If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 15; you can find that on page 874 in the Bibles located in the pew in front of you. And for those of you who remember TV before streaming, you remember those moments when you were watching a game or you were watching a TV show and then out of nowhere, “We interrupt the previously scheduled programming to bring you this breaking news report.” Or, “We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this test of the emergency management system,” and then there was that screen with the blocks of different colors and that annoying sound, that shrill, beeping sound that came up, and you just hoped that it wasn’t going to last for very long and you hoped that that didn’t come at an intense moment of the game.
Well sometimes we can do something like that with the parable of the prodigal son that we find in our passage tonight. “We interrupt this previously scheduled series on the gospel of Luke to bring you this parable of the prodigal son,” because the parable can take on a life of its own. And there are books and paintings and songs that are dedicated to tell this story. And every time we hear this story, it seems like there is something new that we learn, there’s some new insight, a fresh thing to notice from this passage. And it really can take on a life of its own. I think we’ll just barely scratch the surface of it tonight as we look at Luke chapter 15.
Well you see, Luke’s recording of this parable comes with a context. Jesus’ parable comes with a context. It is not an interruption in the gospel that Luke is telling. No, it comes right in the flow – 14, 15 and 16. It comes, it fits in with the theme of meals and banquets that Jesus has been enjoying with Pharisees and with tax collectors in this gospel. And Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem; He is on His way to the cross when He tells these parables in our passage tonight. And this is not just told to be a sweet, heartfelt allegory of the Gospel. No, this story actually has a bite to it. There is a sense of urgency in this passage tonight because this is told in response to the opposition of the Pharisees when they complained and grumbled against Jesus saying that, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So this passage, I think, should make us feel uncomfortable in a way because what was it that the Pharisees had grown comfortable with? They were comfortable with their sin. Or we could put it another way. They had grown comfortable with their own righteousness. They didn’t see themselves as belonging to that category of people that they saw Jesus eating with – the sinners and the tax collectors. And so Jesus tells this parable in Luke chapter 15 to expose the deadliness of a good, decent and respectable self-righteousness. And he tells this parable to show us the scandal, the scandal of God’s grace.
So as we look at this passage tonight, we’re going to look at it very simply along two lines. We’ll look first at the younger son and then the older son. That will be our outline for tonight – the younger son and the older son. But before we read this passage, let’s ask God’s help as we read it.
Our Father, we come before You leaning and resting upon Your Word as our foundation. We love to hear Your Word and we love to sit at the feet of our Master, of our great Teacher, Jesus Christ, our Savior. We give You thanks that You have equipped us with Your Spirit to understand and to apply this passage tonight, so would You speak through Your Spirit tonight. Help us to understand Your Word, to apply it to our lives, and to grow in our love and adoration of You. And we pray all this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 15, starting in verse 1:
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’
So he told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’
And he said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
The Younger Son
The younger son was a long way from home. Verse 13 says that the younger son “gathered all that he had and he took a journey into a far country.” Nothing good ever happens in the far country. The far country is a long way from everything that is good and familiar and safe. The far country is the place of the unknown and the uninhibited. It’s the place of temptations and distractions and all the pleasures that the world has to offer. And you’re anonymous enough that you can take in all of those pleasures and give them a try. The far country is Babylon, it’s Rome, New York, L.A. The far country, like they say about, “There’s nothing good that happens after midnight,” there is nothing good that happens in the far country. And that was true for the younger son. He squandered his property in reckless living, he spent everything that he had, and when the famine came, he was forced to hire himself out to work in the fields and even to feed pigs. In fact, he sank so low it says “he longed to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and yet no one gave him anything to eat.” His life had sunk to the lowest of lows. He was a long way from home.
You may know something of the story of John Newton who was the writer of the hymn, “Amazing Grace.” John Newton was born and raised in London but he left at an early age to spend a life at sea. And he said, “I went to Africa, I went to Africa that I might sin to my heart’s content.” And so when he left for a life on the high seas, some of the things that happened to him along the way, he was pressed into duty in the Navy and he was lashed and he was bloodied for deserting his post in the Navy. And at one point he considered taking the life of his captain or taking his own life by jumping overboard. And he was transferred at some point to a slave ship and he participated in the slave trade for years. And yet he caused so many problems even on the slave ship that the shipmates left him in Africa and he actually became a slave in Africa. John Newton was a long way from home. And it was nothing but amazing grace, it was only amazing grace that could save a wretch like him.
