LUKE 15:11-24

Luke 15:11-24

We arrive this morning at the longest, and perhaps the most well-known and well-loved of Jesus’ parables – even more so than the Parable of the Good Samaritan – which I know saying in this audience could get me in trouble. Listen, even people who neither know Jesus nor His word refer to this parable, perhaps without even knowing it’s in the Bible. In our study of Luke, we are in chapter 15, a pivotal chapter in the gospel, where we find three parables or stories of lost things – the lost sheep, the lost coin, and of course, today, the lost son. You probably know this familiar story as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Pastor John MacArthur wrote a book entitled, A Tale of Two Sons, an entire book on this one parable – and you think I’m verbose. In the book, MacArthur calls the parable, “without doubt one of the finest examples of storytelling ever.” He notes Shakespeare himself borrowed the plot and adapted it for two of his works, The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV. Charles Dickens called it the greatest short story ever written. The storyline was used in a famous oratorio, a ballet, and an opera. Even Hank Williams recorded a song called, creatively, The Prodigal Son, comparing the son’s homecoming to the joys of heaven. The world’s art museums are filled with paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Durer, and many others, depicting the various scenes of the parable. But who needs Rembrandt when we have Jason Drake? I’ll be showing you that amazing painting later.

For now, let’s read the entire 22 verses of this familiar story, although we’ll dive into it this week and next – Luke 15:11-32.

Talk about a story that pulls on your heartstrings. We know it, and yet it’s truth never ceases to move us. Now, it is incredibly important we remember Jesus’ audience – that is, who He was addressing in this parable. Verses 1 and 2 told us that tax collectors and sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to Him. But, the religious people – namely the Pharisees and scribes – were irritated by His association with such sinners. They grumbled among themselves, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” What should have been the best news ever was an offence to these self-righteous spiritual leaders. You see, they didn’t like that this rabbi Jesus, we know as the Son of God, would show grace to people who, in their estimation, did not deserve it. Which means, of course, they had no idea of the meaning of grace.

So, Jesus told them a parable consisting of three stories, one after another, which basically tell the same truths. In the first two – the story of the lost sheep and the story of the lost coin, Jesus tells two stories easily understood by people of that day. I say that because it’s important we uncover the cultural and historical setting to grasp the depth of meaning in these stories. In the first, a shepherd who had a hundred sheep lost one – somehow the sheep wandered off from the flock and was missing. The responsible good shepherd searched for the lost sheep until he found it. When he returned, he called together his friends and neighbors to celebrate, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.” Then, to make sure they didn’t miss it, Jesus applied the spiritual meaning of the parable. I tell you in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine persons who need no repentance. There is actually joy in heaven – a party, if you will, over every sinner who repents. Oh, and the 99 who need no repentance was a subtle dig against the Pharisees.

Then He told the second story. A woman who had ten silver coins, drachma which was equivalent to a day’s wages for a common laborer, lost one. Again, like the missing sheep, we don’t know how it was lost. But for this poor lady, it was significant. So, she lit a lamp in her small, dark, windowless house and swept the floor till she found it. Then she called together her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her, “for I have found the coin which I had lost.”

Jesus then applied that parable, with a subtle but significant difference. In the same way, I tell you, there is joy the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. We noted that God is the One in the presence of the angels, indicating incredibly that God Himself rejoices over every sinner who repents and is saved. Now, both of those stories highlight lost things that the owner went after – the shepherd and the woman. I suggested these stories demonstrate that God is the one who goes after lost people – lost sinners – searches until He finds them. God is the seeker, you see, and we remember Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.

Now, last Sunday after church at lunch, someone insightfully asked me a question. Do these three stories indicate that God goes after those He once possessed, but who have wandered away? Notice, the shepherd owned this sheep – and it wandered away, so the shepherd went after it. The woman owned the coin, lost it, so she searched till she found it. And today, we’ll find a son who lived in the estate of his father, but who deserted. So, the question, are these stories about those who were once Christians or professing Christians, and walked away, or had somehow backslidden from the faith? Maybe even deconstructed. And so, Jesus then goes after those who were at one time His, and goes to recover them, return them to the fold? Great question, perhaps you’ve had it, so let me briefly address it.

At creation, God created everything that was – ultimately man and woman. And as He looked over His creative wonder, He declared it very good. It was His, the work of His hand – He created it. But then, it didn’t take long for it to be ruined – for humankind to rebel, and wander away from its God, its Creator, the One who owned it, and loved it. Of course, we know, God then embarked on a recovery mission – to seek, to find, to rescue and recover that which was lost. Through Abraham, his descendants, the patriarchs, the nation of Israel, the Law, and ultimately through His own Son, Jesus came to seek and save that which had been lost. And these three stories in Luke 15 tell that story. All that I could find interpret the stories this way. Yes, we are owned by God in that we are His creation. But in our rebellion, as we will see in the son’s rebellion today, we walked away. We got lost – all we like sheep have gone astray.

