Dickens. Shakespeare. Keillor. What do these men have in common besides being literary icons of their day? They all called the Parable of the Prodigal Son one of the greatest short stories ever told. And now John MacArthur takes us deep inside and shows us the stories within the story in his book 'A Tale of Two Sons.'I have mentioned this book in previous posts and I actually bought it shortly after it's release in April of 2008. But I only finished it fairly recently. I picked it up in spurts many times over the months but always seemed to get sidetracked by a newer novel or just life in general. But when I finally committed myself to just sitting down and finally finishing it, I was very glad I did.
MacArthur does a wonderful job with this book (as he often does). I admit I was a little skeptical how a story so short could be analyzed for over 200 pages, but he manages to do it effortlessly. The first section of the book sets the historical context of the story. Oftentimes we lose sight of just how powerful some of Jesus' words were when spoken in the context of the day and culture in which He ministered. We overlook references that may have had a huge impact on his audience at the time, but mean little to us in our current culture. MacArthur also does a wonderful job of giving us an in-depth insight into Jesus' target audience, the Pharisees.
As the book continues, it is broken down into sections for each of the main characters in the story, the Father, the Prodigal and the Older Brother. Every chapter gives a masterful insight into each character and the role they play in the story. They too are filled with historical and contextual references that bring a whole new life to the story. One such detail that I picked up on was the fatted calf. In that day, only the wealthy would typically have a fatted calf and then usually only for a very special occasion. Because the animal had to be raised and treated very specifically make for a proper feast, and since a cow is only a “calf” for a short while, you wouldn't just have a fatted calf around all of the time. Likely, it was being raised for a very specific and special occasion, perhaps a wedding or something of the like. All of that makes it even more significant that the father would kill the calf for his returning son instead of continuing to save it for whatever big event was coming.
Additionally, I liked the details regarding the significance of events such as the way the younger son asked for his money, the extremely low and degrading nature of the job he was forced to take and the giving of the cloak and ring by the father. All of these make the story so much more dynamic when understood from Jesus' original audience's point of view. Probably the most resounding chapter for me though was that of the older brother. While we typically like to see ourselves reflected in the character of the Prodigal, I think we'd be surprised how much we are like the older brother sometimes. And that's a very dangerous character to be. He's always seemed to be the most overlooked part of the story to me, and yet Jesus specifically saves him for last. After all, he represents Jesus' primary audience at the time, the Pharisees.
Overall, this book was excellent. It's well researched, well put together ,and will make you look at this parable in a whole new light if not your own spiritual life. MacArthur even adds a chapter at the end about why Jesus taught in Parables which I found fascinating as well. In fact, it's something I'm going to touch on in another post I'm working on once I finish a couple more reviews. But until then, I would highly recommend this book. The Parable might be the greatest five minutes of storytelling ever, and it's even better once you view it from a two thousand year old perspective.
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