The Prodigal Son
The Prodigal Son
Luke 15:1-32
Introduction:
When Jesus came upon the scene preaching the gospel of the kingdom, he had the most success with people who would have been considered the least likely to be interested in what he had to offer. You might have expected people like the scribes and the Pharisees—the religious people of the day—to be the first to embrace Jesus, but they weren’t. They were supposedly looking for the Messiah—they knew the Old Testament passages which spoke of his coming—but when he came, they weren’t interested. Jesus simply wasn’t the kind of Messiah they were looking for.
It was the common people who heard Jesus gladly. Therefore, he didn’t spend the majority of his time with prominent people—people like the scribes and Pharisees. He spent time with sinners—and they listened to him.
When you look at what is said in the Gospels, many of the scribes and Pharisees were evidently self-righteous hypocrites. They thought pretty highly of themselves, and they looked down on others. Jesus captured perfectly their attitude in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
“10 Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get’” (Luke 18:10-12 ESV).
The only thing this Pharisee was interested in was letting God know how fortunate he was to have such a fine, upstanding person in his service. And you can just hear the disdain in his voice for the other man who was praying—a tax collector.
Another example of their general attitude is found on an occasion when Jesus was asked to dine in the home of one of the Pharisees (Luke 7:36-39). Can you see how disgusted he was with the whole situation? Why would Jesus allow someone like this to touch him?
Jesus spent time with people who were considered “low-lifes”—and that bothered the Jewish leaders. They couldn’t understand why he would spend time with people who were so undesirable. So on one occasion, when the scribes and Pharisees were grumbling amongst themselves about who Jesus was spending time with, he decided to tell them why he spent time with sinners (Luke 15:1-32).
Body:
I. The first thing that I want you to see this evening is that Jesus wasn’t excusing the behavior of sinners; he was merely recognizing their worth.
A. There’s no doubt in my mind that these people who were coming to Jesus had made a mess out of their lives, and Jesus didn’t try to make excuses for that. He recognized that they were sinners.
1. The problem with the scribes and Pharisees wasn’t that they recognized tax collectors and sinners for what they were. The problem was that they failed to realize that they weren’t any better and that God was just as interested in tax collectors and sinners as he was scribes and Pharisees. But they were right about the tax collectors and sinners, at least for the most part.
a. Tax collectors weren’t very popular in first-century Palestine. First of all, they were collecting taxes for the Romans. If that weren’t bad enough, it was also a fairly common practice for tax collectors to collect more than what Rome required, and they were often very wealthy as a result. John had this in mind when he instructed the tax collectors who came to him, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do” (Luke 3:13 ESV).
b. The term sinner was used by the scribes and Pharisees to describe anyone whom they considered unfaithful to the law. They even called Jesus a sinner because he healed people on the Sabbath. They were sometimes mistaken, but most of the time their assessment was correct. The people they typically identified as sinners were immoral people.
2. You can see that Jesus didn’t excuse the behavior of these people when you look at the parable itself—the story of a boy squandering his inheritance in a far country and ending up miserable and destitute.
a. The parable began with the younger of two sons asking his father to give him his part of the inheritance. It wasn’t uncommon for a father to divide his estate before he died, but I believe it was practically unheard of for a son to ask his father to do so. In this case, the inheritance was more important than the father.
b. But if there’s any doubt about the boy’s attitude toward his father in asking for the inheritance, there certainly can’t be any misunderstanding about his attitude once he got what he wanted. He was through with the restraints of home life. He got as far away from them as he could and he ended up squandering his wealth with “wild living” (Luke 15:13 NIV).
c. What follows is a perfect picture of what sin does for us. It promises us so much, doesn’t it? But when all is said and done, we’re left wallowing in the mud looking around and hoping for something better. The boy wanted freedom, but what he got was misery. So Jesus didn’t paint a very complementary picture of people in sin; he didn’t hesitate to tell the truth about their condition.
B. But I want you to see that, although Jesus made no excuse for the behavior of sinners, the point he was trying to make is that lost people are still valuable. In fact, I believe that’s the theme of this chapter.
1. Some things are worth a person’s time and attention. If you lose something that’s valuable to you, it doesn’t lose its value simply because it’s lost. In fact, generally speaking, we exert more energy and pay more attention to things that are lost. We want to find them.
2. The first two parables Jesus told in this chapter are illustrations of this principle. If a man lost one of his many sheep, he would take the time and put forth the effort to find it. And if a woman lost some money in the house, she would do what she could to find it. Isn’t that what you would people to do? I’m sure both of these scenarios made perfect sense to the scribes and Pharisees.
