HG116b Luke 15:11-32
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11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. 25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ 28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ 31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ”
The parable we had read to us today is very familiar and because of this we think we know the story. This story has been called the Prodigal Son, or the Lost Son. In fact I like what the New Revised Standard Version entitles this: The Prodigal and his brother. We shouldn’t get so hung up on the labels that have added to it for these are not part of the original bible but added so we can see each section clearly. What is this story about? Well, we think we know but why was it told in the first place? To whom was it addressed? It is important to remember this throughout.
We can see that Jesus did not tell this parable to His disciples but to the Pharisees and Scribes. In fact this whole chapter was addressed to them after they complained He was eating and associating with tax collectors and sinners. Then followed parables about the lost sheep, the lost coin and now the lost son. But what is more interesting is not so much this son as much as the other as we shall see in due course.
So, now we have one of the sons being cheeky enough to ask his dad for his share of the inheritance. Now I know that many arguments happen about inheritance when someone has died and whether they left a will and to whom did they leave what they had and so on. But I don’t know of anything that has been said before someone had died unless they have been told they are disinherited! I’m sure that there are arguments in families before the death of someone but you usually cannot get anything before they have died.
Well, this son was awfully persuasive! He wanted it now and his father did not refuse him. Probably wanted him to get it out of his system. And his father must have thought they could survive without the money that his son would take out of the family business. And not long after that this son decided: “I’m off!” I have enough money for the rest of my life and now I am going to enjoy it, see the world, the sights, and indulge in all kinds of pleasure, I’m going to be my own boss. He plainly did not have his father’s business acumen and sensibilities. Indeed a warning is given in Scripture about these kinds of people:
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
And indeed this is what happened to this man. He was in a far off land, with no accountability for this actions but at the same time no family back up if something went wrong. The theme tune at many a funeral is ‘I did it my way’ as if that was laudable. He was lavish with what he had, and that is the meaning of the word ‘prodigal’. In fact he was prodigal to the point of wasteful.
And something went terribly wrong. Whilst spending all his money there was a financial crisis that hit that nation. In fact it was so bad that there was a famine.
Just a little later in Paul’s letter to Timothy he says:
17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
At one moment he was enjoying the high life and suddenly he was experiencing something else he had never experienced before and this time it was not pleasure but pain of loss, and perhaps for the first time in his life he had to find proper work for he had nothing left. He found a man willing to give this migrant a job. Thank you, Lord! Ah, but the job is to feed pigs. Er, great! A Jew feeding pigs. For the hearers of this story it would have filled them with horror for this Jew had glued himself to a Gentile and became a swineherder! This truly was the lowest of the low.
Indeed whilst feeding the pigs he wanted to eat the swill they were being given. Of course, being a Jew, he certainly did not want to eat a pig with all that lovely ham, gammon and bacon, pork chops the things that make our mouths water. No, he wanted to eat their food! How did he come to this? He had gone to heights and now he was seriously depressed and felt like he was losing his mind. Not only could he not eat the pigs’ food there was nothing for him to eat.
He had sought freedom and thought he had found it, but now he was in virtual slavery.
How curious that this man had so totally forgotten his past. His family was a distant memory. Until, that is, he suddenly remembered. I suppose you do have a long time to think about things in such a situation. In fact, he thought that by now his family had disowned him for reports of his living must have got back home. This world is smaller than you think! Bad news always travels fast.
But then he got to thinking a bit more. Why should I be employed here when I can get a job back home? I’m a foreigner in a foreign land, who’s going to give me a decent job here? And not only that my Dad hires people, maybe he’ll hire me, especially as I am genuinely sorry. There’s no way he’ll accept me as his son after all that I have done so I’ll just have to swallow my pride, what’s left of it, and go back and ask for a job. He might, at least, let me be a servant of the servants or something. Then he got up to go back…this surely is the definition of repentance.
A well-used outline of this parable goes like this: I. Sick of home, II. Sick, III. Homesick, IV. Home. At this point he was homesick.
He reasoned that it was better to be a lowly servant in his father’s house than to remain where he was. But he was not prepared for what awaited him!
Indeed he was a long way away and the father recognised the gait of his son whom he had been waiting for and looked longingly towards the horizon day after day. How his heart yearned to see him again and did not know whether he would or wouldn’t. And now a head appeared, then the shoulders both of which seems bowed down under an invisible weight. Then he came into view, yes, I believe it is, yes, it definitely is, yes, that’s my son! And off he went. Running. This was the sheer definition of being undignified in those days but he did not care! My son, my son! And the son’s rehearsed speech that he had spent so much time on making sure he got it right on that very long journey home barely got the words out of his mouth. My son, you’re home. Thank God! The joy of the moment was interspersed with tears and kisses and more kisses and hugs and more kisses. Welcome home, son! Father forgive me! his son kept saying. I am so unworthy, I’ve let you down, I’ve let others down, I’ve let myself down.
This son was like the tax collector before God who beat his chest and said: Have mercy on me, a sinner! This is where it all starts. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. The words the son had repeated were ignored. Once was enough. Forgiveness is extended and all is forgotten. He barely had managed to get the words out of his mouth and they were barely heard.