So, God stepped into the pages of human history – in the person of His Son – to redeem humankind and restore them to their once glorious position as full image-bearers of God. Sheep who had been lost, now found, and brought home. Valuable coins, misplaced, lost in some dark, dank corner of the world – rediscovered – found and restored to the rightful owner. And today, a son who willfully walked away as our forebears did in the garden – who in repentance, returned to the father. Understand, these could actually be stories covering the entire drama of redemption – from Creation, to Fall, to redemption – headed to ultimate glorification in the presence of the One who paid the price for our rebellion, and then sought us – or as we will see today, received our repentance and then restored that which had been lost. It’s a great story.

So, there is a sense in which it could apply this to our wayward family members – sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, moms dads – who have walked away from the faith. It could be that our Good Shepherd will go after them and return them to the fold they once knew, or have never known – but by being found, are now known as the glorious sons and daughters of the living God. We pray for this, don’t we?

Well, let’s look at this story with the following outline crafted around its three main characters:
I. The Younger, Prodigal Son (11-19)
II. The Gracious, Forgiving Father (20-24)
III. The Older, Self-Righteous Son (25-32) – which we will look at next week. It is, after, the main point of the story.

Let’s start with the setting. Jesus introduces the three main characters very briefly in verse 11. It’s interesting to note the story starts and ends with the man who had two sons – the father, who is actually the main character in the story. I guess it could be called the Parable of the Loving Father – who tenderly loves both sons when they were both lost. But certainly, the story revolves around these two sons – the younger son in verses 12-19, and the older son in verses 25-32. But sandwiched in the middle is the unbelievable, incredible father who graciously loves and forgives. Let me give you a little preview of next week. The younger son repents and is forgiven. The older son? To him the father also loves and extends grace – but we’re left hanging as to whether the older son responded in repentance and went into the celebration.

Three characters – the father, the younger son, the older son. Listen, we are so used to reading this that we might miss it, but this is a shocking story. It would have totally surprised His hearers. It went completely against cultural expectations. We start with the younger son, who speaks to his father in verse 2, “Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.” In an honor-shame culture, this would have shocked the listeners, the Pharisees. They would have been incensed and gladly associated this young punk with the sinners they despised. Notice the difference in this story with the previous two: the sheep was lost haphazardly, the coin helplessly – both not necessarily through any fault of their own. But the son? He gets lost by his own deliberate will and choice – defiantly. He gets lost because he wants to be lost. The truth is, he is more like us than we would like to admit.

It was shameful what this young son said. Notice, he doesn’t ask – he demanded his share of the estate. He wanted his freedom – freedom from the father, freedom to live his own life, freedom to sin. Really? Who do you think you are? Now, as the younger son, the law prescribed the older son would receive two-thirds of the estate as an inheritance, and the younger son would receive one-third. But don’t miss – I said, inheritance. The estate belonged to the father. It would be like one of your kids showing up at your house and saying, hey, I know I’m in the will, and I get this when you die, but I want my share right now. I know there’s no mortgage on the house, but get it appraised and take out a loan for one-third its value, right now. Oh, and I’ll be taking one-third of your retirement funds as well. I’m not dead yet. Exactly.
It didn’t belong to the sons, yet. It would be passed on to his sons as an inheritance – when the father died. But it was his until then. By demanding his share now, the son was asking the father to give up what was the father’s – that which the father and the sons lived on. Give it to me now. In other words, there is a sense in which he was treating his father as though he were already dead. It was shameful, disrespectful, selfish. This younger brother was obviously arrogant, self-focused, self-centered and we will find, frankly, egregiously sinful.

But then, we read the father does something equally unexpected. We expect him to say, I’m not dead yet, or no, or get back to work, or go to your room, or you are now disinherited, or any number of honorable responses in this honor-shame culture. Put this young man in his place. This young son had just dishonored his father likely before a community in a most shameful way. They would have at least heard about it eventually. The father’s well-being, reputation, and dare I say, his honor was at stake.

But he says none of those things. In a shocking turn of events, we read he divided his wealth between them. Between the two sons. Only the word isn’t wealth. It’s bios – often translated life, which speaks of his biological life. He divided his life – all that he had worked for and acquired providing stability and security and physical life, all that he provided for his family, built his reputation upon – which we will see was an honorable one. He divided it – that is, he peeled off the one-third that would be his sons at his death and gave it to him.

