THE PARABLE OF THE LOST SONS (Luke chapter 15) 

1 Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him.
2 But the Pharisees[1] and the teachers of the law[2] muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable:
4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’
10 In the same way, I tell you,there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons.
12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
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.
14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.
15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.
16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
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!
18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’
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.
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.’
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.
23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.
27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
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.
30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
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.’”

INTRODUCTION

The whole chapter is one parable with three aspects, rather than three distinct parables, that illustrate God’s limitless love.  This parable is the gospel in a nutshell.  Concern over something lost and joy at its recovery, is the main theme.  The keywords are: “lost, found, rejoice.”  The sheep was lost because it may have foolishly wandered away (verse 4); the coin was lost through no fault of its own (verse 8); and the son left home because of selfishness (verse 12).  The sheep, the coin, and the son were all lost and all worth saving.  A sheep is valuable, money is more valuable, but a person is the most valuable of all. 

Luke’s gospel has an important theme: The salvation offered by Jesus Christ is for the most needy especially the prodigal, the sick and the less respectable members of society.  Since the Pharisees and experts in the law despised tax collectors and sinners, Christ told an extended parable to show God’s interest in them.  Unlike the Pharisees, sinners knew they were sinners, and needed to be saved.  In the third picture, the self-righteous and cold-hearted older brother exposes the Pharisees’ lack of love and forgiveness.

This superb parable, recorded only by Luke, is timeless.  It emphasizes the heart-agony of a person who has lost something.  The shepherd suffered more than the lost sheep; the woman suffered more than the inanimate lost coin; the father had a depth of agony that neither of his two sons could share.  So it is with God who is moved with compassion over those lost in sin, yet who fail to understand the anguish of his heart.  There is hope for every repentant sinner because Jesus welcomes everyone.  Jesus truly is the sinners’ Friend.

THE PARABLE OF THE LOST SONS (11-32)

(The Story of the Loving Father)

INTRODUCTION
Most Christians probably know this story by its traditional sermon title “The Prodigal (or Wasteful) Son”.  However, its opening statement reads, “There was a man who had two sons.”It tells the story of two prodigals, not just one.  Perhaps the story should be called the “Parable of the Lost Sons” to make the point that both sons were lost.  However, the story could better entitled the “Parable of the Loving Father” to emphasize the love and mercy of God toward undeserving sinners.  The father, rather than the wayward sons, is the central character and the hero of the story.

This is one of the most compelling and memorable stories ever told.  Charles Dickens, the nineteenth century novelist, described it as the “finest short story ever written.”  It is a literary masterpiece.  Certainly Jesus knew how to touch the human heart.  Its main ideas are: rebellion, repentance, restoration, and rejoicing.  Like the story of the Good Samaritan, it is a story from everyday life.

THE STORY IN BRIEF

1.      The Rejection of Home.

The younger son wanted his independence and to be his own master.  Sin is a self-willed departure from God.  “Stolen water is sweet”  (Proverbs 9:17) but sweetness often turns to bitterness.  His freedom became slavery for Satan is a hard master.

2.      The Return To Home.

He returned to his father as he was.  It took resolve to return the long weary journey home.  God’s great love reaches out and finds sinners no matter why or how they become lost.

3.      The Reception At Home.

There are no words of reproach from the boy’s father.  Likewise at the cross of Christ every repentant sinner finds a warm welcome.

The main point of this story is that God loves lost people and gladly receives repentant sinners.  The parable is a picture of salvation with the elements of sin, selfishness, and separation, with the hope of forgiveness for every returning sinner.  God loves sinners before they repent.  It is not repentance that causes God to love sinners, but his love that causes them to repent.  Salvation by faith means turning from one’s own resources to trust in the grace of God.

THREE MAIN CHARACTERS      
The primary interpretation of the parable is to be found in the immediate circumstances of the story.  The three main characters in this story are a loving generous father who represents God or our heavenly Father, a rebellious younger son who represents the “tax collectors and sinners”, and an unforgiving older brother who represents the respectably religious Pharisees.  However, in a wider sense the elder son may represent the nation of Israel and the younger son may stand for the heathen world of the Gentiles.  Many Jews in Christ’s time would have denied the Gentiles God’s favour and Israel’s privileges.

1.      The Rebellious Younger Son      
His share of the estate would have been one-third, with the older son receiving two-thirds (Deuteronomy 21:17). In most cases he would have received this at his father’s death.  What is unusual here is that the younger son initiated the division of the estate.  This showed an arrogant disregard for his father’s authority as head of the family.  It was as if he had said to his father, “I wish you were dead!

He was hasty, ungrateful, forgetful of his family duty, and an example of selfish evil living that is forgetful of God. “The far country” is a symbol for separation from God; it exists in our hearts.  It is the state of the human condition in our wanderings from God.  At first the son had material fullness but sensuality is not satisfying; then came famine and hunger of the spirit.  Sin is a waste materially and spiritually for it leads to disillusionment and sorrow.  Sin promises freedom but brings slavery.

According to the Law of Moses pigs were unclean animals (Leviticus 11:7-8; Deuteronomy 14:8).  This meant that pigs could not be eaten or used for sacrifices.  To protect themselves from defilement Jews would not even touch pigs.  For a Jew to feed pigs for a Gentile master was therefore a great humiliation, and to eat food that the pigs had touched was to be degraded.  The younger son had sunk to the depths of despair.

