WWUTT 2433 The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-24)

The parable of the prodigal son is kind of a misnomer. It's one of the most famous parables in the Gospel of Luke, but it's not really the younger son this parable should be named after, but the older brother, when we understand.

The text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Joy of Repentance

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we've been in chapter 15, reading this trilogy of parables that Jesus gives about one who was lost and now is found, and there is much rejoicing in heaven.

We get to the most famous of those parables today, and that is the parable of the prodigal son. And I'm going to go ahead and read through the whole parable, verses 11 to 32. Hear the word of the Lord.

And Jesus said, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the 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 and 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 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, he drew near to the house and 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. Now, I had planned to cover this entire parable in this one devotional lesson, but we have so much text here. There's enough to talk about that I think we can divide it up into a couple of lessons.

So we're going to look at mostly the portion of the parable up to the point that the son comes home today and then we'll finish up the parable next week. But one of the things that I want to lead with, and we'll come back to talking about this even when we when we resume this study on Monday.

Why the Parable Is Really About the Older Brother

But one of the things that is often misunderstood about this parable is the very name of it, the very title. The title of the parable is the parable of the prodigal son. Now, Jesus didn't call it that.

That's the title that we give to it. The parables that we've looked at so far, we have the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and this is the parable of the prodigal son. And it's the editors of the Bible that will give these parables these titles.

Well, we've seen this in church history, too. Even before you had Bibles that were written in such a way that people have their own Bible and they can take it home and you would have these section headings that would give you the title of the parable.

Even before we got to that, preachers from of old, even going back to the early centuries of the church, they would title these parables also. And so the title, the parable of the prodigal son goes back a long way.

In fact, it looks like that this title, the parable of the prodigal son, originates with Irenaeus. So that would put the titling of this parable in the second century. That's a long time for this parable to go by that title.

The word prodigal means spending money or resources freely and recklessly. So you're talking about identifying the sin that this rebellious son is guilty of demanding inheritance from his father, which he takes into a foreign country and he squanders it.

And so because of that, that's why we call this parable the parable of the prodigal son. But the prodigal son, the rebellious son, is really not the focus of the parable. Let's go back to the beginning of Luke chapter 15.

Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes grumbled against him, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So Jesus told them this parable.

And you have the parable of the lost sheep. You have the 99 sheep out in the field. The shepherd leaves to go find the one that is gone astray. You have the parable of the lost coin. A woman has 10 coins.

She loses one. She searches the house. She finds it and then rejoices with her friends. And the point of both of these parables is the same. There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

And as I pointed out yesterday, you could also read this as someone who believes they don't need to repent. It's not really that they're righteous. They just think they don't need to repent. And what does it say in First John chapter chapter one, that if anyone says that he has no sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in him.

If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. I quoted that one yesterday. First John 2 1. So you have a person who just thinks they don't need to repent. I'm good enough.

You need a savior. I don't. You know, they may not say that, but that could very well be their attitude with the parable of the lost coin. It says Jesus had said at the end of that, just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

So the point of this as he's sharing these parables is to tell the Pharisees. There is great joy in the fact that these sinners, these tax collectors that you hate that you discriminate against, they're coming to me.

And there is joy in heaven over these who repent of their sin and come to the savior. The Pharisees should be right there along with them. Now, of course, they need repentance, so they should be repenting before God.

But if they were truly righteous, then they would be rejoicing at the fact that these sinners are turning from their sin to the savior. But that's not a Pharisee's attitude. They're bitter about it. They're grumbling about it.

I don't want those people in my kingdom, which it's not theirs. It belongs to Christ. But that's that's the attitude that they have. And so they're going to end up being cut off from the kingdom. They won't even get in because they are behaving in this way, because they have this self-righteousness, thinking that they're going to waltz through heaven's gates on their righteousness.

So they don't need to come to the savior. And I don't want these people in my kingdom. They're sinners. Yeah, but there is there's going to be a great feast and celebration in heaven over the repentance of these sinners.

And you won't be there. They don't even want to be part of it right now. They're crossing their arms and pouting about it. As I've shared with my church, talking to my congregation, whatever church I've been pastor of, when I'm looking at these people, I say, hey, love the person that's next to you because you're going to be spending a long time with them.

And if you don't want to go to heaven with that person, well, you may get what you want, but it won't be the way that you think that you'll get it. Praise be to God that he saves, that he has called lost sinners to himself.

And we are entering into the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ, who died for us and rose from the dead. And all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. So that's the point of these parables, is to understand that those who repent inherit the kingdom, those who get sour about who repents and who's going to make it into the kingdom, well, they're not going to be there.

You're not going to be part of that celebration over those sinners who repent. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. But here's the lot of you just standing around and pouting. There's no joy in you.

If there's no joy in you now, there won't be any joy in you for eternity. They're going to end up going to that place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. So Jesus is telling these parables to them.

