The Tale of Two Sons (1)

Tale of Two Sons

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” This is a call on the part of our Lord to those who are willing to listen to His message, His message of Kingdom salvation.

And just who was listening? Chapter 15:1 “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.” It was the outcast; it was the scum, the low lives who listened, believingly, upon what Jesus had to say.

These are two categories that are used sort of in a general way to describe the worst of the worst.

Tax collectors were the lowest people socially and religiously in the life of Israel.

Rome occupied Israel and Rome sold tax franchises. Greedy Jews who didn’t care at all about their own people, who had no religious passions bought those tax franchises and strong-armed people out of their money, taking what Rome required and everything else they could get. It became a way to operate a criminal operation.

They were sort of the Mafia. They were surrounded by thugs, people who could extract the money out of people to fill their bank account. They were disassociated from society. They were put out of families. They were considered to be outside the purposes of God. They were the traitors of all traitors, hated by the people.

“Sinners,” Referred to the thugs that went along with the tax collectors, as well as all the lowlife criminals and prostitutes that occupied the base level of immoral activity in Israel.

These are the kind of people of whom the rabbis said, “Let not anyone associate with such people, not even to bring them near to the Law of God.”

But they were the ones who came to Jesus. They were the ones who heard and listened.

Verse 2 says, “And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

These are the self-appointed elite. These are the religious leaders of Israel. They were self-righteous, they believed that you earned your way into God’s kingdom by being moral on the outside, fulfilling all the ceremonies that were required of you. They were the “in” people. They were the pure and the holy, far too pure and too holy to be polluted by any association with sinners.

And when they saw Jesus associating with sinners, they drew one single conclusion: He is satanic because He hangs around Satan’s people.

Jesus is doing the work of God, which is the redemption of sinners. They see it as the work of Satan. That’s how far from God they were.

His response to their self-righteous anti-evangelism was to unmask them as very far from God, very distant from God, knowing nothing of His glory and nothing of His joy.

He explains what He’s doing in three stories.

· Vs. 3-7 “Parable of Lost Sheep” ~ A man goes, he finds the sheep, he rejoices with his friends because a sheep has value; verse 7, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Heaven rejoices over one sinner’s repentance.

· Vs. 8-10 “Parable of Lost Coin”~ A woman who lost a coin. Again, that has value; she finds the coin; she calls her lady friends together: “Rejoice with me,” verse 9; I found the coin. The application, verse 10 “I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Point~ Pharisee’s are so far from God; they don’t get it. God’s joy is found in the salvation of one sinner. (Point of chapter 15)

PRODIGAL SON

Background~ this culture was dominated by a shame-honor paradigm.

Everything related back to what was honorable and what was shameful. And they had a very clear, almost subconscious understanding of shame and honor. This truth is particularly true among the Pharisees and the scribes.

The story Jesus tells is bizarre, unbelievable, incomprehensible, a ridiculous story of non-stop shame that nobody could understand. Everything Jesus talks about in this story is counter to their instinctive thinking. It is against the grain of their society. They do not function this way; they do not think this way. The level of outrage just continues to escalate. This is a head shaker and an eye roller.

1. A SHAMEFUL REQUEST

“There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’”

The younger son is asking the father for his share of an inheritance; he’s out of rank. There’s a pecking order. If he’s younger, somebody’s older. This is not only out of rank, this is disrespectful, and this is selfish. You get the estate when the father dies.

This is like saying, “Father, I wish you were dead. You’re in the way. I want what’s mine and I want it now and I’m tired of waiting.”

He sees the father as an obstacle, as an unwelcome point of accountability.

He doesn’t want the father around; he doesn’t want accountability; he wants freedom, independence; he wants his money, and he wants it now.

This is totally disrespectful. He wants nothing to do with an on-going relationship to the family.

He says, “Give me the share of the estate” --give me the property and the goods. He didn’t want to take over his inheritance and to begin to develop it and use it for the good of the family in the future. He wanted the cash. I want the goods. I want the property. I want it now. I want no future with this family.

The listeners would expect one thing: the father would raise his right hand and slap that young man right across the face. And then he would punish him as severely as it could happen--a beating publicly because the father must protect his honor at all costs.

2. SHAMEFUL RESPONSE

“And he divided his property between them.”

