A Parable of Two Sons
Luke 15:1-2, 11-32
“Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisaical teachers of religious law complain that Jesus was associating with such despicable people – even eating with them.” Luke 15:1-2
The Pharisees and religious teachers believed a person was guilty of having a similar character as the people he associated with.
Outcast and low life people felt comfortable around Jesus. The authentic and vibrant love of Jesus attracted people despised by society. The common person saw the contrast in the compassion of Jesus and the judgmental attitude of the religious leaders.
In Luke 15 Jesus gave three stories, the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, illustrating his mission to seek and to save lost people and not the religious.
This morning I want to comment on the parable of the prodigal son. The parable is divided into two parts. The fist part is about the younger son and the second part is about the older son. The younger son represented the tax collectors and sinners who came to Jesus. The elder son represented the Pharisees and religious rulers who continually found fault with the teachings of Jesus.
I. The Prodigal Son – younger brother
From the context of this story we know the prodigal’s father was wealthy and part of the upper class of his day. He was a man of prestige and great influence.
The father was very generous and gave his younger son his part of the family inheritance. The younger son was saying, “It’s my life and my money.” The fact was he was going to live off his father’s wealth. He was not spending his own money he was wasting his father’s money. The rebellious son took his money and spent it all in living on the wild side. After he had spent all and was desperate he found a job. The job he took was the lowest of the low of all jobs for a Jew, caring for pigs.
Jolene Horn, writing in Today’s Christian Woman’s magazine, relates the story of the time she read to her daughter the parable of the Prodigal Son. Before putting her daughter to bed she read how the young son had taken his inheritance and left home. Finally, when he couldn’t even eat as well as pigs, he went home to his father, who welcomed him. When Jolene Horn finished reading the story, she asked her daughter what she had learned from the story. The daughter answered: “Never leave home without your credit card!”
The young son’s search for freedom quickly turned to bondage and destitution. His hitting bottom became his salvation. “When he came to his senses…” Luke 15:17 The rebellious son finally reached a teachable moment. He stopped blaming others for his situation. He accepted his responsibility for his problem.
“He came to his senses…” He realized he didn’t have to continue to eat with pigs. He could become a hired hand and servant for his father and eat better and have a warm bunk bed to sleep on at night. The young son turned around, he humbled himself and returned to his father.
Turning from sinful living and turning to God is what the Bible calls repentance. The younger son said he would confess his sin to God and to his father and face the consequences.
Have you ever experienced a crisis and experienced a “wake up call?” I’ve mentioned before that when I was 15 I give my life to the Lord. Jesus forgave my sins. But, when I got with old friends I compromised and wavered in my faith. That summer I was back in Gypsum doing some work on different farms while my mother was attend summer college in Emporia, KS. On one Sunday afternoon I was riding back to Gypsum from Salina when a car broadsided the car I was in and spun our car around. I was riding on the passenger side of the front seat and was thrown out of the car. I was knocked out and lying in a ditch. When I came to my first thought was, “God if you take care of me I’ll stop being a phony Christian and live for you with all my heart.” It took a jolt to jar me to my senses. It was a wake up call and I responded with a new commitment to Jesus.
Remember Jesus is telling this parable to communicate truth to religious leaders and Pharisees. Jesus was telling the religious rulers that God is seeking for people like the Prodigal who will come to their senses and turn to the Lord.
The religious leaders would especially not like the way Jesus portrayed the father. They believed the father was wrong in welcoming his wayward son back home.
Jesus said the father was waiting for his son. When he saw him at a far distance the father started running toward him to meet him. Men of wealth didn’t run. Children ran and masters send their servants to run.
The young man was overwhelmed by his father’s love. His father’s compassion went beyond anything he could have imagined. He was willing to be a hired hand and slave, but his father welcomed him back as his son.
Luke 15:22-24 Jesus said the father gave his youngest son four great gifts.
Robe. The father said, “Bring the finest robe and put it on him.” The robe was a gift of honor. Every nobleman had an expensive, embroidery, floor length robe. The robe was reserved for weddings and special occasions. The father put the elegant robe on the former caretaker of pigs.
