Reading the Prodigal Son parable again this morning I was struck by the phrase – “and there wasted his substance on riotous living.” Luke 15:13.
What a turn of a phrase. It is somehow, both devoid and full of of detail. My on-line dictionary defines “riotous” as “wild and uncontrolled behavior,” but that definition is meaningless as “uncontrolled” means just that. One can be “uncontrolled” in any direction. I suppose if you asked a room of a hundred people what “riotous living” meant to them you would get a wide range of answers. Only the older son gives us some hint here, when later (v. 30) he complains to the father that the younger son has “devoured thy living with harlots.” Of course, we don’t know if the older son knows that as fact, or is just spinning an argument. All we really know is that the younger son “spent it all” (v. 14).
But then it occurs to me that the uncertainty of the meaning of the phrase “wasted his substance on riotous living” was purposefully chosen by Jesus and/or those who told the story in the oral tradition and then ultimately put it onto paper. I mean, isn’t that the point brought home by the father, who, as best as we can tell is indifferent to just what the younger son did while he was away. Indeed, the father cares (so much so as to say it twice, in v. 24 and 32) about only one thing, — that the younger son “came to himself” (v. 17) and returned home — “my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”
It occurs to me... 