Luke 15.11-32

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

13 A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in living without control. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

17 When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

20 So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’

22 But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

25 Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

28 The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

31 His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

Comments

This story is so powerful it needs very little comment, so I just want to point a few things out to you. First, the main character of this story is the father. Like the shepherd and the woman from yesterday, it is the father who has lost something. The first and most important thing for us to understand from this story is the consistent, even handed, passionate compassion the father shows to both sons. This is how our heavenly Father acts with each of us. This is also how we should act toward each other.

Second, pay close attention to what the text says and what it doesn’t say regarding what the second son did. The NLT had “wild living,” but it is literally, “lived without control.” That is all that is reported. It is the first son who makes an accusation regarding prostitutes (echoes of what the religious leaders were saying of Jesus), but that speaks more to the first son’s mental state (more on that in a moment) than anything. We don’t know how the second son spent his wealth, but the sin he comes home to confess is not about that, it is about the dishonor he showed his father in taking his inheritance early. His sin, his lostness, is the breaking of relationship with the father. That is the only sin the story names and it is quite enough. He winds up tending pigs for a Gentile, about as alienated as a Jewish boy could ever get. Jesus’ audience probably cringed at this.

Third, this is really a story of two lost sons. The second son was physically lost. The first son stayed physically, but his anger and bitterness toward both his brother and father show through everything he says and does in this story. He refuses to go in and asks a servant instead of finding out himself. He describes his own work as slaving, pouts that he never gets to go off with his friends, and reveals a lurid imagination regarding his brother’s time away. He is as alienated as his brother ever was. Except he may not be able to get to the point where he comes to his senses. The literal translation of v.29 is “never transgressed your commandments.” He doesn’t think he needs to repent, like the religious leaders Jesus has been dealing with. The father shows the same compassion for his older son, but will he receive it? Will he renew his relationship with his father and brother and be healed of his bitterness?

 

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Luke 15.1-10

1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people — even eating with them!

3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

8 Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

Comments

The last thing Jesus said in ch. 14 was “everyone who has ears should listen.” Remember, the chapter and verse divisions were added much later. The very next thing Luke records is how some people were using their ears to listen to Jesus. Tax collectors (essentially private contractors working for the Roman government) and known sinners often came and listened to Jesus’ teaching with open minds and open hearts (rather than the hostile suspicion of the religious leaders). The religious leaders were as offended by the unsavory crowd Jesus was attracting and engaging with as they were with his harsh prophetic words directed at them.

Chapter 15 gives us three stories about lost things as a response to how scandalized the religious leaders were by the company Jesus was keeping: the lost sheep and lost coin for today, and the lost son tomorrow. These two stories are very straightforward. The first is borrowed from Matthew (with nice narrative details added) and the second is a parallel story featuring a woman seeking (Luke often balances his stories with regard to gender, note how often a healing of one gender is following by a healing of the other). The narrative details are worth paying attention to: how the shepherd puts the sheep on his shoulders (I do this quite often with my younger children), how the woman sweeps the house and lights a lamp (just what we would if we were looking for a misplaced paycheck). In just a few words, Luke helps us identify with these characters. We sense the shepherd’s affection for the sheep and the woman’s eagerness to find her coin. 

Jesus liked hanging out with the sinners and teaching them because he was eager to reach them and had great affection for them. He didn’t just tolerate them in the hope that they would someday become acceptable and unoffensive. He liked them and wasn’t offended by them. He relaxed with them, enjoyed their company, and gave them the unconditional love and acceptance that is the only basis for real life change. If we are going to be Jesus’ followers, we have to be this comfortable around people who are far away from Jesus, people who don’t even yet realize they need Jesus. We have to do a lot more than tolerate them and preach at them. We have to love them and share both Jesus and our lives with them. And I don’t just mean we have to do this if we want to reach them, as if we could just choose not to reach them and still be followers of Jesus. Like we’ve talked about this year a number of times, following Jesus is an all or nothing deal. Followers of Jesus care about people and are happy to be with them. To eat with them. Watch a ballgame with them. Drink a beer with them. Be friends with them. Christians who aren’t ready to do this have not yet become followers of Jesus.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.