Not something we usually hear from this well known parable, right? Kenneth Bailey, an American author and professor sheds light on this parable with the realistic implications it held. In the parable, the younger son says to the father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that will come to me”. The evangelist Luke puts it so simply, that we gloss over the fact that what is happening here is hurtful, offensive, and in radical contradiction to the most venerated tradition of the time. Bailey explains that during this time (and even in some parts of the world today), a son asking his father this is tantamount to wishing his father dead. Why? Because after signing off possessions to his son, the father still has the right to live off the proceeds. . . as long as he is alive. Bailey writes: “Here the younger son gets, and thus is assumed to have demanded, disposition to which, even more explicitly, he has no right until the death of his father”.
So why start this email on such a grave note? Because to understand the beauty and mystery of the parable of the prodigal son, we need to depart on the real and serious matter on which it is built upon. For a full review and insight to both this parable and painting, keep reading!
