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Commentary on "The Prodigal's New Clothes"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 4: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - You Can Go Home Again

 

Overview

“In the parable of the lost sheep, the one who is lost is unable to get back to the sheep pen without help. In the parable of the lost coin, the one who is lost is oblivious to the frantic searching—it is lost and is unaware of its state. In the parable of the prodigal son, however, the one who is lost not only knows that he is lost but also knows how to get back home.” (Teacher’s Quarterly, Page 117)

 

Problems

Here is another of the places where Adventist theology seeps into the lesson. The quote above is from the teacher’s quarterly, the “Step 1 – Motivate” section.

Notice that the emphasis is on the lost item and whether that item could know about its lostness or do anything about it. This theme is echoed in the regular quarterly. Looking at the issue this way pulls a veil over these parables.

Read the three parables recounted in Luke 15 again. I believe the emphasis is on the people searching for the lost items, not the lost items themselves. It simply doesn’t matter how lost you are, or whether you know you’re lost. Lost is lost. Dead is dead.

In fact, if you’re lost you don’t know the way home. If you knew the way home you would not be lost. This is critically important to understanding the completeness of forgiveness. The prodigal son never stopped being the father’s son!

Think about this in the context of Jesus’ audience. The tax collectors and sinners needed to know that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19a). Jesus was declaring Himself to be God’s initiative to them to open the way back to God.

Jesus was chastising the Pharisees and scribes for their attitudes. He was declaring that soon God would stop “counting [the world’s] trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19b), and that their job was not to judge but to deliver “the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19c).

The thought questions at the end of Tuesday’s lesson expose the illogic of this thinking. “Have you known people who have walked away from God?” People who know God don’t walk away from Him. Either they didn’t know Him in the first place, or they had a sick and twisted notion of who He is. In particular, those who leave a church, of any denomination, may be making the wisest choice of their entire lives. The human brain cannot long abide cognitive dissonance. It must seek for truth when the answers no longer match the questions.

All of us must be careful not to display the arrogant and unloving attitudes of the older brother. Don’t ever say, “I’d never do that.”

Jesus is the only meaningful answer for the person who walks away, because Jesus is the one searching high and low for any and all sinners. When He finds one, there is great rejoicing.

 

Summary

  1. The proper focus in these parables is the person searching for the lost item.
  2. For the lost sheep and lost coin, the point is that God never will stop searching. His initiative towards us is infinite, but He will not force us (see Sunday’s lesson regarding free will).
  3. For the prodigal son, the point is that he never stopped being the father’s son. Regardless of his current state of affairs and regardless of squandering his resources his true identity never changed. This story is intended to give hope to those who know the truth but have wandered from it. They tend to think they’ve gone too far. Never!!

 

GO TO DAY 5

 

Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised May 9, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

Official Adventist Resources

Standard Edition Study Guide Week 10

Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 10

Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Wk 10

SSNET Study Guide Week 10

Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings

 

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