I would've just done that, right? But it was just a job to get by until I could find something that paid better, right? More of a career. But one of the fun things that we did. Right. Was pretty big florist, locally owned. But at Christmas time, we would decorate neighborhoods. We would decorate like entrances to subdivisions. One of the fun things was we decorated at Universal Studios in Orlando. I think it's like the Islands of Adventure, like all the restaurants and clubs area. We would go in early in the morning before anyone was there and we'd be decorating some of the restaurants and clubs and all that. And yeah, so you get to see a behind the scenes look of all that stuff. But we'd also decorate individual homes as well. So it was Christmas time and assigning work groups and a couple of people had said, man, you want to go decorate this lady's house. We're like, okay. So very nice house. Obviously a very wealthy woman, very gracious woman too. But at the end of the day, at the end of the project, we're done decorating. She said, alright, looks great. And then like people started lining up and we're going, okay, what's going on here? And she starts handing $50 bills out as tips slash Christmas present. And everyone who worked there, got a $50 bill. Okay. And so this happened a couple times, and the next year we actually said, Hey, if you need help on that house, you know, we'll be happy to go. So even though I had another job by then. Yeah. And I can remember like a couple of the people would show up about an hour before we're done and go, Hey, you know, just wanted to show up, see if you guys needed any help cleaning up. And we're like, no, we know exactly what you're doing. You know, you're wanting to be in line. And you know, sure enough, she's handing out $50 tips and they're in line too. But I think of that and I think, like, so I could look at that as profoundly unfair, or I could just look at it as everyone joining in this woman's generosity.'cause none of us, expected a $50 bill for a tip, right? So, I don't know. I look back and I'm like, ah, I wasn't even that mad about it. You just kinda laugh about it. You're like, yeah, I know what you're up to swooping in 30 minutes for closing time, right? So, I don't know. I think it's something like that. Nope. I am, I'm a heathen. Yeah, I'm a heathen. That's still, that upsets me. Even that story right there, I'm like, Nope. Screw that guy. Get him outta here. I wanna expose him when he gives up to get his $50 bill, I'm gonna say, Hey, know, you know that he just showed up like 10 minutes ago. You know how he's playing this game, right? No, that's, that is absolutely great. No, that's a perfect story that lines in exactly with what's going on here. To your point, it's about the generosity of the woman's house. It's about the generosity of the vineyard owner. And it's only unfair if we have the mindset of comparison to others or something like that. Yeah, it's perfectly fair if we agreed to work for a denarius, but there's an implication here that when we consider what other people have done and what other people have been forgiven of, right?'cause this is ultimately about forgiveness, then we fall in this trap of thinking that someone else's debt is greater than yours. Do you know what I mean? And so that, it's kind of what I'm saying is it's kind of absurd to imagine the mindset of a person that says, man, I could have gotten away with so much more my whole life and just come in at the end, right? You know? And it's like, that's not forgiveness either. That's like, it missing the whole point, also. you know what I mean? When you see it as forgiveness, you know, it's just, yeah. It frames it a little bit clearer, right? And there's this one line that kind of often gets missed in this that says or are you envious because I'm generous, right? I I have the right to do with what I want with my own money, or are you envious because I'm generous? Right. No, because that frames the problem that gets to the root of the problem.' The real issue isn't fairness, right? It's envy rooted in comparison. That's the real problem. And you could think about it like this. The first workers are not angry about their wage. They're angry about somebody else's blessing. That's what they're angry about. And that's what this parable is kind of about. Yeah. Anything else about this? Don't know. I just think it's spiritually diagnostic. It's very similar to the older brother in Luke 15. You know, you've got this pattern, you've got the older brother resents grace, and then the early workers, they resent generosity. And so you kind of see this pattern between these two. And I think they connect well. Yeah. And that's where I think it does help to let these parables interpret each other.'cause once you get a picture of the older brother, now you also get a picture of the workers who were there at the beginning of the day, you know? And I do think it's important that it's like, Hey, I paid you a full day's wage. What are you complaining about? Yeah. everybody got paid. So it's not like you got cheated. Alright, so a couple more. And these are shorter, so we'll try and move through these pretty quick. Alright. Back in Luke chapter 11, there's a shorter one. It's called the Friend at midnight. So in Luke 11, Jesus says, "Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, friend lend me three loaves of bread." It's late at night. His friend has showed