The Gospel According Too: Jesus (Luke 15:11-32)

Introduction

When Covid Lockdowns started my tv viewing went next level

Instead of sports highlights I spent 3 days watching antiques roadshow highlights

I am not proud of it but it happened

People bring in items from their house they think have some value and antique appraisers give them an estimate of what the item would get at an auction.

One episode there was a guy who had kept a painting his grandparents gave him behind his front door where people hung hats and coats. It was nice as an entry way picture

He saw it, passed by it every day with no pause because it was so familiar

It was from his great grandparents trip to Mexico in the early 1900’s so he brought it to the show.

Turns out his house warmer was a one of a kind of one of the first paintings of the most famous artist to ever come from Latin America.

Familiarity blinded him to the 1904 Diego Rivera oil painting worth more than he could imagine....just over 1 Million dollars

It had served the purpose he knew for it. But there was immeasurable value if he worked to find it.

We do the same with the Bible and especially with passages like this one.

Pop culture knows the prodigal son

But in the familiar no passage has more intended gut punch like this one.

Jesus is speaking scandal and no one listening gets away unscathed

He shows us 4 things I want us to look at today. 1. The scandal of the backdrop 2. The scandal of rebellion. 3. The scandal of the Fathers Love. 4. The true older brother. Let’s read it and look at these 4 parts.

1. The Scandal of the Setting

To understand the scope of Jesus’ scandalous words we have to immerse ourselves in the scene

2 groups have gathered around

2 groups with hate for each other

Luke 15:1-2 lays out the scene

Luke 15:1–2 ESV

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Jesus is receiving sinners. Saying that God has come not to pat the rule followers in the back but to receive the broken

The word for receive is the claim against him.

He uses the word for receive that means aggressively seeking and longing.

This was Jesus’ mission from His birth. He came to seek and save.

These Pharisee’s and scribes could not come to terms with it.

The outcasts. The people with baggage and a past are being told they aren’t unlovable.

Tax collectors were hired hands by the Romans to exploit their own people

Sinners is used to describe the worst of the no no’s.

like the pastor with a shaved head and tattoos who asks your daughter to marry him just as an example…not that my in laws ever felt that way

Then theirs the insiders who know the first 5 books of the bible by heart and all the Old Testament inside and out are enraged

They have followed all the rules there’s no way they are on the outside

but that is exactly what Jesus is saying

Thats the scene and Jesus uses the insiders own language to shock them

Jesus tosses a verbal hand grenade and everyone that can hear is about to get hit

2 parables lead up to the rebel son

The tension builds as Jesus lays out the three stories

He starts with a shepherd leaving 99 sheep in the open wilderness because the lost one was worth it all

the insiders would have known this was a shot at them

In Ezekiel God indicts Israels leaders as selfish wicked shepherds

So in Ezekiel 34:16 God says He will take the seeking and saving in to His own hands

Ezekiel 34:16 CSB

I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, and strengthen the weak, but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will shepherd them with justice.

They may not celebrate someone with a list of regrets and baggage getting saved but He says all of heaven explodes in joy when it happens

Another story with a poor woman as the main character would have shocked others.

Jesus is showing us another side of God’s longing to save

The woman is moved by self interest to exert all of her effort to find a relatively useless coin

She stops at nothing to find what he world would say is not worth the oil in the lamp or the palm twigs that made the broom

Jesus is saying that the most unseen invaluable person to the world is worth moving all of heaven and earth to find

Jesus is redefining everything we thought we knew about connecting to God. He is redefining sin, what it means to be lost and what it means to be saved

With the 3rd parable He moves to the second point today

2. The Scandal of Sin (Luke 15:11-19, 25-32)

Sin is one of those churchy words that makes us eneasy

Maybe you are here today and you are skeptical about christian things because of how you have heard this word thrown around

i get it I was the same way

But Jesus redefines sin and lostness and our life in a world that isnt how its supposed to be

God created and world where His son would be worshiped and honored knowing we wouldn’t do that

That is what the churchy word sin means

Sin is the vandalism of God’s perfect canvas and we have all held a spray paint can in one form or another

When you hear sin don’t think about that marlboro you smoked when you were 18

Think about how we have all looked at the biblical God and wanted to do it our way

Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin Introduction

In sin, people attack or evade or neglect their divine calling

That is the younger brothers scandalous choices. The younger brother (v. 11-19)

Luke 15:11–16 CSB

He also said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything.

