The Parable of the Prodigal Son trumps Original Sin. Jesus told the Parable of the Prodigal Son to flip the fundamental religious assumption of the day and the foundation of Jewish religion, and religions world wide, that God was angry with the entire human race and that it is the burden of humans throughout every generation to make God happy so that God would forgive their sins and all would be right with the world. Jesus had a different take on things. And he lived to turn the light around. “You have heard it said,” he said, “but I say unto you!”
Where did he get the gaul? How did Jesus get to the place of being able to throw out everything the Jews had believed for centuries? The Parable of the Prodigal Son transforms the theologies of every religion of every age. We don’t have to say we are sorry. We don’t have to repent and be baptized. We don’t have to make anything up to God. God is like the Prodigal’s father. All of humanity is like the Prodigal Son. The interesting thing about the traditional understanding of the parable is that it completely ignores the entire point of the story. The traditional understanding is that the Prodigal said he was sorry. Read it out loud. Slowly. The Prodigal wakes up in the foreign land, down and out, with no money and no future and says, “If I go home and tell my father that I am sorry, he will welcome me home and even if I have to work in the fields I will be better off there than I am here!” Note that he doesn’t say “I am so sorry for all that I have done.” He says “If I say I am sorry for all I have done.” Big difference.
And we might imagine him rehearsing his lines all the way back to his father’s house: “Oh Father, Father, I am SO SORRY for all I have done….” And when he gets home and his father runs to great him while he is still a quarter of a mile away from the gate to his father’s farm, the son starts his well-memorized speech, “Father,” he starts, “I am so SOR” And his father cuts him off mid-word, saying, “Get out of here with your prayers of confession and your litany of forgiveness and restitution! There is no need for any of that! For you were lost, but now are found! You were dead and now you are alive! Come into the joy of your father and the feast of joy and celebration!” And that is the way it is with God and with all of the people of every age. And the people of every age completely ignore the point of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which is “Confession and repentance are not necessary. Nobody has to say they are sorry. All they have to say is, “Here I am!” and, like that, all is well!”
But, the churches don’t tell the people that. The churches repeat the same old song and dance that was popular in Jesus’ day. Jesus changed nothing about the way religion works. The Church as the Way to Salvation is the story all of the churches tell. No church ever says, “All you have to do is show up!” No, not one. All of the churches say, “You are all SINNERS AND GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL if you don’t repent and give us your money and we will teach you how to say you are SOOOOO SORRY in ten thousand ways, so that you can get on God’s good side and go to heaven when you die.”
The Parable of the Prodigal Son makes all religion and all churches obsolete. All we have to do is show up. Everything has always been fine with God. God has never been angry. The religious establishment as always said God is angry, and told the story of the Garden of Eden and of Original Sin to give themselves a foundation that creates a need for the church and establishes the church’s future forever. BUT, Jesus came along with the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and set the record straight for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. All we have to do is show up!
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