He does exactly what this rebellious, hateful son asks. This is absurd. You’re supposed to wait till he’s dead and then the younger gets one-third, the older gets two-thirds, but not until the father dies.

You might assume that a father would do this for a good purpose, but to fund the rebellion of a hateful, disrespectful son? The father should do everything to protect his own honor. He’s been publicly embarrassed by this son, and he needs to take the high ground and preserve his brother.

Footnote: The older had the son, had the job in the family of protecting the father’s honor, and protecting the younger siblings from doing foolish things. But the older son never appears here, he never shows up in this story.

Pharisees, would be saying, “Well, where was the older brother here?” His duty is to preserve the father’s honor if the father doesn’t protect himself. Where is he? His duty is to protect the younger brother from doing foolish things. Where is he?

The estate is split, and that means the older son got his two-thirds. The younger son got the one-third that was coming to him, and that launches a shameful rebellion.

3. SHAMEFUL REBELLION

“Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.”

“Not many days later,” this is to indicate how fast this young man acts. He is driven by lust and passion and evil desire, and there’s no delay possible. He wants to move as fast as he can. And what he does, it says, the younger son gathered everything together. In the Greek that simply means he turned it into cash.

Now how do you take an estate that’s been accumulating for generations-- large estate, servants, hired men, hired musicians, fatted calf? All that stuff that shows up in the story indicates a very wealthy man. How do you liquidate that rapidly?

Well, you can do that, but you’re going to have to sell it at a discount. So he diminishes the value of this thing. He wants to turn it into cash.

This is stupid. Sacrificing your future on the altar of the immediate,

This is exactly what Peter calls be “Shortsighted” in .

This is exactly what Jesus talks about when he says, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”

This is why James urges us to realize that this life is only a “Vapor.”

He goes on a journey into a distant country. That was the whole point. Get as far away from home as far you can,

· far away from accountability as you can,

· far away from restraint as you can,

· far away from anybody’s scrutiny as you can.

Get out there where you can live exactly the way you want to live, and nobody that cares about you is going to know.

That’s what we do in life isn’t it… This is MY LIFE.

He squandered his estate with loose living. So driven by lust and sin and evil desire, he just wastes it, absolutely wastes it.

This is where “prodigal” comes from; it’s a term that means wasteful. He scatters his future and has nothing to show for it.

Later on in the story, his older brother (verse 30), points out that he wasted a lot of it on prostitutes.

Living for the moment without any regard for the future; It’s all about me and it’s all about now!

14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.

And what happens in a famine, you can read some fascinating things about famines in ancient history.

People eat garbage; they eat sandals; they eat stray animals. During famine times in Israel went under siege; the Jewish people even ate the afterbirth.

This is life at the bottom. And he becomes a beggar,

5 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

He went and attached; interesting Greek word here, kalao means to glue.

That’s what beggars do. If you’ve been in third-world countries, man, it’s hard to get rid of beggars. They stick their hands in your pockets; they pull on your clothes--particularly young ones. So he does this. He attaches.

He finds some citizen in this far country, which would be assumed to be a Gentile country, and he glues himself to this citizen and the guy can’t get rid of him. So finally, he sent him into the field to feed swine. It wasn’t really a legitimate hiring. I guess he thought it was, but it wasn’t. It was just a way to get rid of this relentless beggar.

SHAME~ father in funding the rebellion; selling the estate cheap; becoming a beggar, attached to a Gentile and now to be sent to feed pigs.

Pharisee’s are listening saying “Nobody is going to do that; no good Jewish boy is going to do that. Are you kidding?”

16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

And it gets worse. He’s longing to fill his stomach with the pods the swine were eating because nobody was giving anything to him.

He goes from wealth to trying to stick your face in between snouts and eat slop with pigs in a Gentile place? He is starving to death.

Verse 17, he says, “I’m going to die of hunger.” He can’t do it. He can’t beat the pigs to the pods. What is this? What is Jesus talking about?

Well, this is desperation. This is the sinner, poor, destitute, hungry, hopeless, , and dying; this is desperation.