I am sure we are all experts on 1st century Jewish paternal inheritance law so let this be a refresher.

Upon the death of the father the oldest gets 2/3 and the youngest gets 1/3.

This kid is probably 17 or 18 and who else looks back and says that version of me made awesome life choices

No middle eastern man would tolerate the shame of giving into this

A beating would have ensued

The original language uses the word life not estate

What he said is give me the part of your life that is mine..you are better off to me dead

In high honor Ancient Near Eastern culture this request would be unspeakable and scandalous.

Every relationship, every person, every opportunity is a means to our endsfe

We all live in a world that isn’t how its supposed to be

We all are dedicated to some project of salvation

What is it you long for? What do you think that if I can just grab hold of “______” i will know rest and flourishing and the good life?

How do you answer life’s deepest questions? why am I here? Why is there pain and funerals and regret? How can I matter and know joy?

The younger son believes the project of self discovery will make the pain stop, the security come, the lonliness to escape, and transcendent purpose to shine

He is those of us who give it all away to feel alive

Everything is a commodity to my own hapiness

Every ralationship, every person, every opportunity is a means to our ends

it was the wealth not the love of the father he believed would bring the good life

like us, in his new found freedom is a slave. And sin is a ruthless master.

We do this to ourselves.

Imagining that what is out there is better than what we can have in simple rest and trust.

vandalism of God’s love is a descent into more and more regret and shame We lie to ourselves

We swindle others and we are the ultimate self hustlers

Cornelius Plantinga describes this futility this way: “We prettify ugly realities and sell ourselves the prettified versions…sin has to spend a lot of money on makeup”.

In doing this we like the younger son reject our created purpose and reject our Father and commit adultery against Him with our autonomy. This shatters the Fathers heart.

viii. There is only a rapid descent in the younger son’s life. He goes from son ship to making choices that are an assault on every personal and societal decency.

He is attached to a foreigner, feeding unclean animals: Feeding swine was thus about as low as Jews could go. To wish to share their food was the depth of degradation

cut off from the temple in a distant land, and the inevitable happens.

Famine strikes and the idols are powerless to come through on their promise of life

when you have given it all to save yourself and the lonliness and regret or wishes for one more chance still come what else can we do

ix. He puts the weight of flourishing on things that cannot hold the weight.

This son is lost and it is scandalous. But the Older brothers sin is just as scandalous

b. The older brother (v. 25-30)

i. Remember the Father shockingly split the inheritance and gave it. That means the oldest would’ve received 2/3 of it then and there.

ii. Remember this is a high honor culture. Family honor was everything.

It is the oldest son’s responsibility to repair the fractured family to spare them dishonor and humiliation. But he passes on his responsibility and takes what is his.

He too has told the Father that he is better off dead. He doesn’t care about the Father or his brother.

He has told his father and his brother they are better off dead…so he can enjoy his stuff and repay years of resentment

iv. With his association he is his father’s son, but functionally serves a different master.

v. A rejection of God’s purposes for our life a refusal to be a part of our father’s business is as great a sin as drug addiction. Uncaring to not stand up to injustice is just as damning as human trafficking.

This is Jesus’ strategic assault on the scribes and Pharisees

The one issue at the heart of the Pharisees was their relationship with to the father…as the older brothers is here

“The older son is like many people who have enjoyed a long relationship with God. His love for the father has grown cold, he has become callous and complaining, he harbors bitterness about the life that passed him by. He has been faithful over the years, and he imagines that the father owes him a reward. Having not received what he imagines, he thinks himself justified in his bitterness.”

