The Whole Story

“And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me.  And he divided unto them his living.”  Luke 15:12

You know how you have those experiences of seeing or hearing or reading something many times, yet realizing at some point you have missed the obvious content right there in front of you – well, I have those experiences.  I had one today reading this passage again from the parable.  I have always read the “And he divided unto THEM his living” as “And he divided unto Him [the younger son] his living.”  In the NIV that sentence is even clearer: “So he divided his property between them.”

Here I have been laboring with this story for years thinking the younger son got his half, and the older son got nothing – no wonder the older son was pissed when the younger son returned and was greeted joyously.  But the true reading seems to me to be that the father more or less retired, and split his “property,” his “living,” or his “substance” (depending on your translation) between them.  Following this logic, then the older son could seemingly only be upset over the fact that he was left behind to deal with dad and take care of things, while the younger brother got to go “waste his substance with riotous living” and returned home to a party.

I don’t know if that changes my view of the parable dramatically, but it does occur to me in all this just how easy it is to develop opinions, and be pretty steadfast in them, without knowing the whole story.  Perhaps that is why forgiveness and grace are so important.