37. Who is Jesus?
May 22th, 2011
The Lost Son
Our journey through Luke brings us to one of the best known stories in all of scripture, maybe even the best known story ever told; the story of the prodigal son. This is the longest parable that Jesus tells and probably the best short story ever written. We are in Luke 15:11 where we see the parable of a loving father who has two sons. One son is rebellious the other son is religious. This parable gives us the opportunity to see which side the coin we fall on.
Lk 15:11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. Lk 15:12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Lk 15:13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. Lk 15:14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. Lk 15:15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. Lk 15:16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
Sometimes when parents raise their children, the kids turn out exactly how the parents raised them. Some parents don’t raise their kids the way they should and then are surprised when their kids turn into monsters. I’ve seen this even with some of my own family. I have a cousin who has been running his household since he was about two years old, his parents have never disciplined him, he gets whatever he wants, and now he is going into the teen years and he is a little terror. Sometimes what you get as parents is the result of how you raise your kids. Sometimes no matter how well you raise them your kids will be rebellious. That is the case with father. He’s done everything right, but his kids just go wrong.
The story begins with the younger son demanding his inheritance from his father. In Jewish culture a man’s inheritance would be divided by the number of sons he had plus one. A man with three sons would divide his inheritance into four parts. The extra part would be given the oldest son as a double portion. So the two younger sons would receive 1/4th of the estate and the oldest son would receive the other half.
An inheritance is what you get when your father dies. Until that happens the son has no right to ask for it. So Twiddle-dum here is telling his dad: “I wish you were dead. Your being alive is an inconvenience to me. I don’t care about you, I don’t want anything to do with you, so I wish you would just die so I could have my money. Why don’t we stop pretending and just give me what’s mine then I don’t have to wait for you to die.” Can you imagine one of your kids saying this to you? What we see of the father in this parable is that he is a good and loving father, there is no reason why his son should hate him so much.
The youngest son rebels against the love of his father. He doesn’t want to have a relationship with him, he wants to do his own thing, to live his life his way, to be independent. His father doesn’t force him to stay. For some reason the father graciously divides his estate between his two sons and the rebellious one runs off. He turns his back on his father and walks away without even looking back. He goes out, parties, living it up, and doing whatever he wants. As he spends money like Donald Trump at a Toupee shop, the stock market crashes, hard times hit, gas prices go up and the young man’s inheritance is wiped out. He finds himself broke and alone with nothing to show for his life.
Broke and desperate the young man forces himself on a local pig farmer. The farmer probably didn’t need his help or want his help so he gave the boy the lowliest job of all: feeding the pigs. This is like the worst fate imaginable for a Jew, feeding pigs for a living would be like being a manure inspector where your job was wade through animal excrement and search for bacteria like E.coli before the animal feces can be turned into fertilizer. That is a crappy job. Its only slightly worse than collecting road kill or selling your plasma for money.
This rebellious son is so desperate and hungry he starts longing for the food the pigs were eating. When you start longing for pig slop you have reached a new low. This is like dumpster diving for dinner. It is an absolute last resort. It will not taste good, will probably get you sick, and is absolutely humiliating. At this point the son has hit rock bottom and is living in abject poverty.
Lk 15:17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! Lk 15:18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. Lk 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ Lk 15:20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
When he gets so desperate he is eating out of the trash the boy suddenly comes to his senses. He realizes how good he had it in his father’s house. He tried to do things his own way and to live how he wanted to and he ended up failing. His life is miserable and lonely. So he comes up with a plan. He will go back home, apologize, and beg to be allowed to serve in his father’s house. There is no indication of repentance, no indication of sorrow the boy’s motives for going home were selfish: he wanted food to eat. So he thinks he can go back home, serve his father and at least be taken care of.
It never occurs to the rebellious son that his father would forgive him or accept him back so he has a plan to earn his way back in. If he says the right thing, does the right thing, if he can get something right maybe he can become a servant. He is looking to earn his place with his father. He wants to work his way back to God by doing good deeds.
So he heads back home. The father sees his son coming home while he is still a long way off. It is possible that he just happened to look up when he son was walking home but unlikely. He was probably sitting on the porch with the light on everyday hoping that maybe today would be the day his son would come home. When the father sees his son he gets up and runs to him.
Now this was a very undignified thing to do. In the middle-east running was considered shameful. Their culture was all about stature. So this dad pulling up his robes and tucking them in so he could run would be bringing shame on himself. It would be like if your dad got up on a busy Saturday morning and went to the mall in his boxers with knee high socks pulled all the way up. It would be shameful and embarrassing. Even this is an act of love from the father.
