Luke 15: 11-31
We come in our series on the parables of Jesus to this Easter Sunday and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
The titles of the Parables are sometimes misleading. Last week’s parable, The Sower, is really a parable about soils. This week’s parable, The Prodigal Son, should really be renamed the parable of the Pursuing Father.
This is a familiar parable. It is a story of a young man who runs away from his father, wastes his inheritance and comes back to be greeted by his father who welcomes him back to his home.
But this parable is much more than that. Ken Bailey is a scholar who has spent most of his life in the Middle East. He has written about the Parable of the Prodigal Son and I have borrowed from his work for this sermon.
Baily points out in his discussion that it is the father who is the central character in this parable and that Jesus identifies himself with the father in this story. The father publically humiliates himself at several points in this parable. He sacrifices himself for his two sons, just as Jesus sacrificed himself for his spiritual children.
Let’s take a look and see if you are convinced.
The setting for this parable is in the opening verses of Luke 15.
Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
Then Jesus told them this parable:”
Jesus proceeds to tell the Pharisees and teachers of the Law three stories in response to their accusation that he welcomes sinners and eats with them. The story of the lost sheep, the story of the lost coin and this story, the Parable of the lost son, the prodigal son.
Jesus told them (the Pharisees) this (singular) parable. Luke obviously views these three stories as one parable. Luke tells one parable with three stories to answer the muttering comment of the Pharisees.
In the story of the lost sheep, the shepherd leaves his 99 sheep to go look for the one who was lost. When he finds it, he carries it home over his shoulder and throws a party to celebrate.
In the story of the lost coin, the woman turns her house upside down to find the missing coin. When she finds it, she calls her neighbors to rejoice with her.
Jesus identifies himself in these two stories of the parable as the good shepherd and the good woman. In each of these stories he pursues what was lost.
The themes of the stories of the lost sheep and the lost coin are continued in this story, the lost sons. Jesus identifies himself, in this third story of the parable, as the good father who pursues his sons and is willing to pay a high price to do so.
Luke 15:11-32
The younger son comes to his father and says, “Father, give me my share of the estate.”
If my daughters were to discuss what they want of Annie’s and my possessions when we die, we would feel, understandably, a bit put out. Our feet are not even in the grave and they are dividing up what we have.
But if our daughters were to come to us and demand we give them their share of their inheritance now, we would be shocked and dismayed.
In the Middle Eastern culture, this is even more offensive. Asking for his share of the estate meant, “Father, I am eager for you to die.” The suitable response to this from a traditional Middle Eastern father would be to strike him across the face and drive him from the house. This request, this demand is rude and insulting. Such a son does not deserve to remain in the home.
I’ve said that every parable has a twist that made the listeners sit up and pay attention. This parable has several twists, several surprises and this is the first of several twists.
The father not only does not strike his son across the face and drive him out of the house, he accedes to his son’s request. He gives him his share and allows him to sell the land and cattle and sheep he has inherited and turn it into cash.
This makes the son’s request public knowledge and the father and family now face public humiliation. The son sells his share of the inheritance to others in the village and everyone knows that the father has been insulted. The rude request of the son is now public knowledge and the family has suffered deep shame.
If the father had struck his son and sent him out of the home, the shame would have been on the son. But by the father’s actions, the shame is now on him. He has allowed his son to abuse him.
Right at the outset, it is clear that this is no ordinary father. Jesus is definitely making the case that only God could act like this. This father is an image of God who allows sinners to abuse him and while they were still sinners, died for them.
And so the son leaves. The father knows what his son faces in leaving like this. Any Jewish boy who lost his family’s inheritance to Gentiles faced a punishment called the qetsatsah ceremony.
The ceremony was simple. The villagers would bring a large earthenware jar, fill it with burned nuts and burned corn, and break it in front of the guilty person. While doing this, the whole village would shout, “So-and-so is cut off from his people.” From this point on, the village would have nothing to do with this person.
The father knows that his son has burned his bridges behind him. He has insulted his father, he has alienated the villagers. The son has turned his back on all he has known. He has rejected his home and set off to live in the land of Gentiles.