This son, like many who are rebellious and immature, wanted to be free to live as he pleased, and he had to hit bottom before he came to his senses.  In the earlier behaviour of this son we see the natural bias of our own hearts away from God.  We are all prodigal sons who need the mercy and grace of God.  Like sheep we all “have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” (Isaiah 53:6)  It often takes sorrow and tragedy to cause people to look to the only One who can help them.  By bitter experience the young man found that the ways of sin are hard.  We usually reap what we sow.

Genuine repentance means a sense of sin and shame and a change of attitude.  To repent means to turn from our own ways and re-turn to God.  Repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit who alone allows a sinner to “come to his senses”[3] or “come to himself”[4] and return to God.  Repentance itself is a gift of God (Romans 2:4).  The younger son recognized his situation for what it was.  True repentance is shown when people change the way they live.

Note the contrasts and the parallels in verses 24 and 32 between: “dead” and “alive”, and “lost” and “found”.  Spiritually, repentance is the passing from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.  The words “lost” and “found” provide a link with the two earlier parables to form a trilogy.

2.      The Unforgiving Older Brother

Unfortunately he was self-righteous, angry, bitter, unloving, unforgiving, and jealous at the special treatment given to his brother.  He criticized both his father and his brother.  His attitude was the same as the Pharisees’ (verse 2).  His words reflect self-righteousness and self-pity when he said, “This son of yours” not “My brother”.

It was hard for the older brother to accept his younger brother when he returned, and it is just as difficult to accept “younger brothers” today.  People who repent after leading very sinful lives are often held in suspicion and churches are sometimes unwilling to welcome them.  But we should rejoice like the angels in heaven when an unbeliever repents and turns to God.  Like the father, we should accept repentant sinners wholeheartedly and give them the support and encouragement that they need to grow in Christ.

The father’s response is contrasted with the older brother’s.  The father forgave because he was filled with love.  The son refused to forgive because he was bitter about the perceived injustice of it all.  His resentment rendered him just as lost to the father’s love as his younger brother had been.

The older brother represented the Pharisees, who were angry and resentful that sinners were being welcomed into God’s kingdom.  After all, the Pharisees must have thought, we have sacrificed and done ‘so much’ for God.  How easy it is to resent God’s gracious forgiveness of others whom we consider to be far worse sinners than ourselves.  But when our self-righteousness gets in the way of rejoicing when others come to Jesus, we are no better than the Pharisees.

Notice that the father reminds the older brother of his relationship to his family by saying “This brother of yours” (verse 32).  The parable ends up in the air: will the older son enter the party?  We do not know the response of the elder brother.  The conclusion is open-ended.

In this parable Jesus was defending his association with tax collectors and sinners.  His meal with them symbolized God’s joy over their repentance and his acceptance of them indicated his forgiving grace.  Like the older son, the Pharisees were invited to the party as well.

Bishop J. C. Ryle comments:

“Let us beware of this spirit [of the Pharisee] infecting our own hearts.  It arises partly from ignorance.  Men begin by not seeing their own sinfulness and unworthiness and then they fancy that they are much better than others and that nobody is worthy to be put by their side.  It arises from lack of love.  They cannot take pleasure in others being saved.  If a man understands gospel forgiveness and that all stand by grace and are all debtors, and that what we have we have received, he will not be the elder brother.”[5]

3.      The Waiting Father

The father did not argue with his son when he left; he knew his son would learn the hard way.  On the son’s return, he offered spontaneous love, and a full forgiveness without recrimination.  The robe, the ring, and the feast indicate celebration, honour and acceptance.  People in first century Palestine did not eat meat regularly so the fattened calf was a luxury.  He was patient and gentle with BOTH sons as both sons needed to change.  The father’s generous treatment of the returning prodigal son shows that God’s forgiveness not only looks to the past but also points to a richer relationship in the future.

In the two preceding stories, the seeker actively looked for the coin and the sheep, which could not return by themselves.  In this story, the father watched and waited.  He was dealing with a human being with a will of his own, but he was ready to greet his son if he returned.  In the same way, God’s love is constant and patient and welcoming.  He will search for us and give us opportunities to respond, but he will not force us to come to him.  Like the father in this story, God waits patiently for us to come to our senses.

“God loves each one of us, as if there were only one of us to love.”  Each person is of infinite importance to God.  There is immeasurable joy over the return of one sinner, and there is hope for every sinner, as Jesus welcomes everyone.

A MESSAGE OF HOPE FOR PARENTS

Watching children, especially an adolescent, make poor choices is very painful for parents but we can trust that God is at work in their lives even when their position looks hopeless.  While we cannot force people to make the right choices, we can love them enough to respectfully warn them and pray constantly for them.

Our children can turn away from God and reject him if they choose, but their unfaithfulness will never cause God to reject them.  No matter what they do, our heavenly Father will always love them and long for their return when they stray.  Our children may suffer when they rebel against God, but this suffering is not simply punishment.  Through their need, God is reaching out to them, reminding them of their dependence on him.  They should never let pride or fear keep them from repentance.  When they do come back to God, he will be waiting for them with open arms.

PERSONAL APPLICATION

• Are you like one of the two brothers?  The self-righteous are as lost as the worst of sinners.
• Have you wandered from the right way?  There is a way of return through Jesus.
• Is a member of your family making bad decisions with destructive results?  Join with other believers and never cease to pray for them.
• Is money or some other addiction your master?  You do not have to be dressed in rags to be a prodigal.
• Like the elder brother, is there someone you need to forgive?           
• What if the older brother had met the younger son, before the younger son had met the father?
• Jesus said our task as disciples is to seek the lost: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

PRAYER

Lord, I thank you for your patient love to me throughout my life.  Help me to bring your grace and mercy to those prodigals with broken relationships.

Jim Peacock MA (Hons), Diploma of Teaching.