up for a journey and he's out of food. And the one inside says, don't bother me. The door's already locked, right? The children are bed, the wife's asleep. Don't bother me. It's interesting 'cause he says,"Even though I tell you he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity" is what the NIV says. Or because he doesn't wanna lose face, right. Or something like along those lines."He will get up and give you as much bread as you need." Now I forgot to say this was a parable about prayer. Alright, so in that context, this is really weird that the one inside is really kind of a jerk, right? Right. Yeah. So, so what do you think's going on with this presenting really God as this person who is kind of annoyed that you're banging on his door, but well, he'll give it to you because it's the only way to get rid of you. Right? Right. Well, I think this is less about, this is, like I said, that this is God and this metaphor, I think it's less about that and more about this is the way people perceived God or the gods, Right. You know, in that time, in that culture, they're like, yeah, I'm not gonna go to a God and ask for bread for the day. That's just not something that I would take to the divine. and so I think this is trying to present an image of, even if this kind of jerk homeowner, you know, if he's going to end up giving bread to the neighbor because of the persistence, how much more is a loving God that actually loves you, you know, actually wants to have a relationship with you, like the image in the prodigal son, you know, how much more is he gonna do that? And so I think it was more of addressing the way the listeners viewed God in the day as opposed Yeah, I think that's right because it's interesting that right before this, we should have kind of laid the context out, but the disciples say, teach us to pray. And he actually teaches them the Lord's prayer, right? So it's interesting that part of the Lord's prayers give us this day, our daily bread, and then he tells this story about asking for bread, right? But it's just so strange that he, you know, presents it as like, man, you gotta pound on that door and beg this guy for bread. But I think you're right. I think he's actually getting at this is how you view God. And I'm telling you, this is not how God is. Right? If you pray the Lord's Prayer, give us this day, our daily bread, you will see that God provides. You don't gotta be the guy pounding on your neighbor's door annoying him until he throws a loaf of bread out the window at you. Right. But that's how too many of you perceive God. Yeah, I think you're right. That's what he's saying. Yeah. And the other confusing thing is this the word, what did you say in the NIV? Shameless audacity? So I read that and I'm thinking, well, that's how I'm supposed to pray with this shameless audacity. But I think, and I looked this up, the word, I forget what the Greek word is or the Hebrew word, but it implies a boldness rooted in relationship. It would be the audacity of the president's 4-year-old son walking into the Oval Office and saying, dad, will you play with me? It's more of that image, you know, you could look at that and say, that's ridiculous what 4-year-old can walk into a president's office. Well, the son of the president can, you know what I mean? And so that's what it's laying out there. But also so when you see that kind of the boldness in relationship, you also get a picture of, there's something desperate about persistence, right?. You know, I'm, I'm most persistent about the things in which I'm most desperate, right? And I think we view that word persistence, kind of like the kid throwing a tantrum in a grocery store, right? Or the kid's in the backseat, you know, are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No. You know, that's like just a persistent, annoying, you know, that kind of annoying feature, you know. But persistence can also imply that I've tried everything else. Nothing I am can do is working. But you have the solution that I can't live without. It doesn't shout because it wants attention. It knocks because it has nowhere else to go. That's the type of persistence instead of the, the annoying kid in the backseat. Yeah. And that's gonna tie into the next one we're gonna talk about. But there is that idea of persist after something that you really want, right? And I think that speaks to, I don't know, I read that, 'cause that's definitely in both of them. I think it speaks to this idea of, I dunno, sometimes in prayer we say things flippantly like, God it would be great if you gave me this. And it's like, well, how badly do you want it? Right. And it's not like this dangling. It's not like this. Okay, I'm dangling this in front of you. It's more like, okay. If you want it, let's work together. Let's make it happen. But you're gonna have to work, right? You're not just gonna sit back and I'm gonna throw this thing in your lap, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it goes back to this idea that we talked about a couple episodes ago about, truth in the Garden of Eden seemed to be self-evident. You didn't have to work for it. And after the fall, now we're gonna have to work for it. Now we're gonna have to dig, now we're gonna have to work the soil, those types of things. And I think it's something like that. It's like, when you pray you have to be persistence means desperation. And what are you desperate for? What are you really