But for all that that happened to John Newton, and all that had happened in the life of the younger son in this parable, the troubles of the far country were really just the final links in a long chain of events that had started back at home. Of course the reckless living is what grabs our attention. It’s what gets all the headlines. It’s what shocked the older son. You remember what the older son said in verse 30 – “This son of yours, he has devoured your property with prostitutes.” And we call this parable “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.” Sometimes we think about “prodigal” as meaning someone who has gone off for a time and then come back, but actually “prodigal” means something of recklessness and carelessness and wastefulness. And this son had made a big mess, for sure, but I don’t think that that was really his problem.
His big problem was leaving in the first place. His big problem was the indifference and the disrespect that he showed to his father by asking for a share in the property that was coming to him. You see, when the younger son did that, when he asked for his inheritance and then he promptly left town, he was rejecting and disowning his father and he was as good as saying, “I wish my father was dead.” That was his big sin. Everything else was almost periphery. Everything else was basically a manifestation of that much deeper problem that existed in his heart. You see, the younger son’s problem was that he didn’t recognize the goodness of his father in the first place, and he didn’t appreciate him. And he had no love to give or to receive from his father. It’s just that it wasn’t until he hit rock bottom that he realized all that he had thrown away. It wasn’t until “he came to himself,” as verse 17 says, he came to himself in the muck and the slop of the pigsty and it was there that he recognized all that he was missing in the household of his father. And so he said to himself, verse 17 to 19, “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” And verse 20 says, “And he arose and came to his father.”
Now all this talk about the younger son and we haven’t said anything about the sheep and the coins. And Jesus told two other parables before this parable of the prodigal son. Before He told this parable about the man with his two sons, He told a parable about a man who lost one of his hundred sheep. And he left the ninety-nine to go find the one that was lost. And when he found it, he put it on his shoulders and he took it back home. And then He told a story about a woman who lost one of her ten silver coins. She lit a lamp and she searched everywhere within the house until the found that coin that she so treasured and she put it back into safe keeping.
But did you notice the difference? Did you notice the difference between those two parables and then the parable of the man with his two sons? And it’s this. It’s that the father did not go out and search for his son and bring him home again. Why is that? It’s because he can’t. You know, maybe with a little child, if you’re not doing what you tell them to do you can go and grab them and pick them up and bring them to where you want them, and even then, young children, little toddlers and infants, they have this contortionist trick where they can make themselves as limp as a noodle so that you can’t pick them up. Or they make themselves as stiff as a board and you can’t put them in the seat that you’re trying to put them in. And for someone who does not have young children, it can be pretty hilarious to watch it. Frustrating if you are the parents.
But with a grown child you can’t do that, can you? You don’t have that sort of control. You can’t make a grown child do anything they don’t want to do. And even if the father had gone out looking for him, even if the father had gone out for his son who didn’t want anything to do with him in the first place, maybe he could have brought him back as a servant or as a prisoner, but he wouldn’t have received him back as a son. No, it took a change of heart. It took a change of heart for the younger son to come back. It took a recognition of his desperate need, of his absolute bankruptcy, his outright unworthiness before he turned and came back home. And when he did, what did he find? When he turned and came back home, he found a father who was ready and waiting to welcome him back with open arms. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” And the celebration was on from that point on. “Bring quickly,” he said, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’” And verse 24 says, “And they began to celebrate.” The end.
That was the end in the first two parables. That was the end in the two stories that Jesus told before this. When the man found his sheep that had been lost, he gathered together his friends so that they could rejoice together. When the woman found the coin that she had lost, she called together her neighbors so that she could rejoice with her. And you see, the reason that Jesus told those parables is to say that, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.” Or as verse 10 says, “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” And the story of the younger son is a story of repentance. It is the story of an obvious sinner who recognizes the depth of his sin and who turns to receive the grace, the compassion, the forgiveness. He turns to receive the embrace of his loving father. And then there was a celebration.
Marcus Mumford sang it a few years ago. Maybe it’s cliché to say it, but I think it fits for this passage. “It seems that all my bridges have been burned, but you say, ‘That’s exactly how this grace thing works.’ It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart but the welcome I receive with the restart.” I think that fits here, because it took the son’s repentance in coming home and what we find in those first two stories is to remind us that it is God who seeks and God initiates in His grace. And in the rest of the Bible we find out it is the Holy Spirit who initiates even the work of repentance, the act of repentance. But you see, when the son is on his way back home, he has this change of heart. He turns and comes home. He still wants to come home as a servant. He wants to be a slave in his father’s house. But when he comes home and he receives this grace, this abundant grace, these open arms, this love and this compassion, he is then received in not as a slave; he is received in as a son and he is able to receive the grace of his father that is offered to him.
I was talking to someone recently who told me about looking back through some old letters that her mother had written to her. And her mother has been gone for a long time, but she was looking through these letters the other day and she said that just reading those letters, those letters from her mother from long ago, and reading what her mother said about how much she loved her and how thankful she was for her and how proud she was of her, even after all these years there was something powerfully encouraging and joyful to remember and to know the love of her mother.