There is much at stake and then the worst case scenario happens. The younger son who left his family and God’s chosen people, the Jews, is living with the Gentiles and he loses all the money he received from selling the inheritance.
Now the son knows he is faced with the qetsatsah ceremony if he returns. So he must find a way to earn money to pay back what he owes. It is a sign of how desperate he is that his plan involves feeding pigs. To Jewish ears, this was the depths of degradation. To a Jew, the pig was the most unclean and the most abhorred of all animals.
But even this desperate plan does not work. To the Pharisees listening to this story, the situation could not get any worse. But then this detail is thrown in. The younger son becomes so desperate he even longs to fill his stomach with the food given to the pigs. But “no one gave him anything.”
The son is now at the absolute bottom of the pit.
So now he resorts to plan B. He will come home, face the villagers and the qetsatah ceremony and try to get a job with his father to begin to pay back what he lost.
“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.’”
Some have read this and made the point that the son repented. He came to his senses. But this is not clear and detracts from the power of the point being made in the parable.
The son sits in the pig sty and calculates what he must do to earn back what he wasted. The emphasis is on his earning what he needs. He knows he does not deserve anything and his focus is on what he has to do to earn his way back into his father’s good graces.
In the preceding two stories that are part of the parable Luke is recording, the sheep does nothing to find its way home. The good shepherd pursues the lost sheep, rescues it, brings it home. The coin does nothing to make itself discovered. The good woman searches for the coin, pursues it and brings it back.
In the same way, this story is about a father who pursues his son and brings him home.
If the son has repented, then this story does not fit with the stories of the lost sheep and the lost coin.
But what about the son’s confession.
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.’”
Is this not the confession of a son who has repented? Baily points out that this confession of the son is known to the Pharisees listening to this parable as the confession Pharaoh made to Moses after the plague of locusts and before the plague of darkness.
“Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me.’”
It is clear that this is not Pharaoh’s genuine repentance, but an attempt to bend Moses to his will. The Pharisees heard this confession of the son and recognized it, not as a genuine confession, but an attempt to bend the will of the father toward the plan the son had come up with to repay his debt and earn his way back into the family.
What is the father doing while the son is struggling.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him”
The father is not sitting at home, sipping ice tea on the veranda. He is looking for his son, straining to see him in the distance. The father is not able to put his son out of his mind. The father is not indifferent to his son’s struggle.
He knows that his son has to return to the village and face the qetsatah ceremony. He knows his son’s return will not be an easy one. He knows his son has no assurance that he will be accepted when he returns. The father wants to be the first to see his son so he can protect him from the villagers who will greet him with the qetsatah ceremony of rejection. And so the father strains to see his son from a far.
Baily suggests that Jesus borrows here from Isaiah 57:19 where God offers to those spiritually far off, peace, and to those near, peace. The father pursues his son who is far off to offer him peace and he then will concentrate on offering his son (the older son) who is near, the same peace.
“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.”
The father picks up the edge of his long robes in his hand and runs to him. Once again, the father publically humiliates himself. A Middle Eastern man wearing robes does not run in public. But the father wants to get to his son before the villagers see him. He wants to spare his son the qetsatah ceremony of rejection. He publically humiliates himself for the welfare of his son.
And how does the son respond? This son who has calculated a plan for earning back the money and earning his way back into the family and the village.
The son is stunned. He has worried that the father may not accept him back and here his father comes running to him, throws his arms around him and kisses him.
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
The son gets out the first part of his speech but leaves out the part about being a field hand. The son’s prepared speech becomes genuine repentance. This is no prepared speech to bend the will of the father so he can earn his way back. This is genuine repentance in which he throws himself on the mercy of the father with no hope, no plan of action.
The father here becomes an image of Christ. The good father sacrifices himself, his reputation, his possessions, for his son. The Pharisees have complained about Jesus
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus, in this story, tells the Pharisees that it is much worse than that. He tells the Pharisees, “I not only welcome sinners and eat with them, I run down the road, throw my arms around them, shower them with kisses and drag them in so I can eat with them.”
“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.
