Reading the Prodigal Son parable this morning I was struck by this passage from the older son (from the King James version. Luke 15:29):
“Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest to me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured they living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.”
The interpretation from Peterson’s The Message puts it in modern language:
“Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!”
It is easy to sit back in judgment of the elder son – too easy. But as I do so today I feel self-righteous and see his point. He has been the faithful son, the good son, and feels slighted, understandably so. Yet it occurs to me that the error the elder son has made, one I make often, is to look at relationships as transactions. In a transactional world, if you do something, particularly something for someone, you expect (expressly or tacitly) something in return. Even the younger son was in the transactional mode. He headed back home with a deal for his father – take me in and feed me and “make me as one of thy hired servants.” Luke 15:19. The father, of course, would have none of that. He alone understood that love is not meant to be transactional. The father says as much when he notes in Verse 31: “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine,” but that seems a bit obtuse to me. I like the way Radney Foster puts it in Baby, I’m In: “Love doesn’t come with a contract. You give me this I give you that.”
That is, of course, the ultimate “untransactional” thing – to give anything of value without expecting anything in return. It seems so, well, so uncertain. Hell, I’ll say it. It seems un-capitalist, un-American. Foster hits it on the head with as to why with the follow up verse: “It’s scary business. Your heart and soul is on the line.” Still, it is what I am called to do. It is one of, if not the, lesson in the parable.
It occurs to me... 