The Parable of the Prodigal Son is easily the most famous story Jesus ever told. It has inspired paintings, novels, symphonies, and countless sermons. Yet for all its familiarity, we often miss its radical edge. We reduce it to a morality tale about a wayward child who says sorry and a softhearted dad who offers a second chance. But Luke 15:11–24 is far more disruptive than that. It is a story about the architecture of desire, the bankruptcy of self-exile, and a love that operates outside the economy of merit. **The Request That Kills** The parable opens not with departure, but with a demand: "Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me" (v. 12). In the first-century world, this was not merely impolite; it was violent. By asking for his inheritance while his father still lived, the younger son is effectively saying, "I wish you were dead." He wants the benefits of sonship without the relationship. He wants the assets, not the father. This is th...
The Midnight Mass is a Netflix mini-series that I have recently watched and have found very interesting. Although, to be honest, I felt a bit conflicted about it from beginning til the end. I guess to summarize the ending, this is exactly how it would be when devout believers of God/Allah become vampires. They'd sin and then they repent back to God and accept their fate and face death by facing the sunrise instead of choosing eternal life here on Earth as immortal monsters. I couldn't understand at first why the good priest would mistake that demon to be an angel. Furthermore, as a priest, he should be the first to know that the eternal life that God is promising isn't one in the current world we live in which is full of pain and suffering. I do like the character of Riley Flynn. Look, he's made a mistake, paid time for it and yet he is haunted by his sin regularly. He finds healing and comfort with Erin Greene whom he loves purely. So ...