And so it was that the prodigal son, his brother and father, lived happily for ever afterwards. Or did they? We are talking about a story and its aftermath or sequel, not a historical event. Let us exercise our imaginations.
We may conjecture that the younger son settled into the family routine, doing his share of the crop-caring and livestock management. Perhaps there was the occasional sigh for far-off pleasure-jaunts – stately pleasure-domes in Xanadu – but, like the rest of us, he put his back into the chores and helped the family prosper. Religious convictions may change in a moment but character is built up over decades.
Very probably he got along with his brother without too much fuss. After all, his travels had taught him that human nature comes in all shapes and sizes. We have to take people where we find them. Doubtless he was prepared to go a lot further for his father than had once been the case. His dad was getting on in years and needed a helping hand more often.
Did the prodigal son settle down and have a family? We can surmise that he would have made an understanding father. Indeed, we can figure him being the father-figure to a new generation. He might have applied his new-found understanding to the two or more sons he might have had.
We venture upon unmarked territory. It is territory where we find repentant people just like ourselves facing not just immediate changes in a life-style but long-term growth and development. It may be territory round which an older brother is best placed to guide his sibling or it may be that the elder brother will gain more from the later years than his grudging youthful days when he soured.
Jesus composed his parables to get people thinking. There’s plenty in the story of the prodigal son to get us scrutinising our own habit and our family’s working arrangements and their long-term effectiveness.
JESUS AND HIS BIBLE
As you might expect, in Shakespeare’s home-town the Bible gets stimulating treatment in the parish magazine. Not everybody will see the Bible as the associate vicar of Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon, Steve Jarvis, sees it. He grasps the nettle and writes on ‘How Jesus read the Bible’. It was with a creative flair, he says, that had little if any connection to what the biblical writer meant to say. And then, he says, Jesus felt he could pick and choose what parts of the First Testament were valid and which weren’t. And Jesus read the Bible as a Jew, not as a Christian. Plenty to claim attention there – rather like Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Leading the ministry team at Stratford is Patrick Taylor. The church has a full programme of activities.
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