Sin is rebellion against God, and God will give you the freedom to choose your sin. He’ll give you freedom to take your sin as far in any direction as you choose to take it. Here is the rebellion of one who had no relationship to the one who gave him life. No relationship to the one who held all the riches he ever could have needed all his life. No relationship to the one who could give him a future, as well as a present. That’s how it is with sin. It is disdain for God’s person, God’s rule, God’s authority; God’s will, God’s goodness, God’s resources.

Sin is desire to run from God to avoid all responsibility, accountability to God. It is to deny God any place in your life.

Dishonor God, to take all the loving gifts that are available and squander them as far away from God as you can get.

Waste your life in self-indulgent dissipation, unrestrained lust, shunning all God’s goodness.

It is reckless evil. It is selfish indulgence that takes you to the brink of death. Sin looks for fulfillment outside and away from God and never finds it. It leaves the sinner exhausted, empty, hungry, and hopeless.

How is the father going to deal with somebody who is this bad? Jesus really has invented the ultimate sinner.

This is as bad as you can get--disrespect to parent, disrespect to community, and immorality to the max, violating all your cultural conformities, going to a despised place and attaching to despised people. This is the pits.

4. SHAMEFUL REPENTANCE

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!”

“When he came to his senses.” By the way, that’s always the start of repentance, when you begin to assess your true condition.

He said, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread?” I’m dying here of hunger.

Hired Man~ Land Owners= the people with the money; Tenant Farmers= rented little pieces of it and worked the land; Shop Owners little business here and there; Craftsmen who did certain things; “Servants” basically were part of the family. They were hired. You housed them. You fed them. And they did service, and they really were part of the family; then you had, “hired men”; they were day laborers.

They hung around--they just hung around hoping someone would hire them, And back in Leviticus it says when you hire a day laborer, you have to pay him at the end of the day, can’t keep his wages over night because he sets his heart on that. He’s got to feed his family. He works one day at a time. These are the low people on the pole. And some of them did very menial, most of the menial unskilled work, although some were craftsmen of some kind.

But there’s something about the father here that’s really interesting. He says, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough?” You know what this tells you about this man?, “My father gives the low people on the economic ladder more than they need.” What does that tell you about the father?

That he is merciful, that he is generous, that he is good. And this is where he begins to realize the goodness of his father.

He’s good. He gives more than enough. And I am dying here with hunger.

18 “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.”

‘I’m going to trust my father’s mercy, I’m going to trust my father’s goodness and compassion, evidenced in the way he treats the lowest people, that I can go back to him and he will in some way receive me.’

Wow, this is embarrassing. He’s not only got to go to his father and face his father in the way he’s treated his father in the past, he’s going to face his older brother. He’s got to face the village.

Not only that, he’s looking at years of hard labor.

How do you earn back a third of a massive estate as a hired man? At low wages, this will take years and years and years and years; and only after it’s all been earned back, restitution complete, will there be hope of reconciliation.

He knows his sins are great. Verse 18, “I have sinned”; literally in the Greek, “I have sinned into heaven.” It’s another way of saying what the Old Testament says, “My sins are as high as heaven. There’s no holding back here. He knows what he has become.”

He asks for no privileges in his mind, no rights--he’s forfeited them all.

He can make no claim;

· He doesn’t ask to be in the father’s house.

· He doesn’t ask to be a family member.

· He doesn’t ask to be a servant in the father’s house.

All he wants is the father to be merciful enough to him to let him work as a day laborer, paying minimum wage for as many years as it takes to earn back everything he lost and the hope that there could be reconciliation.

He sees now that when he’s exhausted his options away from his father, all he got was death. And he will pay any price for the life his father possesses. He’ll take the punishment. He’ll take the humiliation. He’ll take the hard labor. What a picture.

Here is a sinner in true repentance--he’s come to desperation--who realizes that this is the path of death.

Remember: “The wages of sin are death.”

He wants reconciliation; he’s willing to confess that his sins are as high as the heavens. He knows he has no rights and no privileges and could lay no claim to anything. He wants reconciliation at any cost, even a life of hard labor.

REAL REPENTANCE

Verse 20, “He got up, came toward his father”--walked back in his filthy, swine-smelling, stinking clothes; trudged back toward the village.

