According to Jewish Law, the elder son received a double-portion or twice the allotment of other children.

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1 Introduction Certain stories are timeless. We seldom lose sheep, but we have lost our dog or cat and stapled wanted posters on telephone poles. Few things are more agonizing for parents than when a child wanders away or an adult child wanders away spiritually or morally. Perhaps only a praying parent can truly enter into the heart of this parable. The story has three principals; a selfish son, a self-righteous son, and a self-less Father. A well used and often repeated outline of this parable goes something like this; (1) Sick of Home (2) Sick (3) Homesick (4) Home. We often call this story the parable of the prodigal son. Yet in a real sense there are three prodigals; the younger son, the father and the older son. The word translated (v.13) prodigal means extravagant ; it usually refers to outrageous conduct, in the sense of wasteful, or excessive. The original sense is incurable. The parable could just as easily be called the parable of the Sour Senior Son or the parable of the Forgiving Father, since the father s love is far more extravagant than the sinfulness of either son. In the first parable the sheep wanders away, not so much in rebellion, but rather sheer foolishness. The coin is lost because of carelessness, but this son s departure is rooted in willfulness. What does God do with willful rebellion? How does God deal with the stubborn sinner? The father will wait for the son until the son is broken and submissive. A Prodigal Younger Son (vv.11-24) Luke 15:11 (NKJV); Then He said: A certain man had two sons. 12 ; And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood. According to Jewish Law, the elder son received a double-portion or twice the allotment of other children. Deuteronomy 21:17 (NKJV);17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his. To ask one s father for one s share of the inheritance early was unheard of in antiquity; in effect, one would thereby say, Father, I wish you were already dead. Such a statement would not go over well even today, and in a society stressing obedience to one s father it would be a serious act of rebellion ( Deut 21:18 21 ) for which the father could have beaten him or worse. That the father grants the request means that most of the hearers will not identify with the father in this parable; from the start, they would think of him as stupidly lax to pamper such an immoral son. 1 1 Keener, C. S., & InterVarsity Press. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary : New Testament (Lk 15:11). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press. 1

2 Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (NKJV); If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them,19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city.20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. 21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. It was not illegal for the younger son to ask for his inheritance, but it was insulting and unloving. The younger son was ready to be on his own. Thomas Huxley wrote; A man s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do just as he likes. I suspect it broke the father s heart to grant his son s request. Just like God. He will grant your request; I want to live without you God. We are always heading for trouble whenever we value things more than people, pleasure more than duty, and distant scenes more than the blessings we have right at home (Wiersbe; pp ). Luke 15:13 (NKJV); And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. God shares his wealth with a world lost in sin, God s treasure, Christ s sacrifice. Jesus once warned two brothers, embroiled in a bitter battle over the distribution of their father s assets, Take heed and beware of covetousness! (Luke 12:15). Jesus knew the covetous person is rarely satisfied, they want more. The discontented heart always leads to the disappointed life. The prodigal was about to learn an important lesson; you cannot enjoy the things money can buy if you ignore the things money cannot buy. Are you a parent with children? We fear when they waste money, but even more, when they threaten to waste their lives. The boy journey s to a far country, where the rules and regulations are different. Our children do not need to journey to a far country because rebellion and disobedience has more to do with the heart than a physical or geographical location. Our children may go to college or somewhere else to escape the prying eyes of parents. The boy wanted to have his own way, so he rebelled against his father, and his father s heart. Luke 15:14-15 (NKJV); But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Life on his own did not turn out like the young man expected. A severe famine hit the country; we might say a serious down turn in the economy took place. His resources ran out, his friends left him, and he was willing to do for a stranger what he was unwilling to do for his own father get a job! This portion of the parable emphasizes the degradation of sin and what truly happens when we reject our heavenly father s will for our lives. We say we want freedom. But freedom from God leads to slavery to sin. Sin promises freedom, but leads to slavery. 2

3 John 8:34 (NKJV); Jesus answered them, Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. Sin makes outrageous promises; pursue the immoral relationship, pursue the not so God honoring job, the glamour, the approval, the attention, be all that you can be! Success leads to failure, sin promises life and life more abundantly, but in reality it brings death, because the wages of sin is death (Rom.6:23). The boy thought he would find himself but he lost himself! When God is left out of our lives, enjoyment becomes enslavement (Wiersbe p.245). At this point the religious leaders the Scribes and Pharisees are ready for the story to end. The Jewish boy is slopping pigs. The son deserves to die but to the religious leaders he is experiencing the next best thing, the son is cut off from the Jewish community, totally unclean, and any offer of benevolence or charity. Sometimes we find ourselves in a position to help people continue in rebellion and sin. What God desired and required was for the boy to come to a place of absolute impoverishment, no resources, to come to the place where he had one choice, and one choice only to return to his father. God s goal was for the son to repent and return to the father. Luke 15:16 (NKJV); And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. Some Bible teachers have suggested these pods are a kind of carob pod that Israel ate only in times of famine. Others have suggested that these are wild pods, that only a pigs snout can reach either way the point is clear the boy is willing to eat food that would have disgusted the hearers of the story this is fear factor dining you are in bad shape when you covet what a pig is willing to eat. He was obviously not being paid fair wages by any stretch of the imagination. and no one gave him anything. Luke 15:17-19 (NKJV); But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. Look carefully at the expression; But when he came to himself. The idea is the son was temporarily insane, sin does that, it makes you irrational, that he came to himself suggests that he wasn t quite himself. There is an insanity to sin that clouds our judgment, and blurs our vision and makes it difficult to see God in our circumstances. The young man changed his mind about his circumstances, about himself, and about his father. He admitted his sin, and the generosity of his father. He confessed that service at home was better than freedom in a far country. It is God s goodness and not just our badness that leads to repentance. 3

