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Luke 15:11-32
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 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. 13 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 in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to1 one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “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! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 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. 21 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.’2 22 But the father said to his servants,3 ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 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.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 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. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
[1] 15:15
[2] 15:21
[3] 15:22
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
The parable of the prodigal sons. The parable of the prodigal sons. It should be sons plural. It's not just a story about 1 son, but 2. And then this parable is really going to serve as an introduction for our next series, is an an explanation or an expounding of the themes that we will find here, over the next 2 weeks in this parable.
Joel Brooks:And so Luke chapter 15, we'll begin reading in verse 11. And Jesus said, there was a man who had 2 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. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country.
Joel Brooks:And there, he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and it began to be a need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the 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?
Joel Brooks: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. And he 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.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks:This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Father, we ask that you would open up our hearts and our minds to receive what you would have for us this morning, to do whatever work you need to do in our inner being. I pray that my words would fall to ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So just like last week, we have another party. Actually in Luke 15, there's a series of parables and they all end with a party. We have the parable of the lost sheep. When the lost sheep is found, there's a party.
Joel Brooks:We have a parable of the lost coin. When the woman finds the lost coin, she throws a party. And now we have the parable of the lost son. And when the son is found, there is a party. It's as if Jesus cannot emphasize to us enough just how much his father wants to throw a party for us.
Joel Brooks:We have a joyful father, one who wants to celebrate with us. Now, if Jesus were to tell this parable today, maybe inside of a parking deck instead of the shores of Galilee, it would go something like this. There was a father who had 2 sons. The younger son could not take living at home any longer. He hated his dad.
Joel Brooks:His dad was conservative, a goody two shoe, close minded. His older brother was even worse. He felt suffocated by them. So when it came time for him to go off to college, he saw it as his opportunity to get the heck out of there. He asked his dad to buy him a new jeep, to send him off to the most expensive private school somewhere up north, where he could live off campus in one of their brand new luxury apartments.
Joel Brooks:He didn't care what it would cost his dad. Actually, he hoped it would cost him a small fortune. He hoped it would hurt. He couldn't wait to get away from his father and from his brother, and go someplace more progressive, someplace more open minded as to what life is really all about. And his dad his his dad was devastated when his son made these requests and he could he could see his son was so full of hate, so full of anger.
Joel Brooks:But in the end, he gave his son everything he wanted. The father went and cashed in some mutual funds, took out a bunch of loans, registered the boy in school, bought him that sweet new Jeep, and his son left without even saying goodbye, let alone thank you. Well, predictably, the son, you know, he goes off to school, he goes to classes maybe for the 1st 2 weeks or so, but then he gives up. The only time he actually goes on campus is just to use the gym. He's partying every other night.
Joel Brooks:He's hugely popular. He would often wake up with a hangover in somebody's lawn. By the end of the year, he had failed out. He got a DUI, totaled his jeep, emptied his bank account, maxed out his credit cards. He tried waiting tables, so he could still keep the apartment, but eventually he lost that too.
Joel Brooks:And so now he is penniless, without a place to stay, without any transportation, and without any friends, because they're all still in school. So he's got no other options. He decides he's gonna hitchhike home, ask if he could work for his father. Now the older brother, we're gonna look at him next week. Let's just say that the older brother stayed near, got a full scholarship to a good state school, stayed home to help run the family business, and is a deacon at church.
Joel Brooks:He probably drove a Camry. The story could be told a 100 different ways, couldn't it? Because it's likely we all know a variation of these 2 brothers. We likely heavily identify with at least one of these brothers. And that's one of the things that makes this story so timeless, is we see this taking place everywhere.
Joel Brooks:The story begins with the younger brother or the younger son. He goes to his father and he asked his father for his inheritance. Now, as the younger son, he would have received a third of his third of all the wealth his dad had. His older brother would receive 2 thirds for an inheritance. But they would only receive this after their father had died.
Joel Brooks:To request that now is a younger brother's way of saying, dad, I wish you were dead already. Could you not just go ahead and die? Because I want your stuff, but I do not want you. This is a son who despises his father. Now, this was a shame honor culture.
Joel Brooks:And and so a father who's who's asked that kind of confrontation with one of his sons, there's really only one way to respond to this insult. He would have been expected to verbally or possibly even physically abuse his son, probably slap him across the face. Tell him how dare you, you ingrate, you rebellious good for nothing, former son of mine, Leave. That's what you would expect. That's how the father could save face.
Joel Brooks:But but instead, the father does something unimaginable. He looks at his son and who has such anger and hate towards him, and he actually grants him his every request. He knows He knows if he just kicks his son out, he's likely never going to see him again. And because he loves his son so much, so much, he doesn't wanna close any door that doesn't absolutely have to be closed. And so maybe if he gives him everything, maybe, just maybe, his son might someday return.