searching for? And if you're really desperate for something come to God in prayer, and like you said, it's almost like, yeah, we'll work this out together, and not that I'm just gonna drop it in your lap. It's not just gonna fall from the sky, but yeah. We'll kind of do this as a relational arrangement. The same way you would if you went to your dad and said, Hey dad, will you help me with this or that. Kind of a disconnected dad would just say, yeah, here, How much do you need? And write a check for it. You know, most reasonable dads are gonna say, yeah, let's work together. Let's figure this out. Let's do this, right? and that's kind of the image that they're painting. Okay. So I also wondered, I wonder if this idea of, you know, the neighbor, gosh, this gets into it. The neighbor doesn't want to give any bread. I wonder if that's almost a picture of how the Pagans approach their God, right? We're asking God to bless the harvest. So we're gonna do all these elaborate things and we're almost going to annoy the God, or we're going to bribe the gods, right, in order to give us these things. And if we've done everything right and we've made the right sacrifices and we've done all this, then maybe the gods will pay attention to us momentarily and bless our harvest. So maybe that's a picture of, Hey, this is how pagans think prayer works. Yeah, no, I think it is, it's more about the listeners of the audience, how they viewed God, as opposed to this is the way God is. Okay. This is really similar. Then we're gonna try and move on. This is really similar to another one in Luke 18 that is the unjust judge. And this is another one while I go there. This is a, another one where he says,"He told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not give up. And then he said in a certain town there was a judge." Now it's interesting 'who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.' He goes out of his way to say, this judge is a godless jerk, right? But the woman had been slighted against, the woman kept persisting, right? And finally the judge relents and says, " Yet, because this widow keeps bothering me, even though I don't fear God or care what other people think, I will see that she gets justice." So she won't come and attack me, or basically, so she'll just stop bothering me. And then he says, it's interesting. He says, "Listen to what the unjust judge says." And so again it's almost like the judge is obviously the God figure, but again, it's this, maybe it is back to that idea of Hey, and some of you, this is how you view God, right? Right. Yeah. Well, and I think this is important. Jesus doesn't say that God is this type of judge. He uses an imperfect image to reveal a truth, a perfect truth, maybe. And this judge, like you said earlier, this judge is some kind of shadow version of what people fear God or the Gods might be. Right? And so he says something like, even if the world were run by such a cold, such a disconnected God, then endurance and persistence will lead to justice, right? And that's probably the way the pagans viewed this. Yeah. And again, it just takes me back to that discussion about truth. That in the Garden of Eden, that truth was evident. You know, I don't know. There's something there. And I think he's saying that this parable of justice, kind of in that same way. It's gonna be a struggle. You're gonna have to dig and you're gonna have to find, and that's kind of what they're laying out there. Just as we were talking, I also think there's a tie into earlier parables where it's like the wheat and the tares, right? You have to coexist with the tares, right? In an imperfect world, you have to coexist, but there is still goodness in the world. And I wonder if there's a threat of that, of, look, you're gonna deal with unjust judges, you're gonna deal with unfair people, but if you per persist, what if you persistently pursue what is true and good, there is goodness to be extracted out of the world. Something like that. Yeah. Justice can be found even in an imperfect system. So therefore, if you're gonna enter into a relationship with this perfect God that I'm trying to lay out for you guys, Right. Then how much better can that be? And, it's using the imperfect image as a contrast that this even it, maybe he says it without saying it like this even works with the pagan gods guys. Right. You know, this works with Zeus and this works with you know, your pagan gods. And so don't you think it's gonna be that much better with Yahweh God? I think that's kind of, there's a little bid of a hint of that at least. And look, we all find, I think we all fall into a trap at some point in our life of we have an incorrect view of God, right? And like I can tell you that there was a time where, I don't know, I'm very right and wrong oriented. And there was a time where if I did something wrong, I was sure God was mad at me, right? So, God, to me, for that time period was the really harsh father, you know, oh, you screwed up again. I'm gonna come after you. There're gonna be consequences. And I had to learn to shed that. And so I can see a story where Jesus, might tell someone like me or someone, well, yeah, that, Hey, a son went to his father who was always harsh, right? But in the end, didn't the father love his son? Or something along those lines. And it's like, okay, that's not so much about God as it is how maybe I'm my relationship with God right now. Well, that's what's