A new twist on the story of the prodigal son

Last weekend when I visited my boyfriend's family in California, I had the opportunity to attend his uncle's church. His uncle is the pastor, but it being Father's day, there was a special service and there was a guest speaker. It was also special because all the different services were together in one room. There are three languages spoken in his uncle's church and usually they have three services in different languages. Luckily for me, the service was spoken in English with a Chinese Mandarin interpreter. For those who only spoke Taiwanese dialect, the translation was available in earpieces.

The pastor spoke on the parable of the prodigal son. For me, it was an amazing lesson in Asian culture, because the twist that the pastor introduced would be completely irrelevant to American culture (for the most part!). You know the story, the prodigal son asks for his part of the inheritance and squanders it with wild living. But, in order to make this parable more personal for the congregation, the pastor spoke about how they probably envy the prodigal son because he gets to go do whatever he wants. But, they would never waste their money. They would put half of it in the bank and live off the interest while they enjoy life. At this point, I couldn't keep in a little snicker, because this is a point of difference that constantly gets rehashed between my boyfriend and I. He loves to talk about cultural difference and the way Taiwanese and Americans approach finances is quite the opposite of each other. Taiwanese are very keen on saving money and accumulating wealth through prudent living. Americans, on the other hand, love to live beyond their means, and feel no qualms about acquiring dept.

My boyfriend didn't get why I was laughing, though. He, he. There was another twist that I hadn't heard before as well, illustrating cultural differences. The pastor then talked about how the parable of the prodigal son is really about how much God loves us and will drop everything to look for his lost children. So he began to look at the parable from the perspective of the father and describe what the father was thinking and feeling. He talked about how the neighbors probably looked down on him for having such a reprobate son and how he must not have loved his son if he gave him the inheritance and just let him leave. His servants would have understood that he loved his son, but they would have told him to give up longing for his return because his son would never return to him. He also talked about how the local pastor would have talked with him about his son. Basically, the father "lost face" in front of everybody because his son did something so selfish and disrespectful to him. He couldn't even wait around for his father to die to get his inheritance, for pete's sake!

But, the Father knew that he needed to give his son up and lovingly let him leave in order for him to realize what he gave up. Then the Father waited for his son to return and ran to him and even restored his place as son when other's would not be so forgiving and so loving. Then he sang the song, "When God Ran." It was really touching, but I had never heard a version before that focused on what other people thought of the father's misfortune and how the father lost face. "Face" is so much more important in Taiwanese culture. But, for me, I was raised to think that it didn't matter what other people thought of you.

I certainly have never heard the parable of the prodigal son illustrated in this manner before. I enjoyed getting such a personal glimpse into Asian culture. It's makes it so much more real to experience it rather than talk about it.