Sermon Tone Analysis
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This story in Luke is often proclaimed as the Prodigal Son.
One of the very first songs I ever learned to play on the guitar was a John Denver tune called, “Prodigal Son.” Do some of you remember that?
I wasn’t a Christian at the time, but I was vaguely aware that John Denver got the title from a story in the Bible.
So even though I had no clue what the word prodigal meant, it didn’t really bother me, because my perception at the time was that the Bible was such an old book that you couldn’t really understand anything in it, anyway.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, prodigal means “spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.”
Later, when I did become a Christian and came across the story in the New Testament, I remember thinking, “Oh yeah!
So this is the prodigal son story,” and wondering briefly what the word meant.
After reading the story, I figured that a prodigal must be some sort of wanderer because, after all, the prodigal son in this story wandered off, didn’t he?
It wasn’t until years later, in fact, just this week, that I actually got out a dictionary and looked up the word prodigal.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, prodigal means “spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.”
The story often focuses on the younger son who cashes in his inheritance and wastes it on wild living.
But what if there is more to the story?
Notice how it begins:
Only I don’t think that’s what this story is about at all.
I don’t think this is a story about a son.
I think the story is actually about the father.
Only I don’t think that’s what this story is about at all.
I don’t think this is a story about a son.
I think the story is actually about the father.
Notice how it begins:
Who’s the SUBJECT of the sentence?
The man; His sons are the object.
Who’s the subject of that sentence?
The man.
His sons are the object.
We often focus on the son that went wild, but the real story is about the father’s extravagant love he lavishly pours his love out on his children.
He gives them all he possesses, even though it results in his own humiliation.
This is the story of the prodigal father.
It’s about a father who is extravagant and lavishly pours his love out on his children.
He gives them gifts they do not deserve even when it means he will suffer and be taken advantage of.
And to fully appreciate it, we need to see it in its entirety.
I believe the story tells us a lot about God.
It is perhaps, one of the most important stories in the entire Bible!
Because the story reveals how God feels about us!
I believe the story tells us a lot about God.
The story is perhaps, one of the most important stories in the entire Bible because it’s the story about how God feels about us.
If you want to know how much you are valued in God’s eyes, or if you’ve ever wondered if you have any significance in this vast universe, then this is the story for you!
Because this story answers the question, “How does God feel about us?”
If you’ve wondered God feels about you, how significant you are to God, then this story shows you!
REVIEW
Last week we learned how God searches for people who are fully commited to Him and desire to join Him in finding those who are lost.
This story continues Jesus’ response to those who were condemning Him for hanging out with sinners.
The story unfolds in five scenes:
We saw last week how Jesus responded by confronting their hypocrisy.
He tells them about a shepherd who had a hundred sheep and lost one, a woman who had ten coins and lost one, and a father who had two sons and lost one.
This story unfolds in five scenes:
Then verse 11 struck me! “There was a man who had two sons.”
My whole view of God was elevated when I finally saw that the father, not the son, was the central figure.
The story of the prodigal father is a story told in five scenes.
Scene one is set on the family homestead.
It’s about the father dividing his property between his two sons.
Scene two covers what happens to the younger son who runs to a faraway land to escape the scorn of the village.
Scene three describes the interaction between the father and the younger son when the younger son returns
Scene four picks up with the older son in the field.
Scene five is about the older son’s response to his father’s generosity toward his younger brother.
To understand the last story, we need to look at some first century Jewish culture.
So let’s go scene-by-scene through the parable and take a walk through Jewish culture to fill in the whole picture.
So for the next few minutes, we’ll take a walk through Jewish culture and fill in the whole picture, scene-by-scene.
In SCENE ONE, the younger son asks the father to divide his property so he can have his inheritance now.
At first glance you probably think either (1) this is a really cool dad to give his son everything now; or, this dad has no boundaries and his children took him for a ride!
But there’s more to it: What Jesus was actually describing here was scandalous.
No one in the Middle East would make such a request of their father!
Asking for your inheritance early was expressing a death wish for the father!
But you’d miss the point of what really happens in this scene because what Jesus was actually describing here would be scandalous to every person who heard it in the ancient Middle East.
No one in the Middle East would make such a request of their father.
Because to ask for their inheritance early would be tantamount to expressing a death wish for the father.
Author Ken Bailey (Theologian), who lived in that region of the world:
For over fifteen years I have been asking people of all walks of life from Morocco to India and from Turkey to the Sudan about the implications of a son’s request for his inheritance while the father is still living.
The answer has almost always been emphatically the same...the conversation runs as follows:
“Has anyone ever made such a request in your village?”
“Never!”
“Could anyone ever make such a request?”
“Impossible!”
“If anyone did, what would happen?”
“His father would beat him, of course!”
“Why?”
“This request means he wants his father to die!”
“Divide your inheritance, so that I can have my share of the estate,” is the request.
And to everyone’s amazement, the father does!
“Divide your inheritance, so that I can have my share of the estate,” is the request.
And to everyone’s amazement, the father does!
The next words of the story go like this:
Most Westerners think he took off so quickly because he was just a party animal, and being in the same town with his conservative old man just cramped his style.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all that he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth on wild living” ().
Most Westerners think he took off so quickly because he was just a party animal, and being in the same town with his conservative old man just cramped his style.
But that’s not his motivation for leaving at all.
Notice that he didn’t leave immediately.
He left “not long after that.”
Why?
Because he had to liquidate his inheritance!
He had to buyers for his portion of the family farm and his portion of the family livestock.
And the only people he could sell to were other people in the village!
Imagine what they thought as Jesus tells the story: This brash young man goes door to door convincing people who knew his father to buy a piece of the family property.
What an insult to his father!
Asking for his share of the estate and wishing his father dead.
Now he’s selling off property and possessions that had been in the family for generations!
Imagine the scene: At every turn, he’s greeted with scorn and rejection.
The family’s estate is a significant part of a Middle Easterner’s personal identity.
He feels the scorn and pressure to get out of town.
So finally, he leaves as soon as he has sold the last of his goods.
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