They're the audience. So the parable of the prodigal son is not about the prodigal son. It's really not about the sinner who came back home. It's about the brother who didn't want him there. Because that's the way the Pharisees are acting.

And so this is more rightly titled the parable of the older brother. The older brother in his self-righteousness says, you didn't even get me a goat. And here you've killed the fattened calf for this kid who demanded his inheritance and went and squandered your property with prostitutes.

And you're having a party for him? And the parable ends with the father addressing the older brother. So that's why it should be the parable of the older brother. But let's consider what we have here with regards to this rebellious son.

We'll get to the conversation between the father and the older brother on Monday. Let's look at what happens leading up to that point. So once again, in verse 11, Jesus 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. Now, when a father is dividing property between his sons, it's probably not 50 -50. The majority share is going to the older brother. So that's something else that kind of highlights the bitterness of the older brother here.

Like he was going to get the majority share of what belonged to the father anyway. But he's mad that a big party is thrown for his younger brother and a fattened calf is killed. He was going to get most of what belonged to the father.

Consider again what the father says to the older son. He says, this is the last line in the parable. Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. So what the younger son is getting is a much less portion than what the older brother is going to get.

And yet the older brother is so bitter over the fact that the younger brother still went and squandered what belonged to the father, what was the father's. And then the father throws a big celebration for him.

So the younger brother is not even getting as big a chunk, but he takes what the father divided up and gave to him. And he gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property in reckless living.

Now, you've probably seen all different kinds of depictions of the parable of the prodigal where he goes off into a far country and he parties. And he's got all kinds of friends around him because he's got all this money.

But then once the money runs out, well, then his friends abandon him. And now he's got nothing. He had spent everything. A severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. There are some creative Christian movies out there that have tried to turn this into kind of a more cinematic sort of a thing.

This is just a parable, though. This is not a narrative. A lot of people will treat it like a narrative, like this is something that really happened, and they'll try to tie it to things historically and all of that.

This is not a historical event. There are certainly a context in which this is being spoken. And so we understand how the Jews would have understood this parable. But that doesn't mean that this was really something that happened.

And Jesus is telling a story of something that actually occurred. It's just a parable. It's a lesson that Jesus is telling to the Pharisees with a particular point to it. And so this younger son goes and squanders all that he has.

And he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country. So he's in a foreign country. That's not the land of Israel. It's not the land of Judah. And how do we know that? Because the citizen sent the young son into his fields to feed pigs.

That would not have been in Judah. Nobody in Judah or Galilee or Samaria had pigs. That was an unclean animal. So those are Gentiles. That's who the younger son has run off with. He's run off to hang out with Gentiles.

And he even was so hungry that he desired to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. And no one gave him anything. So he is so desperate and so in need. He's even getting down on the ground with these pigs and getting his face right down into that trough.

But before he eats anything that belongs to the pigs, he came to himself. It's like being down there on the ground with these unclean animals and about to eat their food. And suddenly it dawns on him, what am I doing?

How did I get here? You've seen that meme where something crazy is going on and then the frame will freeze. And then a narrator's voice comes over and says, I bet you're wondering how I got here. That's kind of the same sort of thing happening here.

Like I said, lots of different cinematic portrayals have been made of this particular account. So you could do that with the younger son getting down into the trough, freeze frame. I bet you're wondering how I ended up here.

So he comes to himself and he says, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger. So the son has figured out I could go back to my father and I could ask to be one of his servants.

And he's going to take me in. 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.

Now, this is a great speech. The younger son has prepared this speech. This is what I'm going to say to my father so that he'll take me back. And all he's hoping for is a slave's job. That's all he wants.

He's not asking to be a son again. He's not asking to be written back into the will. He's not even asking that he could have his old room back. He's just saying, treat me as one of the slaves. And he's prepared this whole speech, probably rehearsing it on the way that he's going to say to his father when he gets home.

Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. Great, humble start. This is the son recognizing that I have done wickedly. And by the way, all of this just sort of demonstrates Jesus' brilliance in storytelling.

And I'll show you why here in just a moment. Of course, Jesus is the one that's telling the story. He's the one telling this parable. But it's brilliant the way that he puts this together, of course, because he's the son of God.

But I'm just saying. So anyway, you have the younger son rehearsing this speech. Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.

So when we have read in the previous two parables about a sinner who repents with the lost sheep, a sinner who repents with the parable of the lost coin, Jesus actually shows here and puts into words.

Here's what repentance looks like. When you have come to your lowest point and you have realized what got you here, your sin has made you filthy. You are down with dirty, disgusting animals, and you're about to eat their food like a comparison with how low your sin has gotten you.

And how should a person learn from this? What should they come to realize when they find themselves in the mire of their own sin? They should recognize I have sinned against heaven and before you, the son talking to the father, whoever he has sinned against, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

I'm not worthy to be called a son of God. Treat me as one of your hired servants. Make me a slave. Just please don't let me stay in the mire of my sin. So this is a great, humble picture of repentance that Jesus is painting right here, even in this story that he is telling.