Come on, son. You’ve got to dress right, put a robe on him, a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. You’re not a servant but a son. The son must have been bewildered. This was totally unexpected. And more was to come…there was to be a party. Food! Oh, how he had longed just for some lentils but no, he was going to get the choicest meat, Sirloin Steak and Rump Steak and T-bone, roast beef! “Why hadn’t I come home sooner?”, he must have thought.
Indeed this is how God receives back any of his sons that went away and comes back. We take hope from this story and rightly so. What joy God has when we have had enough of our own ways and let God have His. And His ways are the paths of joy.
The word ‘prodigal’ always seems to have a negative connotation when this is not always the case. To be prodigal can also mean to be lavish in a generous and good way.
Preaching the Word: Luke, Vol. 2—That You May Know the Truth The Prodigal Father (vv. 20–24)
Here we must see that the real prodigal is the father, representing our heavenly Father, God himself. This is the Parable of the Prodigal God, who is infinite. He is a consuming fire! But when we turn to him, he is a God who comes running—to lavish his love upon us! This is the gospel—the good news of a prodigal God who rushes to meet sinners with his love!
No one is beyond his love. You cannot do anything that will keep him from kissing you and bestowing upon you the robe, the ring, and the sandals. Utter forgiveness is the only kind God gives.
If the story had ended there it would have sufficed. But this was not about the son who went away and came back. It is about the son who stayed home. He had just come back from working in the fields and as he drew near to home he could hear music and partying so he asked a servant what has happened, what is going on? Your brother who was dead is alive. He’s come home! Isn’t that great! I’m glad I’m the first one to tell you!
How is that great?! That useless layabout has come to upset the apple cart. What does he want now? My inheritance as well?
Then this same father came out to his angry son. And the son let loose with the pent-up frustration of, you suspect, of him wanting to have gone and done the same and seen the world. But all he could think about was his responsibilities at home. I’ve always done what you said. Never did I do any wrong! And yet you have not given me anything and your son comes home and you give him the fatted calf!
You can even hear his voice rising to a fever pitch screeching his anguish over such a thing! Not only that but whilst I was home here with you he has lived riotously with your inheritance and you have accepted him back. Where was the party for me and my friends? Why has life been such a struggle?
Preaching the Word: Luke, Vol. 2—That You May Know the Truth The Elder Brother (vv. 25–32)
The young son had been far from the father (in a distant country) because of sins of passion. But the elder son was separated from his father through sins of attitude. He was even farther away than his younger brother and he had not even left the farm!
I think that he was jealous of his brother.
Preaching the Word: Luke, Vol. 2—That You May Know the Truth The Elder Brother (vv. 25–32)
The older son’s heart was completely out of sync with that of his father. He did not share his father’s loving heart. In fact, he was sorry his little brother had come home. He called him “this son of yours,” not “this brother of mine.” Why? Because somehow he had gotten it in his mind that his position was dependent upon performance, and rather than enjoying his position as #1 son, he worked to maintain and strengthen it.
We read he came in from the fields…he was the son and he was doing the servant’s work, instead he should have been just managing them. Why?
Preaching the Word: Luke, Vol. 2—That You May Know the Truth The Elder Brother (vv. 25–32)
Imagine what would have happened if he had encountered his returning brother first. “So you’ve come back? Things didn’t work out like you thought? Too bad! Listen, little brother, you aren’t welcome here. You broke your poor father’s heart. You’ve disgraced us all. You’ve only come back because your money has run out. If you still had some cash, you’d still be gone. At least have enough self-respect to come back when you have a job and get yourself cleaned up.”
Kipling’s poem imagines the prodigal son meeting his brother and then leaving as he says:
“I never was very refined, you see?
(And it weighs on my brother’s mind, you see)
But there’s no reproach among swine, d’you see,
For being a bit of a swine.”
What about us? Maybe we have not run into the sins of passion but instead with the sins of attitude somehow thinking that we are better because we stayed home.
Preaching the Word: Luke, Vol. 2—That You May Know the Truth The Elder Brother (vv. 25–32)
We do not regard our jealousy, pride, and judgmentalism as sins. We call them faults or shortcomings. So we easily become critical, judgmental, and unloving.
So, the Father gently leads the older brother back to right thinking. He’s not only my son, he’s your younger brother. He was dead but he’s alive. He was lost but now he’s found. Your brother took his inheritance so all that is left is yours. What more could you want? It was all yours to enjoy the whole while but you were too busy working to impress me. And this is what he was trying to tell the Pharisees and Scribes. Enjoy the blessings of God now and have the Father’s heart for those who return back to him.
We don’t know the older brother’s response but a party was going on all the same - one which he could participate in or refuse. The Father wants everyone to return to Him but not all will. The one who went away came home. The one at stayed home was away in his heart.
Which brother are we?
Benediction
Benediction
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Hughes, R. K. (1998). Luke: that you may know the truth. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (1996). The Gospel according to Luke. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.
Tozer, A. W., & Verploegh, H. (1984). The Quotable Tozer I: Wise Words with a Prophetic Edge. Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 15:06 25 January 2019.