Luke

The Lost Sons is based on Luke 15: 11-32

Problems in Retelling

This is one of the ‘big’, well-known parables. It’s also a pretty big parable in length, with three distinct sections: the younger boy goes away, he returns, the father celebrates, the older boy goes away. There is no final ending, it’s left open.

One problem in retelling is that the first two sections (The Prodigal Son) are very well known, to the extent that people frequently think they’re what the parable is about. The return of the younger son has been the subject of a lot of famous paintings; ‘prodigal’ now often means someone who repents and returns.

Another problem in retelling is that because we emphasise the first two parts, we tend to associate this parable with ‘everyone who repents is welcome’. Yes, it is saying that. But not just that.

And the final problem in retelling is that the older son just can’t catch a break. Either his part gets missed out entirely, or he’s cast as some kind of villain-of-the-piece. This is something increasingly noticed in the more modern commentaries; older commentaries tended to make the older son a ‘Pharisee’ allegory and then assume he had no good points whatsoever.

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The Lost Garnet is based on Luke 15: 8-10.

The Coin

I often find lost coins without searching for them. Coins nowadays are of so little value that I frequently find them on the streets, where someone’s dropped them. Far from searching frantically for them, people didn’t bother to stoop and pick them up.

In the UK, the highest value coin we have is £2. If a modern Jesus asked us if we’d search every nook and cranny of our homes for a £2 coin, the answer would be ‘errr… no?’ We’d have to be completely broke to be that desperate.

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