Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Luke 15:12 (NRSV)

¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.

This is part of the story of the Prodigal Son, and the commentaries that I have available to me note that it was not unheard of to divide an estate before death, but the son who wants his share is not showing much respect for his parents and family.  The precedent for that in the Hebrew Scriptures is Deuteronomy 21:7, and soon after that (Deuteronomy 21:18-23) the death penalty is imposed on a "willful, rebellious and disrespectful son who refused to change".  I wonder if the father in this story could have gotten his younger son in serious trouble if he wanted to do so.  As the passage in Deuteronomy continues, the penalty for such behavior in a son is that he was to be stoned and hung on a tree.  Paul, in Galatians 3:13, wrote that Jesus took the curse of the Law for us when he was hung on a tree.  There's a connection between the cross of our Lord Jesus and the story of the Prodigal Son.  The prodigal is us-you and me-but he is treated with restraint, and later great grace, because Jesus was hung on a "tree" and cursed for us.  Such grace is offered freely, but purchased at immeasurable price.