Joel Brooks:And so he gives them everything, but it is absolutely gonna cost this father. We read that he divided his property among his sons. Now, every commentator you read is likely going to point this out that the word, therefore, property is not the usual word that you would find for property. It's an unusual word here. It's it's the word, bios.
Joel Brooks:It's the word life. The father divided his life. He divided his life and he gave it to his son. You you see, in this day, there were not banks. The vast majority of your wealth, it was tied up in your ancestral land.
Joel Brooks:Normally, the son's inheritance would have been to simply get to move in with dad and get part of the land later. But the son does not at all want to live by his father. He doesn't want that land. Dad, cash it in. Give me the wealth.
Joel Brooks:I'm out of here. And the father does. And he allows his life to be ripped apart by the son, all in hopes of a future reconciliation. Now, even today, this would tear a family apart. If one of my children came up to me and said, dad, I want my inheritance now.
Joel Brooks:Do you know how hard that would be? Even now, because I would have to say, you don't have much inheritance. Actually, your inheritance is that you get to take care of me someday. But, but but the inheritance, it's it's tied up in the house, in the land we have. I'd have to sell the house.
Joel Brooks:I'd have to sell the land. We'd have to move some place else. It would divide my life in order to give an inheritance now. But it would have devastated this father, but he allowed his life to be torn apart once again for the hope of future reconciliation. Now this would have astounded the listeners of this parable.
Joel Brooks:It would have astounded them. Because no father is like this. And Jesus said, that's right. No earthly father is like this. But my father is like this.
Joel Brooks:This is what God is like. Did you know that the Romans actually struggled with how to categorize Christians? They didn't know what to think of them. They they didn't think of them as religious. They actually called them atheist.
Joel Brooks:The Romans first called the Christians atheist. Because when they looked at their views of this so called God they worship, and then they look at everything they knew about the gods, they said, well, they're just atheists. Because their belief in their God is nothing like what we believe. That's what Jesus is putting forth here. There is no god like this.
Joel Brooks:Let's look at what the son does here. He he just takes the money and runs. This is him going off to Colorado to find himself. Maybe going off to New York to sew his Wild Oats. Going down to Florida to be a gator.
Joel Brooks:Just throwing his life away. We'll look at this later when we get to Romans. But, this is Romans 1. Romans 1, if you remember what God's judgment is, God's judgment is giving us what we want apart from his presence. You have everything you want, including me not being with you.
Joel Brooks:And it looks like everything you want. But what you find out is it will not turn out well. It's actually God's judgment. The son squanders off his inheritance on reckless living. And then a famine comes.
Joel Brooks:Then he finds himself working on a pig farm. And then we read in verse 17 that he came to himself where he came to his senses. Now, coming to your senses is the beginning of repentance. But coming to your senses is not something that you can manufacture. It's not something that you can do.
Joel Brooks:It is something that is done to you. No one decides when to come to their senses. If any of you've ever been knocked out cold before, I have. When that happened, I did not get to decide, I think I'll be conscious now. You you just eventually come to your senses.
Joel Brooks:Or if somebody comes to you with a smelling salt air and and wakes you up. But it's something that is done to you. And here we see God. It's this is this work of God in waking up this spiritually dead man. He's waking up.
Joel Brooks:He's saying, who do you think sent the famine? Who do you think allowed your life to reach the bottom? Wake up. It's time for you to wake up. Look at yourself.
Joel Brooks:Son, it's time to go home. Go home where you will find an abundance of bread. Now, I want you to notice what this coming to senses looked like. When he came to senses, he he thought this. He had this thought, there is more than enough bread being offered at my father's house.
Joel Brooks:In my father's house, there's an abundance. And then he compared that abundance with what he was currently experiencing. And that is what led him to repent. You see, repentance begins when you come to your senses and you realize that what you are experiencing is nothing compared to what the father is offering. That's the start of repentance.
Joel Brooks:That when you realize what you are experiencing is nothing compared to what your father is offering. And it sobers you up. And we need to land here for just a moment, because this is an important point. Have there ever been times where you've heard a sermon, or you've been reading your Bible, and you come across these unblushing promises of God. You you come across verses like, you know, we read to start the service.
Joel Brooks:Psalm 16:11, in thy presence is fullness of joy. In thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. Or John 10 where Jesus says that he has come to give us life and life abundantly or life to the full. Or as we've looked at in the parables, how the kingdom of God is like a pearl of great price or it's like a treasure that you find in the field. And you read these things, and you think, wow.
Joel Brooks:Look at what it looks like to be a child in the kingdom. It looks like a life that's that's filled with unbridled joy and peace. And so, you realize these things, and then you look at your life, and you see the disconnect. They don't mesh. What God has said he is, Who he has said he is.