As I’m studying this, I had to wonder, why would he do that? We are not told why, but it was shocking. And if my understanding of this parable is correct in that it transcends all time and all humanity, it takes us back to the Garden of Eden, when God told Adam and Eve – it’s all for you – for your joy, for your provision, for your care. Tend the garden. Oh, the garden is mine – but I give it to you to meet your need of sustenance and work and joy. Enjoy it, I created it for you, but it’s mine. To which they said, thanks God, but we’ll take it from here.

God had said, I only have one prohibition – that you do not eat from the tree in the midst of the garden – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All else is yours. There is but one boundary. And we know well they transgressed that boundary – wandered away and plunged them and their posterity – that is, all of us, to include this young son, into rebellion and depravity and sin and death. Why? Why did God allow it? There is probably a myriad of reasons – I offer this: Yes, they had free will, and they exercised it for evil. He allowed them to follow their own sinful course – so that, He may receive them back, receive us back, through repentance and faith in the most glorious event of all history – the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is glorified and therefore rejoices in the salvation of sinners. Understand, this was not plan B – this was plan A. God foreordained it for our eternal good and His glory.

We read the younger son wasted no time. Not many days later, he gathered everything together and went on a journey – what is everything? His inheritance in the estate – that is, one third of the holdings – the land mostly. But you can’t take land with you on a journey. Which means, he took his inheritance and sold it, liquidated it – probably pennies on the dollar. There’s some discussion about whether the buyer had access to the land and holdings before the death of the father – nonetheless, the young son treated his father’s wealth – his life – with shameful disregard. The father is the God-figure in the story. We do it, treat Him with shameful disregard every time we sin.

And he went on a journey into a distant country. Don’t miss that. Not his own neighborhood or village or his own country – he went to a distant country – meaning, he went to Gentile land. Again, it doesn’t hit us like it hit them, but they would have been standing with mouths agape – he went where? Not only that, he took his yet-to-be inheritance, his father’s wealth – and squandered it – the word speaks of scattering it – squandered his estate with loose living. Some translations have it, wild living. We know at least from verse 30 that he spent it on prostitutes. By the way, the word prodigal means recklessly wasteful – reckless, immoral living, extravagant self-indulgence. This son lived an undisciplined, wild life.

The young man, seemingly unmarried, most surmise is probably in his late teens. And he goes and party’s hearty – wine, women and song, no doubt. It’s clear from what we read later that his father was a wealthy man, so his one-third was no small amount of money. But he burned through it in no time. We don’t know how long it took, but probably many months. And for many months he lived like a king. He was likely the life of the party, throwing money around like it was free. At this point, there is no mention he had a job. Didn’t need one. Prodigal, spendthrift, and spent all his father’s hard-earned money. And before you knew it, he ran out.

And to compound matters, when he had spent everything, a severe famine hit the distant land. No resources, no job, and now, no food. He was in a desperate state. That’s what sin does to you. It brings you down. It’s ultimately self-destructive. Oh, you might be able to fake your way through life. You might even be able to hold down a job and continue to buy nice things. At least meet your needs, pay the mortgage, buy food, pay the bills. But life is miserable when you’re not living as God created you to be – to live in communion with Him and other people. This young man found himself in a desperate state. Bankrupt, without resources, without friends since they deserted now that the money was gone, and without food. Impoverished.

So, he was desperate. Remember, he was outside Israel, in a distant country – Gentile country. And he hired himself out – the word speaks of being glued to someone – he glued himself to a citizen of that country, meaning a Gentile who then sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. Nothing could have been lower for a Jew. He’s in a Gentile country, working for a Gentile, and now he has to feed detestable, unclean pigs. He had hit rock bottom. That’s what sin does. You could have heard the Pharisees gasp. Dirty, rotten sinner. He got what he deserved. Serves him right. And the truth is, many of us would maybe have the same response. The chickens have come home to roost. He was paying the piper. Don’t be deceived, God is not mocked, whatever a man sows, that he reaps.

And frankly, there is a sense in which that was true. He had treated his father, his family, and even his community with disrespect and shame. He did get what he had coming to him. True. But what is our attitude when we see a sinner fall? Is it Pharisaical, self-righteous condemnation – they deserve it – or is it sorrow, pity, leading to action –at least to prayer. Jesus is going to take the Pharisees to task for their attitude next week.

So poor and impoverished is the young son that he is literally starving to death. He would have gladly eaten pig slop – in this case, the pods he was supposed to give to the pigs. Think about it – the pigs were better off than he was. The pods are likely carob pods – not nutritious. Why were the pigs getting it? Famine. So bad was the famine, so hungry the man, he would have eaten some himself, and perhaps did. Not satisfying. And we read further, no one was giving this poor, unkempt beggar anything. Rock bottom. That’s what sin does.

