During the next month or so, I am going to be posting a series of blogs on the subject of Jesus Christ and his relation to modern day issues and themes: racism, sexism, classism and atheism/agnosticism. This blog post serves as a brief intro into the issues I hope to delve into later with much more detail. It seems that many people today, due to the history of the Christian Church and its past atrocities, and there are many, tend to shove Christianity into the category of a fundamentalist, bigoted religion. A good deal of Americans see the Church, the Bible and Jesus Himself as culturally regressive; Christianity was meant for the people of the first century, not the modern, secular culture of the 21st. My hope for these upcoming blog posts is to debunk that myth and to show how comprehensive and profound Jesus was and still is today. Let’s start with an excerpt from one of Jesus’ many parables.
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15: 11-32)
This parable contains so many profound nuggets of wisdom and insight, and if you want to hear this parable really become unpacked, please listen to Tim Keller’s sermon/podcast The Prodigal Sons. However, for the purpose of this blog, I want to focus on only a couple main themes of the story. It is important to understand what Jesus is saying underneath this parable, and I’m not talking about the cute little moral lessons some think the Bible only contains, but the deep cultural insight Jesus was famous for. Jesus is saying that throughout human history, there had and have been, for the majority of people, two ways to live: there’s the younger son, who lives immorally, who represents those who are irreligious, and the elder son, who lives morally, and represents those who are very religious. The younger son takes his father’s inheritance, goes and lives “wildly,” the equivalent of saying that he goes to New York City and sleeps around and tries to discover himself and lives very open-mindedly. The older son stays at home and obeys his father’s commands; he works and obeys while the younger son is going crazy, wasting away his inheritance.
This distinction is not radical. Looking back at human history, there have always been those who are open-minded, liberal, and live wild lifestyles (the ancient Greeks or Romans), and then those who obey their religion’s commands, pray, keep the rules, etc (1st century Jews). Here’s the insight: Jesus is saying they are both wrong. Furthermore, He is saying they both are essentially the same thing. The immoral lifestyle and the moral lifestyle, the open-minded person who indulges sexually with anybody he sees, and the moralist who outwardly keeps the rules but inwardly judges those sick, immoral people, are the same thing. They come from the same place. He is not saying that being moral is wrong, but that being moral to bring praise to yourself is no better than discarding right/wrong all together so that you can do whatever you want.
This is why: the younger son wastes away his inheritance, wallows in the mud for a bit, hits rock bottom so to speak and realizes his stupidity. His father has money! His father will forgive him! How stupid he has been to live so wildly and treat his father the way he has, he will go back to him and make reparations, hopefully becoming at least one of his servants as punishment for his actions. And so the younger son does this— he comes back to his father with a PowerPoint presentation about how he will repair his standing with his father and the community. But the father will have none of it; he is so consumed with joy at seeing his son’s face that he runs to him.
Let’s take a minute to realize that first century, Middle Eastern patriarchs never, and I mean never, ran. Children ran, and so did women, but men never ran. They would have to lift up their robes and bare their legs, which was frowned upon back then (weird I know). Some people have issues with the idea of God being a patriarch, of Him being a frowning, judging male who is misogynistic and condemning. But look at the father of the parable, who of course symbolizes God. He is acting like a mother! Jesus is saying, if you have issues with God being a Father, I understand that you probably haven’t had good experiences with men in charge or even your own father, but my Father does not act like that. He lifts up his skirt and runs to you out of sheer excitement.
Back to my point: the father runs out to meet the son, kisses him, and throws a feast for him. He even slaughters a calf, which was the financial equivalent of hiring Bobby Flay to come and cook for a party of probably 20. But the elder son, the one who had stayed and kept the father’s commands and done his will, becomes consumed with rage. How dare they slaughter the calf for somebody like his younger brother, a scoundrel who had embarrassed his own father to run off and live sinfully! He wasn’t deserving of the calf, the elder son was saying, I am, because I have done the father’s will, unlike this fool. And this is where Jesus tracks his own course, where He separates Christianity from all other religions or lifestyles. The Romans believed that Christians, in the first 200 years of their church history, to be atheists, because they were so different from all other religious beliefs. This distinction is why.