so great about the prodigal son is I think everybody can relate to I'm either the prodigal or I'm the older son. It's just really easy to put one of those shoes on. And it's funny you say that you're the older son or you're the, you're very black and white.'cause you know, between you and me, I am the younger son and I'm the prodigal. You know, that kind of runs off a little bit and gets a little wild. But yeah it is, it's just, you can relate to one or the other. And so that's why I think that parable particular is so powerful, but it's also all these parables. I mean, it's okay. Look at the parables we went through today. We went through lost things or found, generous wages, bold, persistent prayer. The persistent widow, right? And what unifies them is not fairness like we talked about. It's not merit, it's not ritual, right? What unifies them is that the kingdom operates on relationship, not transaction. It's something like that. That's the kind of unifying element with all those. And when you see that all of these together, that's why all these parables together really paint a picture of a God that wants a relationship, not a God who operates in either fairness, like maybe the pagan gods did. You know that the richest and most powerful are the ones that are gonna get their blessings? It's the exact opposite of all that stuff. So really, Jesus is kind of upending both the religious leaders that are, I mean, go back to the original question of the religious leaders were worried about who Jesus is hanging out with. And so he's answering that issue with the lost items, but at the same time, he's answering the other issue of this is not how the Pagans view their God either. And so he's upending both people's worldview. And when you take all these together, it is interesting. I imagine if you followed around Jesus and you were writing down what he was saying and like you do get a really clear picture of okay, whatever my view of God is, is probably totally wrong, right? Because you're saying God is wildly generous, God is forgiving. You're also saying that everyone who I think is on the outs with God is going to be the first in. And you're also saying all the self-righteous people, you know, all the really good people they're gonna have problems. They're gonna have issues. It's right? I think you have to, I think you have to let it just scramble your worldview, right? Taking all this together and you just go, well, I, gosh, talk about truth. You're like, well, I don't know what's true anymore, right? Because you're just like scrambling my whole view of what God was like and what religion is like and the place of the pagans around me. And alright, I'm gonna have to reorient my whole worldview and look at things differently. Well, that's exactly what Jesus was trying to do here. Yeah. And don't we do this today? If you were to run into somebody that said, oh man, listen, God doesn't want to have anything to do with me. You have no idea the dumb stuff that I've done. You're like, man, the Bible's is full of stories that talk about people who do dumb things and still, and are still considered sons. It's like you're exactly who Jesus is looking for, right? But it does, it just undermines all your worldviews whether you're the religious elite who says, well, at least I'm keeping in commands. It's like, well, don't be so quick to think that you're feeling like a servant makes you a son, right? And then to the prodigal, it's like, well, I'm not worthy to be your son. Well, don't be so quick to cast your lot with the pigs. There's a father that's gonna run to meet you. And so, man, I, do, I just love how this undermines so many different worldviews and, it just makes, it just paints an amazing image of God that people even today struggle with, but certainly the people of Jesus' time when you understand how they viewed God and the gods, in their culture. Man, and there's even stuff we didn't get to, but I think we're out of time probably. So, yeah. Gosh, everyone. Yeah, we Yeah. long on this one. Well, and we've had been having technical difficulties throughout this whole episode too, so this has been a struggle to get through. Yeah, that's probably worth saying that if you see the audio drop or something, we'll try to edit that stuff out, but. I'll edit out the part where I threw my headphones across the room 'cause my mic accidentally muted for the 20th time. But yes, some of the behind the scenes thing. So if you know of a good internet service provider in the St. Pete area, please leave the comments If no, this is another one where she. know I just I don't know. I come back to this idea, you can't just read one parable and go, yeah, this is what this means. You have to take 'em all in and you have to let them interpret each other. Alright, so we're gonna wrap up next time with the threshold moment parables. And I know we've said several times that there is a big aspect of judgment in a lot of these parables, and that's what we're gonna talk about next time. Okay. Great. All right, man. There we go. Thanks for listening. We hope this conversation gave you a fresh way of seeing these ancient stories and maybe even a new way of seeing your own life. If this episode was helpful, feel free to share it with someone you think would enjoy it. You can also find more episodes and resources at navigating and ancient faith. Until next time, keep paying attention and we'll see you in the next episode.
