Yesterday one of my Iranian parishioners asked me: “The Prodigal Son…who is Jesus talking about?” “ I replied: “The Prodigal Son in Luke 15 is you, me, and every Christian who recognizes his or her sins and repents. But the main character here is the father who had been waiting for his son to return. As soon as he sees the boy in the distance, he throws dignity to the wind, and runs to forgive him. The father in this parable here is our perfect Father in heaven—manifested in Jesus Christ—who is always ready to forgive you when you repent.” “Hmmm…And the older brother? Who is he?” I replied, “The older brother is like the Pharisees. He lives by the law and has a hard heart toward his forgiven brother.” My friend scratched his chin and after a moment said: “So, the younger brother is forgiven by فیض (feyz; grace), while the older brother operates only by شریعت (šari’at; law), which keeps you estranged from God.” I thought for a moment: “Yes, that’s an excellent way to put it. The two brothers are like Law and Gospel.” He turned away and murmured: “But what if you don’t have a father like that? My grandfather was a mullah—an Islamic religious leader. He used to hit me if I didn’t pronounce my Qur’an properly, and my father approved. And now my family has rejected me because I—the grandson of a mullah—am a Christian.” I squeezed his arm. “Did you know that among Jesus’ own direct ancestors there was a prostitute (Rahab) and murderers (Moses, David)?” I reached for my phone. “Look: this is *my* grandfather—in Germany in the 1930s (see image). He was a Nazi—in a way, a lot like a mullah…That makes you and me brothers twice over: we are both grandsons of men who, tragically, were misled. Yet even though our family members might have been far from perfect, we are also brothers redeemed by Christ and His grace. You, and I, and all Christians are prodigals—and we have a perfect Father in heaven who has forgiven us by *His* Son.”
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