The Older Son
You see, when this younger son, when he went from basically being dead to being alive again, when he went from being lost to found and then he was deeply loved by his father, that was an occasion for joy. That was a reason to celebrate and that is exactly what they did. But that’s not the end, is it? That’s not the end of the story. No, it’s because the older brother refused to go in. He refused to go into the feast. When he came in from the field and this older brother heard the music and the dancing, he became angry. He was angry that his father had killed the fattened calf for this brother who had come home. He was angry because he had always done the right thing and he was never repaid for it. He says in verse 29, “Look, look, these many years I have served you and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.” He was angry that his brother had wasted everything that he had been given and he had spent all of his time on guilty pleasures and now it was almost like he was being rewarded for that. He says, “When this son of yours came, who devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.”
What’s that like? I know it’s political and it’s complicated and there’s hypocrisy on all sides, but isn’t the older son’s reaction somewhat on display in the anger over President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan? Because isn’t it easy to think, “My parents sacrificed and they worked so hard to pay for my college. And my child worked so hard and applied himself academically to earn those scholarships. Or I have skimped and I have saved for years to pay off my own college loans and now these people who didn’t have to do any of that and maybe were in no place to go to college in the first place, and now their debt is going to be wiped out just like that? That is not fair!” You see, the older brother, the reason he is so upset is because it’s all so unfair. He had followed all the rules. He had always done the right thing. He had worked hard and done his part for the family and he didn’t have any scandal associated with his name. He had no shameful past. He had no baggage that he was going to be hauling around with him for the rest of his life. He was the good son. And now what did he have to show for it? Nothing. Nothing. His father had not given him a thing, or so he thought.
And isn’t that the danger of a good, respectable and conscientious life. We can come from a good family, make good grades, stay out of trouble and do all the right things. We can go to church and even be reformed in our theology and have a good job and provide for our families and keep up our yards. We can do all the things that are expected of a good, southern, Christian boy and girl, man and woman. And by the way, there are plenty of things we could say about a good, respectable, secular life as well. But we could do all of those things and still have no idea about the goodness of God. We could have not the slightest indication of a relationship with Him and no enjoyment of who He is or the abundance of His blessings that He has to offer to us. In other words, you may look like you have it all together and be in the same position as the older son because he was indifferent to his father and he did not appreciate or respect his father. And he certainly did not have a relationship, a real relationship with him. And as it turns out, when it comes right down to it, when you get to the root of the problem there really is no difference between the younger son and the older son when you look at their hearts and where they are coming from in the first place. It’s just that the older son had never left. The older son was there the whole time. And yet the older son was a long way from home.
That’s what self-righteousness can do to us. We can find comfort and enjoyment in it for sure as we compare ourselves with others and measure ourselves up by how we stack up to them. We can judge others and make ourselves feel better. We can feel like we are in control and we are working for what we get and still be a long way from home. But you see, it’s the older son just as much as the younger son who needed repentance. And the good news, the good news is that the father is ready to forgive. The father is ready to run and embrace and kiss the older son just as much as the younger son. And he’s ready to celebrate. He’s ready for there to be a celebration at the repentance and the restoration of this older son who is a long way from home if he would come home and recognize the love of his father.
And so this passage, this passage like last week’s is an invitation to us. It’s an invitation to turn from our self-righteousness. It’s an invitation to turn from our sin. It’s an invitation to come to Jesus who has paid for our sins completely – our wild and reckless sins as well as our self- righteous sins – He has paid for them all at the cross and wiped them clean and brought us back in so that we can know the free and the abundant love of God our Father. And you know what, this passage is an invitation for us to come to this Table tonight, to come to the Lord’s Supper because what this passage teaches us is the same thing that this Table teaches us. And it’s the thing that we heard the Pharisees say in verse 2 of Luke chapter 15, and it’s this about Jesus – “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” That’s why we’re here tonight – because Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. Amen, and thank God that it is so. Let’s pray.
Our Father, we have come before Your Word to sit and to hear what You have to say to us, what You have to teach to us, and to see Jesus, to see His love and forgiveness and grace. We’ve also come to sit at this Table and to break bread and to drink of the cup, to remember what it is that has made it possible for us to come and to enjoy fellowship with You both now and forever. We thank You for the cross. We thank You for the death and resurrection of Jesus. We thank You for His victory and for the life that we now have in Him by faith. So we pray that You would strengthen our faith as we come to the Table, that You would equip us to be Your servants wherever we go, that we would know more than anything that we are Your sons and daughters, deeply loved. Would You use us in Your kingdom to love others as well. We pray all this in Jesus’ name, amen.