4 Romans 2:4 (NKJV); Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? We must pause for a moment. If the boy had only thought about himself, his hunger, his humiliation, his homesickness, his loneliness, he may have despaired. His circumstances caused him to look at his father in a new way, and that turned hopelessness to hope! The boy thought, if my father is willing to be generous with the hired help, I wonder if he would be willing to forgive his own son? Like so many of us the son may have stopped at regret or remorse never making the full journey to repentance. What does it mean to repent? It means to change your mind which results in a change of direction. Slopping pigs is no job for a nice Jewish boy. It really is not good enough to say, I will arise, I will say, I will go you must go. Our resolutions may be noble, or biblical, but you must go If repentance is truly the work of God (Acts 11:18) then the sinner will obey God and put saving faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21)(see Wiersbe TBEC Vol.1; 235). It was not the badness of his life that brought the boy to his senses but the goodness of his father (Warren Wiersbe; Wiersbe s Expository Outlines of the New Testament p.184). A Prodigal Father (vv.20-24) Luke 15:20-24 (NKJV) And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Jesus answers the accusations and attitudes of the religious leaders from verse 2. G. Campbell Morgan writes; When a son is lost, who suffers most, the son who is lost, or the Father who has lost him? Fathers and mothers can answer that question! We should be far more earnest in our missionary work if we could get into the suffering heart of God. We cannot over-emphasize the suffering of humanity. But humanity is suffering because it is away from God, and He is suffering more than humanity does, while humanity is away from Him (The Gospel According to Luke; Revell 1931, p.183). We are given an amazing peek into the Father heart of God. In our Lord s story, the boy arose and went back to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him that is amazing and beautiful the thought carries with it the idea the old man searched the horizon, looking, longing for his son. In the story the Father longed for his son, and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 4

5 The story is soaked in emotion. An older Jewish gentleman would rarely run it would be beneath his dignity. The old man would have had to hike up his robe. Kissing was the appropriate way to express affection between family and friends. One of the great descriptions of the love of God is found in A.W. Tozer s book Knowledge of the Holy;...because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea (see R. Kent Hugh s Commentary Luke; Vol.2 p.139 who cites Knowledge of the Holy). How is the father prodigal? He is extravagant in his love, and mercy and compassion. The description Jesus gives of a Father, waiting, longing seeing, filled with compassion, looking for a reason to make things right. The son begins his well rehearsed speech. Before he is able to finish his speech, the father orders the servants (v.22) Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. (v.23) And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; (v.24) for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. The best robe in the place would have belonged to the Father, worn on special occasions, an ancient version of his best Tuxedo. The ring would have been a family ring, perhaps a signet ring, a symbol of reinstatement as a son in a well to do household. Slaves go barefoot. Not children not the offspring of the master. The father s love and the father s actions are saying no to the son no I won t accept you back as a servant I will accept you for what you really are and have always been my son. The calf would have enough food not only to feed the household but the whole village. When the father says, let s have a party, he means a big party. God is rich in love, mercy and grace. All this is possible because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. God s love is enormous but we are not saved by God s love we are saved by God s grace and grace is love that pays a price (see Wiersbe p. 235). A Prodigal Older Brother (vv.25-32) Luke 15:25-28 (NKJV); Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. 28 But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. Verse 28 says, But he was angry and would not go in. This was a grievous insult to his father s dignity and would have warranted a beating. But the father came out and pleaded with him. 5

6 Luke 15:29-30 (NKJV); So he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him. We live in a world of informality. It is not uncommon for some children to call their father or their mother by their first name. It was not so in the Jewish culture of the first century. Failing to greet one s father with his given title Father or sir was a grievous insult to the father s dignity. The elder brother is a transparent metaphor for the religious leaders, for the Pharisees at the dinner (see Craig Keener s comments IVP Commentary for verse 29-30). Who is the younger brother? He is the sinners eating with Jesus. Conclusion Luke 15:31-32 (NKJV); And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found. The older brother felt justified in his anger and insult. How could the father be so generous? Since squandering property was such a horrible, grievous sin, how could the father simply ignore the younger son s sins? The inheritance had been appropriately divided. In Jewish culture the older son would have received a double portion in other words two thirds of the father s assets would have gone to the older son, and one third to the younger son. The older son had nothing to lose by his brother s return. The lesson of the prodigal son is that when one abandons the Father's house to venture into the far country, he ends up with an empty purse, an empty stomach, and a starving soul. In our story we do not learn the response of the older brother. The text doesn t say, and the older brother said, you re right Dad. You have every right to love your children. Your love for me and your generosity towards me is intact. I have lost nothing. I stand to gain everything. I am so sorry I failed to love and appreciate and care about the things you love, and appreciate. You are right. My brother was dead. Now he is alive. Father I am sorry I have failed to love what you love and care about what you care about. Oddly enough the unfinished story becomes the never ending story of the gospel, the religious leaders, the Pharisees are given one more opportunity to repent if they are only willing to turn from their bitterness, their anger, their resentment, their religiosity, and turn to the God of their Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. 6