The Father's Compassion and Forgiveness

So the son arose and he 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. So the father is there, sees his son who is coming, drops whatever it is that he's doing, runs to his son and embraces him and kisses him.

And the son says to the father, now here's the speech. Here's the speech that he's been preparing, right? Again, this is just showing the brilliance of Jesus as a storyteller. He says, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. And that's all he gets out. So it's the speech that he's been rehearsing, but he doesn't get to treat me as one of your hired servants. We know, we know as the hearers of this story that that's the attitude of his heart, but he doesn't even get to that part when he's talking to his father.

His father essentially cuts him off. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. Bring the fat and calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate.

So the son's repentance is truly genuine. And we know that because of the speech that he's prepared and what he's ready to do in order to be able to come home. I don't even, I'm not even asking for my old room back.

I don't deserve anything. I demanded what I thought I deserved and look at where it got me. So I don't want anything. Just treat me like a slave. But that's not the way the father treats him. And he treats him even as more than a son, but treats him as someone who has come back from the dead.

For what does he say? Verse 24, for this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate. So you see here, not only the genuineness of the son's repentance, but the genuineness of the father's forgiveness.

Now, I want to be real careful not to attribute the father to being God or Jesus Christ necessarily. And you'll, you'll hear this all the time with people who will try to interpret this particular parable.

Well, the son is us and the father is God. That's again, that's not the point. And this is, this is where we can overanalyze parables. Sometimes a parable has one point and a parable as is not meant to be picked apart with all these different pieces representing this, that, or the other, unless Jesus gives meaning to that.

Like in the parable of the sower, for example, the seed represents one thing and you have the different soils that represent different people. So if Jesus gives it that meaning and that attribution, then it certainly can have pieces of it that mean different things, but not always.

So we got to be careful not to overanalyze a parable and start attributing different people to different roles, which may not even be the point. Yes, God is loving. He is absolutely forgiving of us, but this does not represent God.

And why, why do I say that? Why is the father, not God in this account? Because as Jesus will say later in Luke 19, 10, the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. The father is not seeking his son.

He does not go out into that foreign country, looking for his son to find him and bring.

Him home.

So again, the point of the parable is not to see the father as God or to see the father, even as Jesus Christ in this particular sense, because as I said, that's not the point of the parable. We're not looking at all these different roles and trying to ascribe to them the, these, you know, different persons to that role.

I remember one preacher even dissecting this parable and saying, see, there's actually three sons in this parable. There is the younger son, who's the prodigal son. There's the older son who is like the Pharisees.

And then there's the son who's telling the story and they're trying to, you know, attribute that to Jesus, which is true. But again, it's not like Jesus is another figure in this parable that is a son to the father that's being talked about in the parable.

That's overanalyzing the parable. That's not the point of the parable. So yes, in the father, we certainly see the great love and affection that God has for us and the way that he forgives and the way that there is much rejoicing in heaven, because that's been the common theme that has tied together these three parables, the lost sheep, the lost coin and the, uh, the prodigal son.

You have this feast, this rejoicing because one who was lost has been found. And that's the celebration that's happening in heaven over a repentant sinner. We see the character of God in that. And just as this father was forgiving of his son, God gives us way more.

That's another aspect of the father in this parable is that he's not even giving the son as much as our father in heaven gives us. He gives us the whole kingdom. We become fellow heirs of the kingdom with Christ.

So we even get far more than just a robe on our back, kisses on our cheeks, a ring on our finger in the fattened calf. We get to reign forever with the sun in glory and eat at the wedding feast of the lamb.

And we will enjoy that fellowship for all eternity. So it's even, it's even further, even far beyond the things that the prodigal son receives here. But let it be a lesson to us, at least as far as we have read in this parable up to this point, and we'll pick it up again next week.

Let it be a lesson to us to understand the humbleness in our repentance to say before God, I've sinned against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your child. And as said in 1 John 1, 9, if we ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We say to God, forgive me. And he does and restores us in ways that are far beyond even our imagination. But we will one day enter into glory and see the vastness of the goodness of God beyond what we can perceive now.

But you can still know now God is good to you. Let's finish there with prayer. And like I said, we'll pick this up again next week. Heavenly father, we thank you for the love and compassion that you have for us, that our sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ, our savior who died for us and rose from the dead.

All who believe in him will be saved. We turn, we renounce our underhanded, evil, wicked ways. We turn to Christ and God, we ask that you would uphold us with your compassionate and.

Good heart.

As said at the end of Jude, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and bring you into his presence with great joy. And God, we ask that you would do that for us. Keep us from temptation. But when we stumble, we're humble enough to come before God and seek forgiveness, that you would cleanse us from all unrighteousness and make us new, that we may live as sons and daughters of our great God in heaven.

It's in the name of Jesus that we pray.

Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.