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The two lost sons and the prodigal God
Luke 15:11-32
On the eve of a new series on wisdom and making good choices, I want to share with you a proverb that Jesus told. A parable that is perhaps the most famous parable in history. A parable that for centuries has been called the prodigal son. It is truly a story of beauty but I think perhaps there has been much confusion in its understanding.
This morning, a very small percentage of this sermon will be mine. I am borrowing more than heavily from Tim Keller’s series on this. His sermons are all online and his book is a pleasant read.
I don’t steal from Keller with any desire to save time or to ignore my duties of exegesis. I steal from him having done the research, having arrived at conclusions, and having been changed by both this passage and Keller’s heart. I do this also because I want you to know of Tim Keller. I want you to get his books and listen to his sermons and let him be a part of your life.
The word prodigal is an adjective meaning “Recklessly extravagant,” or “Having spent everything”
Its about a son who takes his fathers money and recklessly wastes it. Spends all of it.
The story of the prodigal son starts in Luke 15:11 but lets back up to the beginning to hear the context. Verse 1
Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable:
Skipping the first two parables we come to verse 11
"There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. 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. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything."
"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! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 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. The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 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. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate."
"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 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. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'"
"'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 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.'"
This is a beautiful story about a son who throws everything away and is received back. But it’s a story about two sons. Not just one.
This story goes against the way storytelling normally takes place. Most stories have three parts—the background and set up, the conflict, and the resolution. But Jesus’s story messes all that up. He doesn’t follow the rules
Why?
Act 1
The clues are at the beginning of the first act.
What does the son want?
The son comes to his father and gives his speech. “Father, I want my share of the estate.”
Now we are so accustomed to hearing this story that perhaps it has lost its shock value. The original listeners would have been astonished.
What is the son really saying?
When a father dies, he divides his estate between his sons. If there were two sons then the oldest would get 2/3rds and the younger 1/3rd, the oldest always gets twice what everyone else gets. But this only happens when a father dies!
Do you hear what this son is asking? He is wishing his father dead. This son wants the father’s things, but not the father. This is appalling.
But the response is even more amazing. If this ever happened in real life, the father would have the right to drive his son away with verbal and perhaps even violent blows.
But…he does as he asks. It says he divided his property with him. That word property is the word bios, it means life. He divided his life and gave him his portion.
His very life. this isn’t an unfair emphasis. This mans wealth and reputation and very being is tied up in his property. The land that he had is what fed him and what gave him status in the community. And the only way to give it to his son is to sell a piece of it—his status would immediately go down as would his way of living.
His very identity is being changed. His son is asking for his father to tear his life apart, to tear his standing in the community apart, to tear himself apart
What is the Father’s response?
And he does, Leaving him with 2/3rds of the estate.
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. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything."
"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! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father."
What happens to the son?
So the son takes his share and goes off. He squanders everything he has been given.
His life is in ruins and in the mud, in the pigsty he realizes his foolishness and so he decides to go home.
How will he make things right?
There is bread to spare in his house so he will confess and go home
Home
Home is not a place, it’s where you belong, it’s where you are accepted. He longs to go home. But there is a second part of this plan. He wont just go home confessing, he will go to his father and ask to be a hired hand. This isn’t a man who lives on the property and works for the patriarch. This is a man who lives in town and gets hired on a day to day basis.
He is here to make restitution. He will not just apologize, he will pay his father back. Not even as a son to a father, as a hired helper. He will earn his way in
So he heads home.
And the part we all love. This father sees him coming from a far off.
What would your reaction be to this prodigal son?
Picture this scene in your own life. This son has done all that, squandered your hard earned wealth, embarrassed you, wished you dead. And you see him coming down the road. There is probably a mix of emotions. He is your son, but he seems to have given up that right. He is no longer an heir, he blew the inheritance. You might be tapping your foot sitting in that chair debating with yourself. Maybe, just maybe I will let him back in, if he grovels sufficiently. But there will be groveling, there will be justice, there will be restitution.
What is this father’s reaction?
But this father hikes up his robes and runs towards him.
Why is this reaction so amazing?
This just isn’t done. Fathers don’t run. Kids run, thieves might run, but men of renown don’t run. And he ran
Total emotional abandonment and fell on his neck kissing him.
What does the son get?
The son tries to roll out his restitution plan. But the father will have nothing to do with it.
He throws a robe on him and gives him a signet ring.
The signet ring has the family seal on it. It is how contracts are made. It means you are part of the family.
The son doesn’t want this. He wants to earn his way back, but that dad ignores him. He cant earn his way back into the family. Sonship comes by sheer grace.
And a feast is thrown
Some people are like the younger brother. They want what God gives, but they don’t want God.
They want independence living their lives the way they want to and they think they will find satisfaction in this.
And one day they come home.
And since the Father is God in the story we are told that
When you come home that God will accept you and love you by his sheer grace.
He confers sonship on us. It’s a status that is secure. We are accepted
Act 2
That family is back together, all is well.
Not exactly
There is one more character in the story.
He has not yet learned that the lost son is found
Usually we get stuck in the emotionalism of act 1—the younger son, the fathers acceptance.
We think sentimentally, we hear the forgiveness and their eyes welling up with tears.
But look at the context. The original listeners were not wiping tears away. They were offended. Thunderstruck. It wasn’t about sentimentality of God accepting us no matter what we do.
Jesus is saying that everything you thought and everything you heard about how to approach God is wrong.
That’s how Act 2 begins
A new conflict arises as the father throws the feast.
"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 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. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'"
"'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 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 older brother was in the field and when he came near the house he heard music and dancing. He asks a servant about it. The servant explains that his brother has returned and his father has thrown a party.
Why wont the elder son go in?
The elder brother is furious and refuses to go in and join the feast.
It was his turn now to insult the integrity of the family.
I will not be a part of the family. I am the heir and I won’t come where this other son is. He is not a son.
What’s amazing about the father coming out?
So the father comes out to him
Notice the son doesn’t call him father. Verse 29 he just says Look!
Look, you do all this for him—“this son of yours” (he doesn’t acknowledge that they are in the family).
What is the elder sons main concern?
And look at his concern—the cost. The fattened calf is a huge deal. You don’t kill a fattened calf every day. The whole village was likely there. This is huge.
And this elder son wont come to the feast.
Do you understand this? You don’t need a PhD in psychology if you are this brother to notice that this is the greatest day in the fathers life. Anyone can see that.
The brother doesn’t care. All he sees is that his father is using his inheritance in a way that he doesn’t approve of.
This son too cares about the father’s things and not the father. Couldn’t it have been a goat, not a fattened calf?
The father pleads with him saying “you are always with me and everything is yours.” This is the literal truth. Everything goes to the son. There is nothing else. What the father has is the sons. Every bit of it.
And all this elder brother can see is his share diminishing as a result of his brother’s return.
He is furious
How does the father respond to the elder son?
The poor father has to come out of the great feast to have a debate with his son. I would have been furious with him. But Again he responds tenderly. He still wants him in the feast.
No Act 3
And just as we are on the edge of our seats getting ready for the answer . . . Will they be reunited, will all come together…? What will act 3 bring us? It ends