How Does the Parable of the Two Sons Display the Genius of Jesus?

Layers of Meaning

The parable of the two sons is Jesus’s longest story, and it’s remarkable in so many ways. I always keep finding new things in there. The setting in Luke’s Gospel is that it’s told to tax collectors and sinners and to Pharisees and scribes. Pharisees and scribes are people you’d expect to know the Bible very well, particularly the scribes whose job it is to actually copy out the Bible, and sinners—you wouldn’t expect them to know the Bible quite so well. They might, but not necessarily. And tax collectors, they’re more interested in money than the Bible.

For a start, Jesus seems to be able to teach both groups simultaneously. He can teach people with no Bible background. It’s a simple story that will captivate people from just about any culture. At the same time, Jesus loads up the story with layers of meaning which are available to those who have studied the Scriptures very hard. For instance, he talks about the ring and the robe, which are offered to the younger son when he returns, that seems to be a reference back to Genesis where there’s a ring and a robe given to Joseph. But it’s not the only reference there is to the Joseph story because, of course, there’s a great famine in Jesus’s story as there is in the time of Joseph.

But most importantly, Joseph is the son who the father thought was dead and is alive again. And that’s the theme that comes up through this story. And so you have that at the same time as I think you’ve got references to the Jacob and Esau story.

When Jesus begins the story, a man has two sons. Who’s the person in the Old Testament who is most famous for having two, and only two, sons? Well, it’s Isaac. And, of course, there the younger son cheats the older son out of the inheritance. And then the older son is so upset that he has to go off into a far country. The younger son goes out into a far country, looks after animals, and then comes back. And then the surprising thing in Genesis is that Esau runs, embraces, and kisses Jacob. And it’s the most surprising reaction in the entire Old Testament because Jacob is expecting his older brother to be so mad. He’s coming towards him with 400 armed men. He’s expecting to have a very difficult time. And Esau, who’s been cheated out of everything, accepts him.

And then in Jesus’s story, there’s a twist there because it’s not the older brother who receives him; it’s the father who runs, embraces, and kisses. It’s a very precise phrase, and it’s actually part of the scribal training to focus on that particular phrase, and I think we can demonstrate that.

So Jesus has the dramatic high point of his story—something that the scribes particularly know about. And there are other aspects of the story that are explained in the book. So it’s just very clever to be able to teach two groups simultaneously, and it shows Jesus’s deep knowledge of the Scriptures and even the sort of things that the scribes trained at.

Peter J. Williams is the author of The Surprising Genius of Jesus: What the Gospels Reveal about the Greatest Teacher.

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