His unspoken demand is “I have done all the right things

As my grandma said “He didn’t drink or fight or cuss or chew and never went with girls who do…so life should go my way”

vi. He too is a slave to sin and is cut off from the only true source of life, joy, and peace.

vii. That is why in verses 25-30 we see is rage when his idols fail to deliver.

Cornelius Plantinga describes this envy. “To the envier every good in a rival is a diminishment of him or herself” we think of others good as injury or loss to ourselves.

It is completely possible for us to confess Jesus as Lord and serve a completely different master in our daily lives.

He never felt pain in his brothers lostness. Never once thought how can I give this 2/3 inheritance to seek and save my brother. Instead he rejected his son ship, rejected his brother and saw himself only as the type of person worthy of his father’s party.

Here’s the really nasty secret - we are all both brothers at times

They aren’t the main character. The Father is.

German translations of the Bible get it right and know this parable as the Parable of the Prodigal Father, not the prodigal son.

Enter the scandal of the Fathers love.

3. The Scandal of the Fathers Love (v.12, 20-24, 31-32)

Verse 12 fascinates me

I have lived it

Wrath is another one of those churchy words we get heartburn when we hear

But redefine what Jesus is showing us it is

It is The love of God to Let us Run (v. 12)

Tim Keller says “ This is the wrath of God: To give us what we want too much. To give us over to the things we have put in place of Him”

ii. What is implicit is that the father could see him coming a long way off because he never stopped waiting and watching for him. The Father knows the son and loves him enough to turn him over.

One of Gods greatest means of Grace is the starvation and dissatisfaction that our self-saving produces. Notice that he does this with both sons. Day after day he watched the oldest son bitterly march off into the field to “slave” as he calls his own work at the end of the parable. Day after day I can picture him broken hearted longing to have a relationship with his son and not an employee.

iv. So in His counter cultural love He lets us all experience the futility of our idols. He lets us experience the starvation of the heart we reap from our lie of autonomy. He doesn’t force or threaten.

v. He wants sons not slaves

vi. Paul says in Romans 2:4 “Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience not recognizing that Gods kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” in the CSB.

He doesn’t treat us as we deserve!!! None of us. Not the one far away or the one in his back yard. He is taken advantage of and presumed upon and in return gives it all to get sons and daughters. If this isn’t scandalous enough Jesus pulls the pin.

b. The Father Who Runs V 20

20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

2 things are insane here we cannot miss

The original language is a masterpiece

The Greek word for “long way off,” makran, is the same word used for “distant [country]” (v. 13). Its repetition is highly symbolic: the father extends compassion and forgiveness not when he knows of his son’s repentance, but when, for all he knows, he is still in the “far” country. Forgiveness is not merited by repentance, but freely and unconditionally bestowed upon his son before he says a word” - James Edwards

i. We can also miss the depth of this if we don’t know the culture this is set in. this is a scandalous run.

High honor middle eastern culture considered running shameful. This wealthy, honorable father pulls up his robe and runs through the entire town.

Shaming himself for all to see and scoff at.

An entire communities’ shame pent up for this son is laid upon a running father to the son who rejected him. He is taking the shameful walk of the son through town and putting it all on himself!!!

ii. What love!!! What scandal.

Listen to Ephesians 2:1-5 and hear the echo of the power of what is taking place. Paul says “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a]and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b] 4 But[c]God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved

iv. By running to the son the Father in our parable is telling the world and all who would hold his debt against him that it is cancelled.

Each of the elements Luke records as placed on the son have significance.

Verse 22:

But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.

A Robe and a Ring showed the world elevated and enhanced status…it said you have moved up

But the sandals tell more

Slaves went barefoot it was a sign of shame and slavery

To sandal his son’s feet meant A New Status.

No longer a slave but free

Completely new nature. New Life

c. The Father who Forgives –

i. What he doesn’t say is as powerful as what he has done. He doesn’t say “look what you’ve done” or ask “where have you been, where’s the money, what did you do?”.

He already knows where he has been. He knows the patterns of sin that will take time to sanctify even back home. He knows the shame.

