My brother in Christ, I need to gently push back on this interpretation, because I think it reflects the very Pharisee thinking defending and reinforcing the holiness of the “truly deserving” that Jesus spent his ministry confronting.
The entire point of the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that God’s grace is scandalously generous - so generous it offends our human sense of fairness. And critically, the older brother’s resentment isn’t portrayed as wisdom or justified concern about his sibling’s spiritual formation. It’s portrayed as the problem.
He’s outside the feast, angry that his father would lavish such love on someone “undeserving.” Jesus is saying: that attitude reveals you don’t understand the Father’s heart at all.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently confronted the religious establishment - people who had devoted their whole lives to God, who knew scripture backwards and forwards, who had cultivated apparent holiness for decades. And what did he tell them? That tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the kingdom ahead of them.
Why? Because they weren’t keeping score. They knew they needed mercy.
God’s grace is not a performance review. It’s not a merit-based system where years of service earn you a bigger mansion or a superior experience of eternity. As Paul reminds us repeatedly, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” - the lifelong churchgoer and the deathbed convert alike are saved entirely by unmerited grace.
Just like God does not “want you to be rich”, he also doesn’t give bigger cups to people with more prayer points.
Good thoughts. There are two distinct movements. First, is the unmerited grace of salvation. No one earns this. No vine can connect to the branch via their own merits (John 15). However, once grace is received, we are called to cultivate it. Thus, the second movement is participating in the grace freely given and bearing fruit (John 15). Some receive crowns, robes, etc., for their adherence to Christ. Sanctification and theosis are the soul becoming more beautiful like Christ. In this second movement, the soul of the convert and the saint are quiet distinct.
In Spain, at the time of the worst of the Inquisition, the converted Jews and Saracens were called marranos ie hogs, a term most insultant to them. The fondas (pubs) used to hang at their entries, from the rafters, hams. If the converted was a true one, he would not flinch at their sight and even ask for a slice to eat. If not, off he went to be judged.
"And at the end of our lives, Christians teach that Jesus will reward souls based on the degree to which they have climbed the mountain of the Lord, to the degree they have become Christ-like."
This is not a point I came to appreciate from reading the Gospels, the only texts I've seriously studied. I expected you would just say that those Christians who are angry at the converts should read Matthew's parable of the day laborers and be done with it! So you think that there is something correct in the reaction to converts?
I see two ways of reading this. One is as a reward for just actions. The second is that God is giving to each what they can handle, based on their capacity as you say. It is certainly not obvious that all people can ascend to the same degree not matter their will. I thought this was the whole point of salvation based on faith. Or do you think these come together?
I am not yet convinced but it is an interesting idea.
Excellent points. Also the parable of the laborers illustrates your point, with the man coming at 3:00 or 4:30 in the afternoon getting a full day’s wage. That engenders bitterness in bitter people — I’ve asked — even though they have no response to Christ’s final question, “Am I not free to do what I wish with my own money?”
The other place where this bitterness or pusillanimity surfaces is in response to Catholic converts who to write in invoice and opinion on the Church. Particularly Ann Barnhart draws fire in this regard, but I’ve seen the same criticism leveled at many commentators.
There is no or little or cold charity in the people who charge folks in this way. Aside from neglecting that Saint Paul was a convert, along with Saint Augustine, not to mention Saint Mary Magdalene, and innumerable others , these poor folks instead reflect the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who “followed the rules” but failed to understand that it is a pure heart that Christ wants and not sacrifice.
My brother in Christ, I need to gently push back on this interpretation, because I think it reflects the very Pharisee thinking defending and reinforcing the holiness of the “truly deserving” that Jesus spent his ministry confronting.
The entire point of the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that God’s grace is scandalously generous - so generous it offends our human sense of fairness. And critically, the older brother’s resentment isn’t portrayed as wisdom or justified concern about his sibling’s spiritual formation. It’s portrayed as the problem.
He’s outside the feast, angry that his father would lavish such love on someone “undeserving.” Jesus is saying: that attitude reveals you don’t understand the Father’s heart at all.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently confronted the religious establishment - people who had devoted their whole lives to God, who knew scripture backwards and forwards, who had cultivated apparent holiness for decades. And what did he tell them? That tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the kingdom ahead of them.
Why? Because they weren’t keeping score. They knew they needed mercy.
God’s grace is not a performance review. It’s not a merit-based system where years of service earn you a bigger mansion or a superior experience of eternity. As Paul reminds us repeatedly, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” - the lifelong churchgoer and the deathbed convert alike are saved entirely by unmerited grace.
Just like God does not “want you to be rich”, he also doesn’t give bigger cups to people with more prayer points.
Good thoughts. There are two distinct movements. First, is the unmerited grace of salvation. No one earns this. No vine can connect to the branch via their own merits (John 15). However, once grace is received, we are called to cultivate it. Thus, the second movement is participating in the grace freely given and bearing fruit (John 15). Some receive crowns, robes, etc., for their adherence to Christ. Sanctification and theosis are the soul becoming more beautiful like Christ. In this second movement, the soul of the convert and the saint are quiet distinct.
In Spain, at the time of the worst of the Inquisition, the converted Jews and Saracens were called marranos ie hogs, a term most insultant to them. The fondas (pubs) used to hang at their entries, from the rafters, hams. If the converted was a true one, he would not flinch at their sight and even ask for a slice to eat. If not, off he went to be judged.
"And at the end of our lives, Christians teach that Jesus will reward souls based on the degree to which they have climbed the mountain of the Lord, to the degree they have become Christ-like."
This is not a point I came to appreciate from reading the Gospels, the only texts I've seriously studied. I expected you would just say that those Christians who are angry at the converts should read Matthew's parable of the day laborers and be done with it! So you think that there is something correct in the reaction to converts?
I see two ways of reading this. One is as a reward for just actions. The second is that God is giving to each what they can handle, based on their capacity as you say. It is certainly not obvious that all people can ascend to the same degree not matter their will. I thought this was the whole point of salvation based on faith. Or do you think these come together?
I am not yet convinced but it is an interesting idea.
Excellent points. Also the parable of the laborers illustrates your point, with the man coming at 3:00 or 4:30 in the afternoon getting a full day’s wage. That engenders bitterness in bitter people — I’ve asked — even though they have no response to Christ’s final question, “Am I not free to do what I wish with my own money?”
The other place where this bitterness or pusillanimity surfaces is in response to Catholic converts who to write in invoice and opinion on the Church. Particularly Ann Barnhart draws fire in this regard, but I’ve seen the same criticism leveled at many commentators.
There is no or little or cold charity in the people who charge folks in this way. Aside from neglecting that Saint Paul was a convert, along with Saint Augustine, not to mention Saint Mary Magdalene, and innumerable others , these poor folks instead reflect the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who “followed the rules” but failed to understand that it is a pure heart that Christ wants and not sacrifice.