Jesus is saying that the younger son only cared about his father’s stuff, which is why he was willing to blatantly bypass all regular customs in order to get what he wanted so he could go live as he pleased; He is also saying that the elder son only cared about the father for himself as well, which is the radical insight of this parable. He is saying that following the rules, praying, keeping the Commandments, being a good person, these are all good things— but the elder son did all of this for himself, he did it not for love of the father but for what these things brought to himself. And when he saw the calf, the symbol of love and adoration, his deserving gift, being slaughtered for somebody who did not even try to keep the will of the father, he became outraged. The elder son kept the rules for the calf, so to speak; he kept the rules to bring praise to himself. Jesus is saying that immoralism and moralism are two huge causes of evil in this world; the former brings physical addiction and spiritual alienation, while the latter brings judgement, oppression and anger. So yes, Jesus is saying that religion, along with irreligion, is a huge cause of pain in this world.
Look at how angry the elder son is: he is beside himself with judgement that he cannot even address his father anymore; he addresses him like he is rebuking him. But he never served his father just to please his father, but he served in the hopes of bringing a reward to himself. The danger of moralism is the danger of the Pharisees; you start to believe that because you keep the rules, you are actually better than those who do not. You repent for your wickedness, but rejoice in your goodness. This is where Jesus shakes His head in disagreement. Jesus is saying, radically, that a Christian is sure their badness comes from the heart, but is convinced that their goodness comes from the same place, the heart. In other words, Christians are convinced that both their badness and goodness are sin. Radical, isn’t it? Christians repent for their bad deeds as well as their good ones, because they believe that sin suffocates all life out from every thought, from ever desire of their hearts, whether good or bad.
What is crazy about this parable is who the audience was that heard it: the Pharisees. The religious people who were moralists, who thought that because they kept the rules outwardly, they were better than those who did no such thing— this is who heard Jesus’ parable. This blog is entitled Jesus and the Culture of Today for this reason: Jesus looks at our culture in America, Democrats who are progressive minded and open-minded, who scoff at Republicans, and Republicans who are typically moralists and who demonize immoralists, who demonize Democrats, and tells us that both mindsets are ways of keeping ourselves away from God (see my blog, The Balancing Act of Love and Anger). Jesus understands that the worst evil of the human experience is the will to bring love and adoration only to the self, and to nobody else. The social, religious conservative wishes to be rewarded by God for being a diligent servant. The progressive, liberal atheist wishes to feel satisfied sexually, relationally and physically by ridding themselves of restrictions, burdens and therefore guilt. This is why Jesus tells us that all of life for humans is an act to bring love to ourselves, no matter in what fashion it comes about.
We want to be in control of our lives and do whatever we want, like the younger son. We just want the wealth and stuff of God so that we can run off and fulfill our ever desire, but we don’t want God. And on the flip-side, we want to be our own saviors. We want to follow all of the rules in order to earn God’s love, not receive it without reason or to receive it gracefully. Immoralists and moralists want to bring glory and honor and praise to themselves in different forms, but for the same reason: out of a hate for God and a disdain for His existence.
And to hate God means to wish Him away from us instinctively, and to wish that we can do it ourselves. We don’t need God; we can earn our stay in Paradise. We don’t need the existence of God; we can fulfill our desires on this earth. Moralism and immoralism— they are merely different ways of pushing God away from us. Why? Because we are afraid of God, and ourselves; moralists wish to be good people so that they actually believe they are good people, in other words, they are afraid of knowing that they aren’t good, and fear always turns into anger. Immoralists wish to live without God and without rules or restrictions; in other words, they don’t want any reason to believe that they are bad people or sinners because they are fearful that they really are bad people. Both, both sides, are consumed by fear.
So what is the alternative? Look at how the father runs out and initiates the repentance of the son. He kisses the younger son, and bestows upon him all of his wealth and social standing. The younger son deserves none of this, but it is only out of the father’s pure, unconquerable love that the son is being blessed. Jesus says to stop trying to do it yourself, let God enter into your life. Stop trying to earn your way by being good— your goodness is rotten at the core. Stop trying to take Father’s blessings and use them to your advantage— you will end up wallowing in the mud, all your options exhausted and asking yourself why you ran away to the big city in the first place. Jesus says let me love you, let me run to you and kiss you. Let me throw a party for you and give you my best robes and all of my treasures, because I love you. For you are my son, you are my daughter, whom I love, and with you I am well pleased.
And in one simple parable, Jesus teaches us a whole new, radical way to reach God and to live: to let Him come down to us. Look at our culture today, with the left demonizing the right and vice versa, because both feel like they are right and the other is wrong. Look at the open-minded social liberals and the close-minded, judgmental social conservatives— some things humans have never changed. This has always been the way of the world. We have always had the prudes judging the sexually open, and the sexually open judging the prudes. Don’t you see that both are doing the same thing? That immorality and morality comes from the same place and from the same desire: to bring love to the self? But Jesus offers a whole new path and a whole new way of living. What if you tried His way, where do you think it would lead you?
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