Ring. The father said, “Get a ring for his finger.” The ring was a gift of authority. The signet ring was used to sign legal documents.
Sandals. Sandals represented the gift of son-ship. Hired servants and slaves went bare-footed. Only the master’s son wore shoes.
The son was welcomed back as a member of the family. He family’s assets had already been divided. All the father now possessed would one day belong to the elder son. But as long as the father lived the youngest son would enjoy the full privileges as his son.
The love of the Father for his wayward and rebellious son was light years ahead of the Pharisees and religious leaders. They would be appalled at the way the Father showed mercy to his Prodigal son.
Calf. “Kill the calf we have been fattening in the pen.” The father honored the son by throwing a grand party. “Kill the fatted calf literally meant, the “grain – fed” calf. Only the wealthy would have the choicest grain fed beef available. The calf would have weighted 500 lbs; enough to feed several hundred people.
Can you identify with the prodigal son? Many of us are praying for individuals who had made similar choices like the prodigal. We keep praying, because we know God is waiting with arms open wide for prodigals to come home to Him. Like the father in this story Jesus is preparing for their return. If you have strayed away from the Faith, Jesus is waiting for you to return.
II. The Older Brother
Jesus used the reaction of the older brother to illustrate the attitude of the Pharisees and religious leaders.
When the older son returned home from working in the fields he heard music and dancing. Music and dancing were typical at festive occasions. The men would form a circle and dance, while women and children stood on the perimeter clapping rhythmically and singing along. The smell of roasted meat would fill the air.
The older son asked one of the servants what was going on? The servant said, “Your brother is back, and your father has killed the calf we were fattening and has prepared a great feast. WE are celebrating because of his safe return.” Luke 15:27
On hearing what his father was doing for his younger son the older son became angry and wouldn’t join in the feast. The older son resented his father for throwing a lavish party for his younger brother. His father was spending money on what would rightfully belong to him one day.
The father went out and pleaded with his older son to come join the celebration. The father showed grace to his prodigal son but he also showed grace to his older son. He pleads with his older son to set aside bitterness and come inside. Fathers of that culture did not usually plead. They commanded and used their authority.
The older son demonstrated arrogance and disrespect by complaining that he had faithfully served his father all his life and his father had never even butchered a little goat and gave him a feast for him and his friends. “Yet this rebellious son of yours took his share of the inheritance and wasted it all on wine, women, and song, and you killed the fatted calf and honored him.”
The older son resented his father forgiving his younger brother. Why had the father done this for his brother and not for him? In spite of all the pleading the older son refused to join the celebration. At that point the Pharisees and religious rulers shouted out, “Amen!”
The father reminded his older son, “Everything I have is yours. We have to celebrate this special day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now his is found!” Luke 15:31-32
Like the Pharisees the elder son was legalistic and had no room for mercy. As far as the elder son was concerned he had no brother. When his brother left with his inheritance he severed all ties. The older brother was a perfect example of the Pharisees. He did not appreciate grace because he felt he did not need it. He didn’t need grace; he had earned his father’s approval without grace. He was outraged and resentful.
Jesus was saying that publicans – tax collectors, and sinners though their sins were many find forgiveness when they turn to the Lord for forgiveness just like the Prodigal.
The Pharisees and scribes like the elder brother did not seek God’s love nor do they repent so they remain in their sins.
The Pharisees would have liked Jesus to tell how the father repented and made an apology to his older son and publicly shamed the prodigal and made him live as a servant.
The older brother had it all, yet he is the one many of us can identify with. We identify with his bitterness, his anger and stubborn self-will.
Would you be one to confess that you have wandered from your Christian faith and made bad choices like the Prodigal? Are you ready to turn around and return home?
Or like the older son have you harbored resentment, bitterness and anger for the way life has treated you? Are you ready to come in and join the celebration and renew your experience of having the joy of the Lord?
Closing, “Jesus is softly and tenderly calling, ‘Come Home.’