If your best friend was dating someone and that person horribly shamed them and caused them lots of pain and then left. If you saw that person who hurt someone you cared about you might be a little tempted to give them a piece of your mind. After everything this young son had done, humiliating his family and dishonoring his father there would be a lot of people in the community who were upset with him. If anyone else had seen him they might have come and humiliated him, maybe even beaten him for how he treated the family. Once dad goes streaking through town everyone else is going to be a little distracted. The father was drawing attention away from his son by bringing shame on himself. Even after everything the son did, rebelling and turning away, the father never stopped loving his son. Despite all the pain and shame the son brought to him, the father still desperately longs for his son to return home
This is the same thing that God has done for us. He draws attention away from our mistakes and from our sins by bringing shame on Himself. God allowed His own Son to die a horrible and shameful death on the cross so through His shame we might be able to return as honored children of God.
The father doesn’t care about the fact that his son ran away, or wished he was dead. He runs to his son, throws his arms around him, and welcomes him home. The son was filthy, wearing rags, and smelled like pigs and garbage. The father doesn’t care that his son is a dirty mess. He just hugs him and loves him.
Lk 15:21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ Lk 15:22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Lk 15:23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. Lk 15:24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
The son memorizes a nice little speech but before he even gets halfway through it the father cuts him off. He orders that servants bring a robe, a ring, and sandals. The robe is given to an honored guest, the ring was a symbol of authority in the household, and sandals were a symbol of freedom as slaves walked barefoot. The father does not take the boy back as a servant but restores him to his place as a son. He orders those items be brought, so when his son walks down the main street of town he will do so in honor, not in shame.
There is no ridicule, no guilt trip, no I told you so, the father’s love offered to the son is a pure love of restoration and it wins the son over. It is at this moment the son realizes what he put his father through and is no longer able to resist his love. The issue was not about money, it was about a broken relationship, which the father restored with this incredible display of unconditional love. Notice the son does not continue with his plan on being a servant. He originally thought he would have to earn his way back, but in experiencing the outrageous love of his father the boy realized he could not earn his way back, and he let himself fall into the arms of grace
The way the father response is to erase the past, no guilt, no shame, just perfect restoration. The rags and filth we came with are removed and replaced with a new robe and a ring. We are made new both inside and out. In our sin we were dead, in Jesus we are made alive again. Like the father, God rejoices when one of His lost children comes home.
Lk 15:25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. Lk 15:26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Lk 15:27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ Lk 15:28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. Lk 15:29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. Lk 15:30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ Lk 15:31 “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. Lk 15:32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”
This a joyous time for celebration as the lost son has returned home. Don’t forget the father had two sons. The older son is out in the fields working when he hears the music and sound of the party. When he learns the party is to honor his rebellious brother he refuses to go in and be a part of it. The older brother’s anger makes sense: his little brother shamed the family, squandered his inheritance, dishonored his father, and took off abandoning them both.
While Bevis may have rejected his father and run off, Butt-head working in the fields wasn’t that much better. Some people faithfully do the work of the kingdom of God but do not experience the joy of God. They see themselves as the only ones who have the right to be called God’s children because they are the only ones who remained faithful. They think of salvation as something owed to them because of their faithfulness and good works. They want God to honor them because they obey all the rules and don’t run off like the sinners. What we see is the religious are no closer to the heart of God than the rebellious. For when God rejoices when his lost children come home they tend to become very bitter because they feel God should only rejoice over them.
So the father leaves the party, ignoring his guests, and he once again sets himself up for social embarrassment. Now the older son is shaming his father by arguing with him in front of all those who gathered at the party. He is not that different from his younger brother. The difference is the location of their sin. The younger son’s sin was outward, the older son’s sin was inward. He thinks he has earned his inheritance by not running away. He didn’t stay and work because he loved his father, he stayed and worked because he wanted to be honored. All the rules he kept, all the good things he did are actually a hindrance to his relationship with his father.
The older brother criticizes not only his younger brother but also his father for being willing to take the boy back. He hurls baseless accusations against his brother and refuses to even acknowledge their relationship. He is so focused on the rules that he cant even love or forgive his own brother.
Neither of these sons knew their father. Both sons were lost. Neither of them understood their father’s love. One wanted to get away because he felt his dad was too controlling or that he could do it better, he was selfish and rebellious. The other son had a different problem: he thought if he followed his father’s rules well enough, for long enough that he could earn his inheritance. The younger son broke his relationship with his father by doing evil. The older son broke his relationship with his father by doing good. The younger son was physically distant from his father, the older son was spiritually distant.
The father loved both. Sinners don’t like that Jesus hangs out with the snobby religious types. The religious types don’t like that Jesus chills with sinners. But God reconciles both to Him, and the great thing is: God gets the last word. This parable ends on a sense of joy as well. Jesus doesn’t tell us if the older brother goes into the house because the story is not over. Jesus like the father is standing between the sinful brother and the stubborn brother. The ending we write for ourselves.
The young son is prodigal with his finances, the father is prodigal with his love