I love verse 17 – But when he came to his senses. He finally woke up and thought, what am I doing? I’m about to die here. So he said to himself, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread to eat while I’m about to die with hunger.’ This is one way we know the father was wealthy. He had so much land and work that his servants or slaves were not enough. He hired day laborers, hired hands, to help. Understand, these were a little lower than slaves on the economic scale. They would do a day’s work, then the Law required they be paid at the end of that day. They literally lived from hand to mouth. But the young man knows – his father is a good man – he makes sure those laborers have plenty of bread – much better than these husks and pods. He came to his senses, what am I doing? The first step in repentance is realize your miserable state.

That’s what we hope and pray that God will do in the lives of our lost sons and daughters. Sin takes people down. So, we pray that God will make life so miserable the only place they have to look is up. That is, if our priorities are in order. You see, I wonder how many of us are okay with family members making it through life without Jesus? As long as they can make ends meet – as long as they have a good job, good status, money in the bank, good house, good cars, good stuff – that’s alright. Is it? Have you ever prayed, God, do whatever it takes to wake them up to eternal, spiritual truth? Bring a famine. Take them to rock bottom. That’s what this father allowed. Oh, and in this parable, again, the father is the God-figure.

So the young son wakes up to his self-destructive lifestyle and impoverished peril. I’m dying here. I will get up and go to my father – don’t miss these words – and will say to him, a second step of repentance – contrition and confession, “Father, I have sinned against heaven (that’s a circumlocution – that is, a way to say God without saying His name) I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I have sinned against God – because every sin is ultimately committed against God, and I have sinned against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, please make me as one of your hired men. Remember, the lowest on the social strata – I don’t deserve it, but please help me to survive.

These are words of repentance. He comes to the father with nothing but his need. I have sinned. I am unworthy of your grace and attention. I cast myself at your feet. Please have mercy on me. He is exactly where he needed to be to experience undeserved grace. Now remember, the Pharisees thought they had earned grace – at least God’s approval by their self-righteous piety. And they would have been convinced this young son deserved nothing. He made his bed – it was time to lie in it. This father should show stern discipline. They were smacking their lips – they couldn’t wait to hear the rest of the story and how this son got what was coming to him.

Which brings us to our second point, The Gracious or grace-giving, Forgiving Father. Look at verse 20, “So he got up and came to his father.” While we know this story, the Pharisees did not, and they are salivating. We know the story; but allow it to hit you like it should. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him – as one said, he saw the familiar silhouette of his son on the horizon, and felt compassion for him. Was the father looking for the son to return? Expectantly, hopefully waiting? That seems to fit the character of this father. But when he saw him – not looking like the son who left – now bedraggled, broken, emaciated, like the beggar he was, the father felt compassion. He was moved to the pit of his stomach. And that compassion was beyond pity – it forced him to action. Don’t miss it – with repentance comes reconciliation.

He ran to his son and embraced him, dirty and broken as he was. You likely know this – this was highly unusual for an older man, a noble man – to run. He would have had to tuck his robe into his felt, bare his legs and run. And the word isn’t just – he sprinted. And He’s the God-figure – we are the broken. And he began kissing him – this was the culture of the day – kissing was a way of warm, affectionate greeting. But it doesn’t say he kissed him – the wording is he kept kissing him. His son, broken, beggarly, impoverished, had come home.

This was not what the Pharisees or frankly anyone else expected. But thank God, this is the way He treats broken sinners who come home. I told you I would share a new painting of the Prodigal Son by Jason Drake. He captures well the brokenness of the son, and the loving forgiveness of the father. The son starts his speech, but only gets through the first couple lines, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. True.

Some perhaps rightly suggest that the last line of his speech was interrupted, because it was not in keeping with true repentance. He need not work to earn his way back into his father’s graces. No, he simply needed forgiveness, undeserved grace, and he got it. So, see the father turning to his slaves, “Quickly, there is no time to waste, bring out the best robe and put it on him – this may very well be the best robe of the father, worn for special occasions, and now representing his acceptance of his son; put a ring on his hand – likely as signet ring representing family participation and even authority; put sandals on his feet. You see, slaves and hired hands didn’t wear sandals, but this is my son. Put sandals on his feet.

Bring the fattened calf – a well-fed, well-cared for calf reserved for special occasions – another evidence this was a wealthy man – kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. You see, this is a special occasion, for this son of mine who was dead has come to life again - resurrected; he was lost and has been found. Again, we remember the story of humanity this parable represents. On the day you eat of the forbidden tree, you will surely die. And die they did – spiritually. This son had wandered away and was dead – but by returning to the father, he had been brought from death to life. He had been lost, but now was found. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.

Don’t miss that the father is the God-figure, advancing the truth of the celebration of God Himself in heaven every time a sinner comes home. And they began to celebrate. It truly is the best and truest short story ever written. And it is your story if you know Jesus. And if you don’t, it can be your story. The Father waits for you to repent and come home, and He will welcome you with open arms.