Red Letter Stories

In the course of many faith conversations, I've observed a pattern.  People typically spend a lot more time talking about what they think Jesus said than actually reading what he actually did say.  Second-hand hearsay is pretty common.  I recognize the following prefaces to statements about Jesus:

"I remember that a Nun once told our class ... "  

"I read it somewhere that ... "  

"My Mom used to tell me ... "

The Source. It makes sense.  We look to our past, or people we respect, or books, or the internet for answers. Fact is, the best source is a primary source.  In mountain living terms, that means stream water is always coldest and most pure when it's closest to the snowmelt source.  In terms of investigating a faith system, it's always best to go directly to the source of the faith. I'm convinced that the best place to get a solid understanding about Christianity is to directly check out the person Jesus.  Before making any choices, it's important to read his actual words -- hear his stories.  

Red Letters. With that in mind, I'm going to start posting excerpts from the Bible which are direct quotes of Jesus. The red letters are words that Jesus was known to have spoken. For the record, they aren't mystical spells or codes because they're red.  It just makes it easier to see that it's a quote. According to Christ Followers, those quotes are primary source information.   It's the stuff we have to reckon with, if we want to really live and understand this faith.

Today's Story. To start, I'm posting a relatively well-known story about a son who rebelliously wanders away from his home and squanders his inheritance.  There are a lot of things in this story that cause some big questions. Family dynamics were apparently just as messy 2000 years ago.  It's a story worth picking apart, wrestling over, and talking about. (That's why I think the Bible is  best experienced in groups and dialogue.)  

I love what this story reveals about Jesus.  He's telling this story in response to the criticism of 'religious' people.   Judgmental people of religion followed him around, but were ticked that Jesus kept hanging out with "sinners" like prostitutes and tax collectors.  Jesus was drawn to be with the people who truly needed him --  to lost and honestly broken people -- not to proud I-have-all-the-answers-and do-all-the-right-things type people. He welcomed wandering people into his life. This story kind of puts his overly religious followers in their place.  It paints a picture of what God cares about. 

Questions. Pay the most attention to the Father's response to the Prodigal Son. 

• Does the Father character care more about the behavior or the heart of the lost son? 
  
• What happens when something lost is found?   

Those answers carry  the point of Jesus' story.   

This story is captured in the book of Luke, in the Bible.  The red letters are words that Jesus was known to have spoken.  Many people during that time would have recognized this story as his.  We know it as 'The Prodigal."

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Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people--even eating with them!

 ... To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: "A man had two sons.

The younger son told his father, `I want my share of your estate now, instead of waiting until you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.  A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money on wild living.  About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him to feed his pigs.

  

The boy became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

"When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, `At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger!

  

I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired man." '

  

"So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long distance away, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.  His son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.

  

"But his father said to the servants, `Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet.

And kill the calf we have been fattening in the pen. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.' So the party began.

  

"Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on.

 

`Your brother is back,' he was told, `and your father has killed the calf we were fattening and has prepared a great feast. We are celebrating because of his safe return.' "The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, `All these years I've worked hard for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.

  

Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the finest calf we have.'  "His father said to him, `Look, dear son, you and I are very close, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!' "

From The Bible, New Living Translation

The book of Luke, chapter 15, verses 1,2, 11-32