Rachel, I think one thing your post did highlight is the importance of ‘community discernment’. The Scriptures were first a community affair. Most letters were written to groups and read to groups. As such, others can help us to refine our understanding of Scripture. As we share our thoughts fellow Christians can help us refine our interpretation. Therefore, we have all been blessed by the opportunity to question and re-evalute the meaning of these three parables.

I would tend to agree that Jesus was trying to communicate something different in these parables. Since the other commenters have already done the hard work of pointing us in the right direction, I won’t rehash all those valid points (see Jason’s comments above).

The Good Samaritan took care of a member of a hated tribe because it was the right thing to do, and where money was concerned, he was willing to part with some of his in order to care for that person. The prodigal son was a parable about forgiveness and the lost coin/sheep are about God’s unrelenting drive to retrieve the lost.

I have to agree with Jason here. The connections to money in these verses are mainly incidental. If there is a money message it’s probably “be willing to let it go.”
.-= Kevin@OutOfYourRut´s last blog ..Ten Common Sense Ways to Reduce Our Identity Footprint =-.

It seems these are glossing over the heart issues that are at stake when it comes to our money –

For example, the Good Samaritan shows us that we are to be a neighbor even to our enemies, even when we don’t want to or it might be to our peril – he gave his time on the Jericho road to help his enemy, he cleaned him up, he brought him to an inn and paid for his stay and even paid the innkeeper to take care of him – it’s truly an amazing story. This guy didn’t clutch his time or his money with tight fists, but had an open hand mentality on his money.

Lesson learned? Perhaps we need the same loose grip on our finances instead of hoarding and clutching them so tightly – and we need to look for opportunities to help even our enemies, after all Christ was a neighbor to us when we were an enemy to Him and he was gracious enough to pick us up, clean us off and give all He had for us!

The prodigal son didn’t put his eggs all in one basket – he was wasteful, he was frivolous and he was a rebel – he really thought that money and what money bought would bring him happiness, but it didn’t! He quickly realized that it’s a dead end road to view money as the ultimate joy.

The older son in that parable was the opposite – he didn’t spend a dime, never disobeyed his father and didn’t waste his father’s money, but we find in him an arrogance and a sense of pride. He may have thought that following all his father’s rules would bring him happiness, but it didn’t.

Lesson learned? Perhaps it’s the fact that neither frivolity or frugality will bring us happiness -maybe it’s about surrendering even our finances to Christ and laying them at his feet becase we realize that He is the one who brings ultimate joy and He is enough – no matter what!

I’ll keep it at those two to save some room for others.

Just my thoughts.
.-= Jason @ Redeeming Riches´s last blog ..Does Your Money Define You? =-.