Pretension Busters: Ambition

www.despair.com --"Increasing success by lowering expectations" (so much like the Old Adam and the Old Eve)

Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present

unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work

--Martin Luther

(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)

After a few days,

the younger son gathered together all he had

and left on a journey to a distant country,

and there he squandered his wealth with a wild lifestyle.

Luke 15:13

Ahh... the arrogance of this son: demanding an inheritance before the old man had even had the decency to "drop dead." Then the ingrate runs off to be free of the family's and the community's disapproving gaze so he could enjoy all the delights of the so-called freedom his wealth could buy for him. This cheeky little ingrate soon realizes that no matter how long his journey from home may have been, he cannot escape life's realities: freedom is costly, even so-called freedom must be bought with a price.

This selfish jerk of a son makes his long journey of vainglorious ambition so he can live "high on the hog" until he's literally "feeding the pigs"--a bad ending to his long journey into ridicule. The Apostle Paul pairs this concept of "vainglorious ambition" with that of Jesus' ambition when he writes his letter to the Philippians. There in chapter two, he uses two words: "kenodoxia" (vs. 3) and "ekenoesen" (vs. 7)--both based on the same root word "kenoo"--to contrast selfish ambition with Jesus' self-emptying.

Paul's connection let's us see Jesus' story and the prodigal son's stories in their differences and similarities. The prodigal wishes his father dead and demands his inheritance; runs off and squanders it. Jesus' father sends him off to die but before he goes he surrenders his inheritance. Their similarity is that both have a "bad ending to their journey," ending up disgraced and/or dead. Finally, at the last, both sons are thrust upon their father's love and mercy.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,

but in order that the world might be saved through him."

John 2:16-17