Now, as the good shepherd threw a party to celebrate the sheep that was found and the good woman called her neighbors to rejoice in the coin that was found, the good father throws a party to celebrate the son who has been found.
Notice that the father does not say, “he was lost and has found his way home.” The son did not work his way home, he did not find his way home. The father found his son. He was lost and is found. The pursuing father pursued his son as the good shepherd pursued the lost sheep and the good woman pursued the lost coin.
From the good father’s perspective, the son was still lost and dead at the edge of the village. The father, in a costly demonstration of his love, went out to find and resurrect his son. The banquet is a celebration of the success of having found his son and the son’s resurrection.
The son faced the qetsatah ceremony of rejection by the village. But instead he is treated to a party. He expected rejection. He received love. He was lost. He was found. He deserved rejection. He was given peace. He was spiritually dead. He was given new life.
Who is celebrated at this party? When villagers come to the party, who do they congratulate?
When the older son comes in from the fields and hears music and dancing, he asks a boy servant what is going on.
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.’
The party is being held because the father has pursued his son and brought him home. This is a party at which the father is being celebrated. The father is a man who finds sinners, pursues them, brings them into his home and eats with them.
This party is a picture of Holy Communion, a time when Jesus gathers sinners to himself and eats with them. Jesus is celebrated at communion and it is the father who is celebrated at this party.
But now we come to the older son.
If the younger son had come home and the party was to celebrate his safe return, there would be no problem for the older son. In that case, all that was left of the land and cattle and sheep was his. But the younger son has not just returned home safely, he has been brought back and is again in the family, to share in the inheritance of his father’s land and possessions.
And so the older son breaks off his relationship with his father. The Pharisees listening to this parable sympathized with the older son. The older son has obeyed the law. He has been dutiful. He has done what was right. And what is his reward? His younger brother who insulted his father, publically shamed his family, and lost all the money to Gentiles, has been brought back into the family without repaying the money.
Grace has been offered and accepted rather than the requirements of the law demanded and fulfilled by the sinner. The world of the Pharisees has just been overturned.
But the story continues and Jesus shows how he loves the Pharisees.
For a son to be present and refuse to participate in such a banquet is a public insult to his father.
The younger son publicly insulted his father by taking his inheritance, selling it and leaving. Now the older son also publically insults his father.
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!’
And what is the father’s response?
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.’”
The father would be expected to proceed with the banquet and ignore his son’s insult and deal with him later. But in public, he humiliates himself and goes out to find his second lost son.
For the second time that day he offers a costly demonstration of his love. The first time he did this to a law breaker. Now he does it to a law keeper. Amazing grace applies to both sons.
The Pharisees mutter that Jesus welcomes and eats with sinners. Jesus answers them with this parable. Indeed he does welcome and eat with sinners, even sinners like the Pharisees.
Jesus ends the parable with an invitation to the Pharisees. He also welcomes and invites them to come eat with him. The parable ends with the response of the older son in doubt. What will he do? Will he come into the banquet and celebrate the father who seeks and saves his children? Or will he go away and sulk at the undeserved grace shown to the younger son?
On this Easter Sunday we celebrate the hero of this parable, the good shepherd, the good woman, the good father.
We celebrate the good father who pursues us, whether we are irresponsible children who waste what is given to us or whether we are dutiful, responsible children.
Where are you this Easter morning? Are you far off? Or are you near?
Are you trying to earn your way into God’s good graces?
Are you trying to be a respectable, law abiding person who deserves God’s love?
How have you responded to God’s unrelenting pursuit of you?
This may be the first Sunday you have been in church for awhile or perhaps you never miss a Sunday in church. It doesn’t matter. God is pursuing you.
You may be living a life that you know is not right or you may think that you are a decent, hard-working human being.
In either case, God is pursuing you. He is straining to see you so he can come to bring you home.
Know this Easter morning that you are loved by a God who will never stop loving you, who will never stop pursuing you so he can bring you home.
Come to the Father who picks up his robes and runs to greet you.
Come to the Father who leaves the party to love you.
Come to the Father who sent his son to die on the cross for your benefit.
Come.
