The Redemptive Imagination of Jesus, Part 1

Scripture — Luke 15:20-24 (NRSV)

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. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

Devotion

A few days ago, I made a case for the goodness of the imagination, pointing to Jesus’s own imaginative efforts. In particular, the parables of Jesus – a mainstay of his messianic work – are products of Jesus’s fertile, redemptive imagination.

Today, I’d like to examine one of the most striking examples of imagination in the gospels. It appears in what we know as The Parable of the Prodigal Son. You are probably familiar with this story. The younger of two sons dishonors his father by demanding his inheritance before the father’s death. Then, traveling to a distant land, this son squanders what he has inherited through what we might call “loose living.” Out of money, the son is forced to feed pigs—not exactly prime employment for a Jewish boy. In desperation, this “prodigal” son returns to his home, hoping that his father will allow him to be one of his hired hands.

So far, this story of Jesus already reveals an active imagination. But Jesus is just warming up. Here’s what comes next:

So [the younger son] 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. Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

Talk about redemptive imagination! There may never before have been a scene quite like this one in human storytelling. The closest we come in Scripture may be the reunions of Jacob and Esau (Genesis 33:1-11) or Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 45:1-15). What Jesus imagined was so contrary to the ways of his culture, so unexpected, so unprecedented that it must have astounded his listeners. Some may have been deeply moved; others may have been offended. Unfortunately, we don’t know how the audience of Jesus responded to this parable. But we do know just how imaginative it was . . . and redemptive, too. It portrayed the redemption of a wayward, broken child with his father.

This imaginative parable wasn’t just a story about a human family, of course. Jesus told the parable to help us grasp the forgiving love and grace of God. Jesus could have spoken more didactically, saying something like, “God’s forgiving love and grace are astounding and limitless. No matter what wrong you’ve done, God is ready to forgive you.” That would have been good news, for sure. But by telling a story in which a Jewish father runs to embrace his once rebellious son, we see the truth of God’s love more precisely and powerfully. We can feel the father’s joy at the sight of his son and the son’s amazement at the embrace of his father.

There is certainly a time and place for didactic language, for explanations and demonstrations, for elucidation and evidence. At least I sure hope there is, because I spend a lot of my life speaking or writing this way! But the power of imaginative story can take the truth from our heads to our hearts, and from our hearts into our daily lives.

How grateful we are for God’s gift of imagination. And how grateful we are for the extraordinary imagination of Jesus.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Verbs That Make All the Difference in the World: Splagchnizomai.

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