Finally this father has an opportunity to regain his honor and to do what he should--what is right and just and honorable--and what the father should do is stay up in his estate and when somebody says your son has come to town, the father says, “I’ll see him in four days. Let him sit in these stinking clothes and take the scorn and the mockery of the village heaped upon him as discipline. And then after four days, I will see him.”

The father would expect him to come in, bow down, kiss the father’s feet, and take punishment from the father, maybe even a lashing, and then get ready to work for decades.

If he could sustain it for decades and decades and decades, then maybe reconciliation. But reconciliation comes only because of restitution.

There is no reconciliation without restitution.

5. SHAMEFUL RECONCILIATION

“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.”

Well, the young man was still a long way off, still outside the village. Maybe there was a gate; there was a dusty road leading to the village. While he’s a long way off, his father saw him.

Now we’re okay up to here. And now the whole thing becomes ridiculous. “And felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” Are you kidding me? What a fool his father is. His father is a bigger fool than his son.

Still a long way off~ The father was looking; He was watching for his son to return.

We could assume that this was a regular thing for him to look for that son.

The father was the seeker, felt compassion, and those Pharisees are saying, “How weak is this man? Can’t he ever respond in a righteous, honorable way?”

And then he did the unthinkable. He ran. Middle Eastern noblemen don’t run. It’s not just something you don’t do,

They wore robes down to the ground. And that was so that their legs were not seen. It was a shame to let your legs be seen. If you ran you had to pull it up, and to show your legs was shameful.

Even a priest when he’s offering sacrifice cannot lift his robe off the ground to keep it out of the blood. There was one rabbi who condemned a man for lifting his robe above his knees while walking through thorns to keep from getting it caught. You just didn’t run.

You didn’t run, first of all, because it wasn’t dignified; you didn’t run because you moved in a graceful, stately manner; and you didn’t run because it would be a shame if anybody saw your lower body.

This word “ran” in the Greek is the word for sprinting in a race. This man came out of his house and sprints down the middle of town toward this son.

This is selfless.

Why is he doing this? Because he wants...listen to this...to get to the son before the son gets to the village. Because as soon as that son enters that village, he’s going to be mocked and scorned and heaped upon with shame and ridicule. And father runs through town, takes the shame to embrace the boy before he receives the shame.

He embraced him--hugs the pig-scented rebel and kissed him.

In the Greek, “kissed him repeatedly.” Customary to kiss him all over the head; --full reconciliation. No shame for the boy; the father has taken the shame.

The father came out of his impressive home, came down, came to the village, sprinted through, took all the scorn and the shame, threw his arms around the boy, kissed him all over the head, and everybody knew. He’s received him fully as a son.

· He should have been beaten.

· Should have had to sit there and take the shame.

What is this? I’ll tell you what it is--one word, grace. And they didn’t get it.

He got it because in verse 21 the Son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son,” and he stopped. What did he leave out? What did he leave out of his speech?

Go back to verse 19. What’s his last line in verse 19? “Make me one of your hired men.” But he doesn’t say that. He planned to say it, but he doesn’t say it because he doesn’t need to say it, because he doesn’t have to earn back his father’s love. He doesn’t have to earn the reconciliation. He gets grace.

He leaves out the hired man part--that would have been an insult to his father’s compassion, an insult to his father’s love, an insult to grace.

He just repents; he entrusts himself to the mercy of his father, and that’s all a sinner ever needs to do.

And this, of course, is what outraged the Pharisees all the time, Jesus gracing sinners--Jesus embracing sinners, kissing them all over the head and reconciling with them. This young man receives reconciliation, restoration, forgiveness, sonship, and all he does is trust his father and repent of his sin. He has no plan for restitution, no works; this is grace--a gift of a loving, merciful, compassionate father.

FATHER

The father really is God in Christ, coming down from heaven to the dust of our towns, to seek and save the lost sinner who comes to him.

God initiates; he’s the seeker. He sees the sinner before the sinner sees him. He finds the sinner before the sinner finds him. And he runs the gauntlet and takes the shame. His love is lavish. His pure grace is limitless. And here we see the point--God finds His joy in the salvation of one lost sinner who he runs to embrace, to kiss and restore.

We have a lot of views of God; that’s normally not one of them. We’re not used to seeing God so eager, so lavish, so loving to the worst sinner. The son got it. He was reconciled.