Surprised by Grace (38): True Prodigal?

Prince Harry is coming home!

Some says “the circus is back in town!”

Boris Johnson said it was time to refresh the teaching of the Prodigal Son.

Others commented sarcastically.

There was an X post pairing the side views of Harry with that of James Hewitt, once the lover of Diana, purporting to show remarkable resemblance.

It clearly challenged Harry’s standing to claim even the morals in the story of the Prodigal Son.

That’s a very interesting point.

Not that I care much about Harry’s claim to be a son of King Charles.

But that raising the legitimacy of being a son makes absolute relevance to the applicability of the Prodigal Son parable.

If you are not actually a son, then there’s no need to talk about the Prodigal Son.

End of story.

You see.

Now since Jesus was a Jew and whatever he said and did arose from amongst a Jewish first century milieu, it’s reasonable to assume it should be understood by a Jewish mindset.

To a Jew there’s no smaller and more cohesive unit than that of a father and son.

To realise how discriminating and guarded regarding such relationships the Jewish mindset then operated, one just needs to recall the question they had posed towards the Laws’ teaching of “love your neighbour”: “who’s my neighbour?”

If they could even try to make becoming “neighbour” so strict and narrow, imagine how much more so when they are considering you as “son”!

Who then qualifies as a son of the father in the Prodigal Son parable?

Well of course, sons of Abraham, Issac, Jacob.

Israelites!

What about pagan gentiles, like Chinese, Pakistanis and whatnot?

Well . . . though luck!

Other than Israelites, tons of people, biblical scholar whatnot, suggested that all creation being sons and daughters.

That’s really to me, wishful thinking without Biblical discipline.

Be that as it may.

But I believe in the NT, it’s been laid down how non Israelites could be called “sons”.

Gentiles are as sons by adoption.

There isn’t any belittling.

In Greco Roman times, even the Emperor adopted powerful people as “son” to boost his own status.

And in Paul’s Ephesians, he penned:

“he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—” (Eph 1:5 NIV)

So it’s not by creation that all are sons, entitled to the Prodigal Son prerogative.

It’s by His will of adoption.

All those who believe in Jesus Christ, “through Jesus”, are considered as sons (and of course daughters).

So there you go.

If the lesson of the Prodigal Son be applied to Harry as Boris Johnson suggested, then it applies to all as suggested by Paul in Ephesians.

And don’t you think it’s a surprise by Grace that we non-Israelites can be in this conversation ?