Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

The Parable of the Prodigal Son as told by Jesus in the New Testament and recorded in Luke 15:11-32 is the story of the younger son of a farmer who goes to his father and asks for his inheritance, which his father grants. The son leaves his home and journeys to a far country where he spends all his money in reckless living and falls on hard times. When a famine in that country forces him to take work feeding pigs that have more to eat than he does the son reflects on his plight and reasons, “If I return to my home and tell my father that I am sorry for my behavior and say, ‘I realize that I have brought shame on myself and upon you, and am no longer worthy to be treated as your son so I ask that you treat me a one of your hired hands,’ I will be in much better condition than I am now.” And he leaves the far country and makes his return home.

This reminds me of The Princess Bride where Mandy Patinkin practices his lines, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” I envision the son practicing his lines all the way home, and when he arrives there, that is exactly what he says, following the script perfectly. But it was completely unnecessary because while the son is still some distance from home, his father sees him coming and before the son can say anything his father runs to embrace him and kiss him and welcome him home with gladness in his heart, kissing him and welcoming him home. When the son gets his chance to deliver his lines, his father brushes his words away, saying, in effect, “Get out of here with that talk! Your litany of confession and repentance is completely out of place here! I am your father and you are my son! You were lost and now you are found! You were dead and now you are alive! Welcome to the joy of your father!” And he called his servants to dress his son for the party and make things happen to celebrate the return of his long lost child, which they do.

Meanwhile the older brother gets word of what is going on and refuses to go into the party and the father goes to him to urge him to join the festivities, telling him, “All that I have is yours but now is the time to rejoice and celebrate for your brother was lost and is found, was dead and is now alive!”

Which raises the question, “What would the son have had to do for the father to say, ‘You are no son of mine! Go back to where you have been, and never even think of coming here again! Hell itself is too good for you and your kind! Get out! Get out! I don’t want to see you ever again!’”

Would the son have had to be gay? Transgender? Perhaps a physician who performed abortions? A drug dealer? A male prostitute? An atheist? What would it have taken for the father to say, “Be Gone, Damn You! Stay out of my sight forever!”? The father would have never said that. Yet, the religious establish-ment of Jesus’ day would have said it to anyone who was poor and could not pay the Temple Tax. They would have said it to lepers and to the families of lepers. They would have said it to the undesirables of every shape, size, gender, variety. They would have said it to Jesus.

And so would the so-called Christian churches today, even though all of them have signs on their front lawn saying “Everyone Is Welcome.” With the unstated line being “except those who don’t fit the mold.” And there are 10,000 ways of not fitting the mold. Asking questions being the most significant one. Particularly questions the church cannot answer.

The parable blows away all concepts of merit and reward and what we must do to be deserving of such—which raises the question, If our birthright is heaven, or its equivalent, on the other side of death, why bother with the church here, now?

This question is one of those not allowed. And the church through the ages has used the parable of the Prodigal Son to talk about the son’s repentance. But the son never repents. He never said, “I am sorry.” He said, “If I say I am sorry,” continuing the con-man, shyster routine he was so accustomed to running. And the father gave no thought to the son’s memorized lines and welcomed him with the genuine gladness of a father upon seeing his son.

The elder son shows his true colors in reacting as he did to his brother. “I’ve never had a party! Yet, this scoundrel gets all the glory!” The eldest son’s motives are exposed for what they are, playing it smart and inheriting all of the wealth of his father, instead of just enjoying the father for who he was, and his own position for what it was, without thinking about gain or reward, and letting the day be sufficient for itself every day.

And in telling this parable as he does, Jesus was making plain that it is the attitude/perspective at the heart of self-transparency, that is called for in the Kingdom of God:

Simply seeing, being, doing what is called for and needs to be done, in each situation as it arises, with no motives, expectations, agendas, plans, opinions, desires, stipulations beyond doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place for no reason other than the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it alone. In each situation as it arises, forever, that is at the heart of the Kingdom of God.

This is the innocence, integrity, sincerity, spontaneity, transparency that makes us “transparent to transcendence” (Joseph Campbell), and brings the wonder of that which has always been called “God” to life in our life, so that we and “the father” become one in this way, and all are blessed by the grace and beauty of “more than words can say” in the here and now of the day-to-day.

The Prodigal’s father proclaims, “It is time to celebrate and be glad for your brother was lost and is found, was dead and is alive!” Two things here: It is the son’s birthright to be welcomed home! By virtue of his birth, he belongs home with the father and his family! There is no original sin keeping any of us out of the father’s good graces! There is no need of redemption, of atonement, of repentance, of confession and penance, of crawling on our stomach to show our remorse for all our sins, etc. All we have to do is show up to be welcomed home by our heavenly father.

That’s the first thing. The second thing is like unto it. The father says about the prodigal son, “My son was lost and is now found, was dead and is now alive!’ The younger son has been raised from the dead! The younger son has been resurrected! We do not have to be redeemed because we are resurrected—just as Jesus was resurrected—we are as Jesus is! We are Jesus!

This is the true meaning of the word “transubstantiation.” It is not that the bread and wine of Communion are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, but that WE are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, in a “Thou Art That” kind of way! And it becomes our birthright. We are daughters and sons of our father, and are welcomed into his presence as a right of birth, as sisters and brothers of Jesus, who was the Son of God, and we are all sons and daughters of God, and have been resurrected as the Prodigal was, dead and now alive, lost and now found. It is only a matter of realizing and becoming who we are, one with the father, and the son, and the holy spirit!

This is called “Turning the light around.”

And, it is the truth of the Parable of the Prodigal Son for all who have eyes to see, and ears to hear and hearts to understand. It is easy to see how this parable along with everything else Jesus did and had to say (“The father and I are one!” “When you have seen me, you have seen the father,” “In as much as you have done it, or failed to do it, to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it or failed to do it unto me!”)

These texts would have been more than enough reason for Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin to sentence Jesus to death that led to his crucifixion at the direction of Pontius Pilate—with nothing about it being connected to a sacrificial offering by Jesus to God as atonement for the Original Sin of Adam and Eve which was inherited by all of their descendants and broadened to include all human beings on the earth throughout time.

The idea of Original Sin being passed along to descendances is also rejected by four Old Testament texts:

Psalms 49:7 reads —  “No one can redeem the life of another, or give to God a ransom for them.”

Deuteronomy 24:16 — “Parents are not to be put to death for their children’s sin, nor children put to death for their parent’s sin. Each will die for their own sin.”

Jeremiah 31:30 — Whoever eats sour grapes, their own teeth will be set on edge.

Ezekiel 18:20 — The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

So the idea of Jesus dying for anyone has no scriptural support beyond the theological gymnastics performed by New Testament writers in the nearly four hundred years between Jesus’ execution and the closing of the Canon in 392 CE.

But they don’t tell you that in Sunday School. Which doesn’t imply that we dump Sunday School. The church that wakes up is still the church. Read all I have said about “the community of innocence,” and get to work BEING THE CHURCH!!! We aren’t getting rid of God. We are getting rid of THEOLOGY! (Or, “How To Tell Lies And Make Them Sound Convincing.”) That which has always been called God is still called God. Not even the cross has to go! We are all resurrected! And there are all those Jesus sayings about “You cannot be my disciple without picking up your cross daily and following me!” Crosses are EVERYWHERE people are speaking/doing the truth!!! The Church will finally be getting it right. And the word “Revival” will take on a new meaning at last.