Joel Brooks:And what he will give you does not mesh with what you were experiencing in your life. And you begin to wake up. You begin to come to your senses. And in these moments, if you were to be honest with yourself, you would acknowledge that in the midst in the midst of all your Netflix binging, in the midst of all the porn you've been watching, in the midst of your endless shopping, in the midst of your social media addiction, in the midst of your refusal to forgive, and the anger that you have held on to towards somebody, in the midst of all that, you actually feel like you're only half alive. You know that this is not the life that God has promised.
Joel Brooks:And and you begin trying to reconcile the life that you have with the life that's promised. And this is God bringing you to your senses. Now, when this happens, don't blow it. Because remember, you coming to your senses is not something that you can do. It's something that God is doing to you.
Joel Brooks:So God is working in your life. And it's a call not for you to make excuses, not for you to live into denial. It's a call for you to repent. To repent and to come home. Repent.
Joel Brooks:Go back to your father where there is more than enough bread. Most of us, we know kind of the basic facts about Martin Luther, father of the reformation. 15/17, he nails his 95 Theses onto the door of a church in Wittenberg. But most of us don't know what that first thesis was. The very first thesis that Martin Luther nailed up on there was that all of life is about repentance.
Joel Brooks:All of life is about repentance. We usually think it was about indulgences and stuff like that. Well, no. His very first thing is, all of life. All of the Christian life is about repentance.
Joel Brooks:Because as a Christian, we should be quick to repent. Because we know on the other side of repentance, our father throws a party. Joy always follows repentance. Back to the story. As the son is walking home, he's still a long way off.
Joel Brooks:His father sees him, of his son, he immediately runs to him. Now, once again, this would have astonished the people listening to the story because men did not run. The women of that day ran, children of that day ran, patriarchs do not run. But this patriarch lifts up his robes, bears his legs, and he runs as fast as he can to his son the moment he sees him. This is a father who does not care.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't care what people thinks, but he cares about his son. And he runs to him. We have a father who runs to us. And when the father reaches his son, he doesn't even allow his son to to get his words in. He he doesn't allow his son to talk about being a hired hand or anything like that.
Joel Brooks:He just embraces him and he kisses him. In the Greek, there's literally he he collapses on his neck. And he repeatedly kisses him. He is smothering his son with kisses. Now, I don't know about you, but if I had a kid like that and I happened to look out on the front porch and see him walking home in his tattered clothes, shoeless, I would have waited on the front porch.
Joel Brooks:And as he started walking up those steps, I would have said, My my my. Look what the cat just dragged back in. And I would have, of course, assumed that there's only one reason he came back. He needs money. I mean, of course, you would expect that.
Joel Brooks:Wouldn't you see that situation coming back? It's like, oh, he's just coming back to ask for more money. But notice, this father here does not even care why his son came home. He just cares that he came home. He came home.
Joel Brooks:And the father doesn't make him grovel. He just runs, and he kisses him. He's embracing him. He won't let him go. And the only reason he could do that in that moment is because he has been living out that moment in his head ever since his son lost.
Joel Brooks:He hasn't been thinking, oh, when my son returns, I'm gonna say this, this, this. All he's been thinking is this, I just want to hold my son again. I just want to kiss him again. And because he had been thinking that and praying that every day when he finally sees his son, he runs and kisses him. And then when his son repents, well that's when the party gets started.
Joel Brooks:Nothing, absolutely nothing unleashes the joyous, lavish, celebratory love of the father like repentance. He puts the best robe on his son, which would have been his. He immediately puts a ring on his hand, which would have been the the family signet ring. Meaning, you're once again established as my child part of the family. And then he kills the fattened calf, which means the entire village is being invited to this party.
Joel Brooks:That's what our heavenly father does when he sees us repent. Come to our senses, repent, and come home. He sees us in our tattered clothes, and he takes off his robes of righteousness, and he puts them on us. He sees us so full of shame, and he he he kisses us with his mercy and his grace. And then he puts his ring on our finger and he says, you are my child.
Joel Brooks:My child, welcome home. There is a ton that you can actually glean from this story. We have skimmed the surface. But I want to end by making sure you do not miss the main point of this story. It's simply this.
Joel Brooks:We have a father, who is willing to have his life torn in 2. So that he might not lose us. In the midst of our rebellion and hate, he allowed his life to be torn apart. But he did it so that we might repent and eventually come home. Where we would be greeted with open arms and smothered with kisses.
Joel Brooks:And where he would look us in the eye and he would call us his child. So Jesus is asking us the question, Will you come home? Pray with me, church. Jesus, we are thankful for this story you gave us because it teaches us of your love for us, your father's love for us. It shows us that you are longing for us to come home.
Joel Brooks:We'll be welcomed with open arms and the biggest party. For those who have gone off. For those who, in their rebellion, have run away. In this moment through your Holy Spirit, may they come to their senses. May they see that they're only half alive or possibly fully dead.
Joel Brooks:And Lord, may they repent and come home. And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.