Willie Mears: Blog 8

I am almost finished with the book The Prodigal Son, by John MacArthur, I assume this is what is meant by outside readings. I have been reading a little bit every day to supplement my daily reading of the bible. The book is an in depth study of the parable Jesus tell in Luke 11 about the lost son, and it is very interesting. The first thing that caught my attention was in the introduction to the book, where MacArthur makes the claim that the parable of the lost son is the most well-known study on Earth. Now from my perspective of someone raised in a christian household of corse I had heard it, however I had never though non-christians knew the story to the extent that they did.

As I continued throughout the book it was full of interesting facts, deep insight, and profound ideas, but nothing out of the ordinary in terms of other books of its kind. But what I particularly liked about this book was the authors analysis of the Greek text, and of the culture of the world when the story was written. For example, when the son returns home his father given him a robe, a ring, and sandals. Formerly I thought that each of those things meant nothing special in particular but were merely things he did not have that the father gave him, however each item has significance. In those days servants typically went barefoot, so the father giving his son sandals showed that he returned him to the status of a son. The son did not have to work to get back to his old status, but rather he was given it thanks to the grace of the father. The robe was a garment only worn on the most special of occasions, the best of the best, so the father giving his robe to his son gave the son honor. The ring, which had the family seal on it, gave the son authority to sign and seal documents and whatnot, and it was the gift of authority. All that is interesting as crap and has to due with the culture of that time, valuable information that is otherwise lost.

The author also points out how much the father takes the sins of his son upon himself. By giving up his robe, running to the boy, and forgiving him outright, the father was defying the culture of that time. By doing so, the community they loved him would forget about the son and rather focus on how the father should not have been so graceful, thus putting the burden of sin from the son and taking it upon himself. Overall an awesome book which is not by one of those big name authors. A great 'outside read.'