Jon Pyle Profile picture
Dec 5, 2019 17 tweets 2 min read Read on X
In preparing a sermon for this weekend I have developed a biblical #hottake: we should NEVER call the story Jesus tells in Luke 15 “The Prodigal Son” again. It is the parable of “The Lost Son”.
At this point, we probably don’t think about it because Prodigal Son is common terminology and the point of reference for the story. But that label is wrong. Like straight up wrong. Completely misses the point of the story.
How we’ve come to talk about The Lost Son story is a great example of how we completely misunderstand and interpret what Jesus was trying to say.
First, the story comes after the stories of The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin. Hint hint.
Calling the story The Prodigal Son focuses on the son’s behavior while gone and centers the son. But it’s not about him. The father is at the center of this story.
We really want to make it about our works. We gravitate towards judgement of others. That’s why we call it Prodigal- focusing on the son’s squandering of resources and life, instead of Lost- focusing on the disconnection of father and son.
I could go on and on. But the point I wanted to get to is how we misunderstand repentance.
Because the story is about the father’s compassion, NOT the son’s disobedience, then we must look at repentance differently.
The father runs to the son with open arms and welcomes him home BEFORE the son verbally repents and apologizes. It’s not about the son.
The very act of coming home is a posture of repentance.
For believers, repentance is a very important part of spiritual growth. It’s part of how we use a healthy relationship with God.
We as believers can still feel lost. But we can ALWAYS come home.
For those who don’t believe, I think repentance looks different than the narrow definition we’ve given it. The very act of believing in Jesus is an act of repentance. Seeking a savior is turning away from our way.
*have, not use
When we focus on a full acknowledgement of sin and verbal repentance for people who don't yet believe, we overshadow the grace of a God who is waiting to welcome them with open arms. Faith, by nature, is a posture of repentance.
The right words originate from the right posture, which flows from the state of a person's heart. It works from the inside out.
When focus on the "prodigal" part, we elevate the importance of a person's sins over the grace of God.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jon Pyle

Jon Pyle Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @jonpyle

Oct 27, 2022
I think church leaders have been getting the concept of the tithe wrong for a very long time. And I believe it’s why many believe in a cruel God who wants you to sacrifice “because I said so.” 🧵
I never really considered what would happen to animals, olive oil and grain given to the Lord as a tithe. I guess I assumed it just went bad or something. But Deuteronomy woke me up this morning.
“Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name…
Read 19 tweets
Aug 29, 2022
For everyone who has said “you can’t just assume based on the article, you gotta watch the video”… the video is 10000x worse than the article.
I’ve been a part of dealing with decisions like this. I’ve gotten it right and wrong. Our church would say the same. I’ve helped plan these announcements before.

THIS IS WEIRD.
First, the entire sermon was about this announcement. I don’t get that at all. Why?
Read 11 tweets
Dec 26, 2020
@Phil_guard @dave_filoni @Jon_Favreau Season 1 Essential: 11, 13, 22
Recommended: 2, 9, 19-21
@Phil_guard @dave_filoni @Jon_Favreau Season 2 Essential: 4, 12-14
Rec: 1-3, 11, 17
Good for Boba Feet: 20-22
@Phil_guard @dave_filoni @Jon_Favreau Season 3 Essential: 12-20 (core series stuff)
Rec: 21-22
Read 7 tweets
Dec 26, 2020
If you like #TheMandalorian and what @dave_filoni and @Jon_Favreau did... check out the #CloneWars animated series. The whole series is good, but the FINAL season is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥😭😭😭😭😭😭
My favorite part of the series was the Anakin development. The animated series shows why everyone revered him but slowly amplified his dark side tendencies.
Animated Anakin is swaggering and charismatic but still temperamental and frustrating.

You feel why he’s The Chosen One and why the Jedi are hesitant to fully believe.
Read 6 tweets
Nov 20, 2020
The magnitude of suffering MANY MANY families are experiencing right now is just overwhelming.
Buffering = when videos pause because they haven’t fully loaded yet. My grief is buffering right now.

The burden of pain, for myself, for my people and for everyone really, is so substantial that it’s stuck. It can’t process.
And I feel a creeping dread. Because I know the video has to keep playing sometime. And I don’t want to experience a lot of what is next. Heavy.
Read 19 tweets
Nov 5, 2020
Idolatry isn’t just about what you love, it’s about what you hate. When you organize your life around something you despise, you elevate that idol to a level of counter-worship. Instead of trying to please the idol, you make offerings to harm it.
In a Christian context, idolatry is about elevating anything or anyone beyond their actual value. When you care too much, give too much, obsess too much or fear too much, that’s an object of worship. Or in this case, counter-worship.
You don’t have to consider it at the same level as God for something to be an idol. It just has to take an outsized portion of your resources: time, energy, money, focus, creativity...
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(