Deeper Connections 3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today I would like to talk about the Prodigal Son study from the The Parables of Jesus in the <a href="Deeper Connections series. After an\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deeper Connections 3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today I would like to talk about the Prodigal Son study from the The Parables of Jesus in the <a href="Deeper Connections series. After an\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-09T05:20:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/\",\"name\":\"Deeper Connections 3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-05-09T05:20:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-05-09T05:20:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Today I would like to talk about the Prodigal Son study from the The Parables of Jesus in the <a href="Deeper Connections series. After an\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Deeper Connections 3\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Deeper Connections 3","description":"Today I would like to talk about the Prodigal Son study from the The Parables of Jesus in the <a href="Deeper Connections series. After an","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Deeper Connections 3","og_description":"Today I would like to talk about the Prodigal Son study from the The Parables of Jesus in the <a href="Deeper Connections series. After an","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2008-05-09T05:20:51+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/","name":"Deeper Connections 3","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-05-09T05:20:51+00:00","dateModified":"2008-05-09T05:20:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Today I would like to talk about the Prodigal Son study from the The Parables of Jesus in the <a href="Deeper Connections series. After an","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Deeper Connections 3"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":4192,"date":"2008-05-09T00:20:51","date_gmt":"2008-05-09T05:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/"},"modified":"2008-05-09T00:20:51","modified_gmt":"2008-05-09T05:20:51","slug":"deeper-connections-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/09\/deeper-connections-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Deeper Connections 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Today I would like to talk about the Prodigal Son study from the The Parables of Jesus in the <a href=\"Deeper Connections<\/a> series. After an introduction from the Gentile city of Susita, on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, the scene switches to Ben Witherington III (Asbury) sitting in a boat in Gloucester Harbor, north of Boston\u2014where the movie The Perfect Storm was filmed. Fishermen left this harbor on their ships, and many never returned. Witherington talks about how the women and children would sit in \u201cwidow\u2019s watches\u201d on the tops of their homes, looking out to sea, wishing, longing, hoping for their husband\u2019s return.
\nWitherington paints the helpful first century background that enables us to grasp the parable\u2019s deeper meaning. When the prodigal asks his father for his share of the inheritance, he was wishing that his father were dead. When the father runs to the son, he shames himself (first century Jewish men never ran!). Witherington mentions that it is possible that the father ran so that he could meet the son on the outside of the village, before the townspeople could harass him for what he had done to his father.
\nWhen we understand these background issues, the Parable comes to life. God (the Father) goes to extraordinary lengths to show forgiveness to those who turn to them\u2014even \u201csinners\u201d with a very shady past. The Father\u2014with the intensity of the women in Gloucester Harbor waiting for their husbands\u2014looks for those who are lost, longing to restore them\u2026.. God is \u201ca father who is prepared indeed, willing to go out to those who will even make a step in the right direction, and turn and be renewed and be restored.\u201d
\nHow can pondering our relationships to parents or children or spouses enliven this parable?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"