Where’s Our Joy?

A sleight of hand refers to fine motor skills in someone’s performance that fool others. This is how magicians do most of their tricks. They distract us while their hands accomplish what they want us to see. As much as I love magic, I also love how magic is done, revealed by competent magicians like in the show Magic’s Biggest Secrets Revealed.

I see the two stories before the Prodigal Son’s story, the stories of a shepherd and a lady, as sleight of hand by theologians and pastors, who misdirect us from the story’s main thrust. Sure, it was about finding the lost sheep and the coin. But the emphasis was on rejoicing.

When the shepherd found his lost sheep, he called his friends and said, “Rejoice with me because I have found the destroyable sheep” (15:6). Similarly, the woman said to her friends, “Rejoice with me because I have found the destroyable coin” (15:9). In both places, the Lord used the word destroyable (απόλλυμι, apollumi). Perhaps someone can identify with a sheep destroying, imagining how wild beasts could eat them, but rarely would someone identify with a lost coin as destroying (this is perhaps why translations use “lost” instead of “destroy”). But the Lord intentionally used those words to emphasize how unconcerned the older brother, the Pharisees and scribes, were of the younger brother, Jesus. Instead of joining his mission of offering God’s life to the tax collectors and sinners, they were plotting to kill or destroy (απόλλυμι, apollumi) Jesus, just as the older brother was unconcerned for his dead brother. Unlike the shepherd and woman, the Pharisees and scribes weren’t rejoicing that the younger brother, Jesus, reached out to the destroying multitudes.

Each of these stories also ended with the Lord Jesus saying, “I tell you: similarly, there will be joy in heaven upon the repentance of one sinner” (15:7), and “I tell you: there will be joy before the angels of God upon the repentance of one sinner” (15:10). When the prodigal son returned, the father did rejoice; he organized a big party for the lost but found, dead but alive, son. Whereas everyone in the house celebrated, only the oldest son refused to rejoice or celebrate, just like the Pharisees and scribes who grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (15:2).

Just as the Lord Jesus is doing something contrary to what was religiously accepted – fellowshipping and eating with tax collectors and sinners – we might find someone’s or some organization’s approach to evangelism or reaching out to the people unorthodox. We might be tempted to judge such a person or organization quickly. I remember a friend telling me he was making a video Bible for deaf people. I asked, “Why do the deaf need a video Bible? Can’t they read?” I grew up with blind people and knew their difficulty in reading the Bible unless they had a Braille Bible, but I didn’t think the deaf had similar struggles. Then, my friend explained how not hearing sounds affects their understanding. For example, the wonderful phrase, “As the deer pants for the waters” (Ps 42:1). If they have never heard panting, how can they comprehend what David says? Let’s rejoice more quickly rather than be judgmental.