He knows and he says its all in the open and its paid for

He knows. He has seen it all. The hidden things we hope no one ever sees or knows. He knows and what should put us on our face is that he wants all of it. He took it all put it all on his son

The shame you feel about the secret things is exactly what he bore for you

Do you know how unreal God’s love for you in Christ is?

This is the cosmic spectacle Peter says the angels long to look into...

The fathers love for us

The father takes the pig pen saturated son and embraces him.

This would make the father as unclean as the son to the onlookers.

The insiders miss the scandal of God’s love for us

ii. What this means is that we don’t clean ourselves up and come to him. There are no stories in this room of someone pulling themselves up by their own boot straps. We are forgiven and in light of this amazing grace we love and live lives about the father’s business.

4. The True Older Brother

Jesus leaves the parable open ended.

We do not know how each son lived out the rest of their lives.

Will those representing the older son go in?

Will the gentiles listening as the younger son repent believe?

He has put to the listeners, Luke has put to his readers, and we have it put to us what we will choose.

We can choose the freedom of forgiveness through repentance

a. Repentance (v 21) like David in Psalm 51:3-4

“ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”

We can choose the freedom of obedience

Obedience – finding freedom in the parameters God has set.

Adam and Eve had all they could dream

They were who they were made to be, living in flourishing we can only imagine, walking with their creator knowing exactly what they were created for.

All that hinged on obedience to the word.

We have all like them chose to play out in the road telling our creator he is holding out on us by telling us to play in the yard

We can each return again to let Him tell us who we are....let him tell us why we are here and what we are to put our hands to doing

Live that out and see what response the world gives you

d. It calls for a Dying to self so that God is glorified not us. We work for and pray for the good of others. This is an assault on our pride. This response confronts our envy.

i. But we are to model our Prodigal Father and live at great risk and cost to see Gospel Good done in the lives of those around us.

It leads us to rejoice when others are “found”. It calls us to give all we have in the labor of our Fathers seeking and Saving.

The father corrects the older son in verse 30 -32

The older son says “this son of yours”…but the father corrects him in his response...”this your brother....”

In our obedience we work to make a new family the father in the parable was showing the older son

Lost are welcomed in…at cost of our comfort or our preferences, or how it looks to the outside world.

We can do this because echoed the words of the father from the parable in John 17…All that I have is yours…and all you have is mine

When we remember the scandal of God’s love for us…and we remember all He has is already ours…What could we hold back in our fathers business

How can we not want our fathers name known and rejoiced over ?

i. Sam Albury said that “we have a mindset that people have a right to hear the gospel so we do missions. But the Scandal of heaven is that God is not known” Piper says missions exists because worship doesn’t. this gives us a new economy to work in.

It is the most counter cultural way you could ever live your life

It is the most freeing life you could ever choose to live

f. It causes us to live in such a way that we are as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15- those most to be pitied if Christ has not been raised from the dead.

5. Closing –

These parables shout as evidence of the impossible to subdue, impossible to defeat love of God for the lost.

That indomitable love was the reason Jesus came.

From the Cross he put on display his mission to “seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:19)

In his ascension we know he alone rules and reigns and what he has declared as righteous is forever more saved

British pastor Dick Lucas tells the Story of English son who ran away

The boy grew up in a small town. Everyone knew everyone.

He wanted the big life of the big city and ran away to London

He lost everything he stole to get there and was homeless. His whole home town knew the shame of the whole thing

His hometown had the train tracks as its back yard so he sent a letter home…I’ll be on the train coming by tomorrow i know if you don’t want to see me again so if you have the white bed sheets on the clothes line ill know its ok to come home

He slept at the train station woke up and boarded the train and as he got close enough to see his home all he saw was every clothesline in the city had white bedsheets flying on their lines....

This is the scandalous love of God....not just a clean slate to make it on our own

But scandalous lavish unstoppable unimaginable calling to come home from all of heaven

Prayer:

How deep the Father's love for us How vast beyond all measure That He should give His only Son To make a wretch His treasure

Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer But this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom