Ken Bailey’s amazing book The Cross and the Prodigal is one of our favorite books at Cana. In fact, David drew upon it in his recent series on the Prodigal Son at Cana Community Church. (You can watch David’s messages on our podcast at iTunes.)  In the book, Bailey anwers the question - where is the cross in the parable of the prodigal son? After all, from a modern reader’s perspective, it sounds an awful lot like a message of “forgive and forget”. New Testament scholar and long-time missionary to the Middle East, Bailey draws on his extensive knowledge of both the New Testament and Middle Eastern culture to examine of this parable from a Middle Eastern perspective. In doing so, he powerfully demonstrates how the parable is more powerful and life transforming than what we might experience with a quick reading.

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