3. What Jesus was trying to tell them is that, if a lost sheep or a lost coin are worth a person’s time and attention, how much more so a lost person? Jesus spent time with sinners because they were valuable. People don’t lose value simply because they’re lost. Jesus wasn’t willing to write off his losses. In fact, he said that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10 ESV).
II. The second thing I want you to see from this parable is that Jesus was expressing the Father’s attitude toward those who return to him.
A. Let me ask you a question: When you look at the father in this parable, what are some of the qualities that stand out? There may be a number of things we could point out, but I think it’s obvious that he was loving and he was merciful.
1. When the younger son took all that he had received and left home, can you see that the father never gave up on him? He never gave up hope that his son might one day return. It appears that he was on constant lookout for any sign that his boy was coming home. He loved his son even though he had been dishonored by him.
2. When the boy returned home, his father’s love was displayed in his merciful reception of him. It’s been said that in a situation like that a father would normally bring out his other son and say, “This is my son; this is my only son.” He wouldn’t even claim his other son. But Jesus spoke of a father who was willing to have his son back once he came to his senses.
a. When the prodigal son decided to return home, he didn’t expect to be given the place he once had. In fact, he planned to say to his father, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:19 ESV). To be a hired servant was to have the lowest possible position. But when he got home, he didn’t even have time to give his speech. The father “ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20 ESV).
b. He received the reception of a son, not a servant. In fact, the father said to his servants, “22 Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:22-24 ESV). Then the text tells us that “they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:24 ESV).
B. Isn’t that a marvelous illustration of the response of our heavenly Father to those who return to him? Some people seem to have the idea that the Lord isn’t all that interested in lost people. It’s difficult for them to see that he actually wants people to return to him. Peter said that God “does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NET).
1. Wouldn’t it be great if we could come to understand this side of God (i.e., the goodness of God) as much as we understand his severity? (See Romans 11:22) We know that God will judge (and that’s important for us to recognize), but do we realize that God would rather save people? I don’t mean to say that he can simply overlook sin, but I am saying that he wants to forgive sinners. He wants people to return to him so that he might bestow on them the status of a son.
2. Many people feel that they’re not worthy of the Lord’s acceptance—and they’re not. None of us are. The remarkable thing about all of this is that our acceptance with God does not depend on our worthiness; it depends on his grace, mercy, and love. The apostle John would say, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1 ESV). That doesn’t mean that people don’t have to leave the far country and return home, because they do. It means that there’s a merciful Father who is waiting and who wants to forgive.
III. Finally, I want you to see that Jesus was condemning the attitude of those who thought too highly of themselves and didn’t really care about others.
A. When we come to the end of the parable, we’re finally introduced to the oldest son. Up to this point, you might have thought that he was a model son, but he wasn’t. He represents the scribes and the Pharisees—those who didn’t recognize their own sin and also criticized Jesus for trying to help sinners.
1. The truth of the matter is that the oldest son didn’t appreciate his father any more than his younger brother did. When the younger son asked for his part of the inheritance the father not only gave him his portion, but also gave the older son his part as well—“he divided his property between them” (Luke 15:12 ESV). But when the father came to plead with his older son to join the party, he had the audacity to say, “You never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends” (Luke 15:29 ESV).
2. You can see his arrogance in the fact that he also said, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command” (Luke 15:29 ESV). He may not have squandered his inheritance with wild living, but he failed to notice that he wasn’t any better than his brother. At least his brother was ashamed of the things he had done. The older brother strutted around as if he had never done anything wrong in his life.
3. The only person that mattered to the older son was himself. He wasn’t concerned about his father’s feelings, and he certainly wasn’t concerned about the welfare of his lost brother. He was getting along just fine without him before, and now that he was back the only thing he was concerned about was his younger brother muscling his way back into the family. He didn’t want him coming in and messing everything up.
B. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a warning to us—a warning not to think too highly of ourselves. It’s easy for us to see ourselves as the spiritual elite and to look down our noses at those who just aren’t what they ought to be. Isn’t that true?
1. One thing that would help us with that is for us to have an accurate understanding of who we are and where we stand. The fact of the matter is that each of us is a sinner. The apostle Paul said that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23 ESV). If we stand in a right relationship with God, it’s not because of anything we’ve done; it’s because of his grace. None of us have earned a position in the family of God.
2. Something else that would help us is to understand that everyone, no matter what condition he or she is in, is important to the Father. People don’t lose value simply because they’re lost. The only difference in people is that some have taken advantage of the forgiveness that is available in Christ and others have not—but we’re all important to God.
Conclusion:
The Parable of the Prodigal son is one of the most loved parables that Jesus told. It’s been called “the gospel within the gospels.” It’s a great story, and the reason it’s a great story is because it tells us about a Father who wants people to come home. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve wandered from home, the Father wants you to return.
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The Prodigal Son