Perspective

 PERSPECTIVE – SUNDAY MARCH 30, 2025

Luke 15:1-3 & 11-32 “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” ³ So he told them this parable:

¹¹ Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. ¹³ A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. ¹⁴ When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶ He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷ But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ ²⁰ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him . . . ”

➖

In this lesson religious leaders are upset because Jesus shows care for those is the “parasite class.” (As Musk would call them.) In response to these ‘Elon Muskites’ Jesus tells this story, and if you know this story (which I’ve shortened) you know the point is the father’s love for his wayward son, despite his apparent lack of deserving.

However, I want to say a word about “perspective.” I read once about the experience of a Lutheran theology professor who discovered something interesting. Those of us in the West generally focus on the son’s “dissolute” lifestyle with an attitude of “you get what you deserve” (unless, of course, you’re in this unique family.) But this professor was a guest lecturer in a Russian school once and they saw this story quite differently.

You see, Russians know famine. Horrible famines hit that country in the early 1920s and again in the 1930s. Millions of people died. Some turned to cannibalism. There were uncontrolled outbreaks of cholera and typhus. Russian students in reading this story were seemingly unconcerned about the son’s “dissolute living” in verse 13, but were quite engaged with the fact that a famine broke out in the land, as reported in verse 14. “And he began to be in need.” They understood that!! The trauma of their history, the reality of “being in need” – such things affect everybody and it’s not just about one person’s bad choices.

Perspective.

Interestingly, this same professor also had the opportunity to teach in Africa for a while. He was curious about how Africans would see this story, so he studied it with them as well. Would they focus on the “dissolute living” like Westerners or the reality of famine like his students in Russia?

Surprise – neither one!

His African students were appalled by the fact that while working in his new farming job (verse 15) he was hungry, and “no one gave him anything!” (Verse 16.) Westerners are very individualistic. African cultures tend to be more communal. How could it be that NO-body would see his need, step in to help, and get him something to eat?!

Perspective!

The way the Trump Administration functions is an abomination. When the richest man in the world takes food from the poorest people in the world this is American individualism run amuck. Diseases are on the rise due to Kennedy’s bazaar prejudices around vaccinations. People are having their jobs taken away from them and their families are and will go hungry – for no reason! Community values are lost, lost, lost. Why are our leaders unable or unwilling to care? Why do they grumble at those who sit with others who are less fortunate than themselves?

It is not my place to proselytize here, but people – get your kids and grandkids to someplace “woke.” What we see in America today is not power, but immaturity. Nobody is making anything great again. They are only tearing down what generations of Americans have sought to build up. There is another vision. There is another Way.

Yes. “Faith, hope and love abide – these three. But the greatest of these is Love!”