Luke 15:11-32: The lost son’s father ran out to meet him and hugged him and kissed him, thrilled to have him back home.
That’s how the heavenly Father will welcome you when you repent for the first time or for the second, third or fourth time–70 x 7 times!
Before we begin the exegesis …..
Quick definition of a parable:
Literally, the word parable (parabolē in Greek) combines para– (pronounced pah-rah) and means “alongside” and bolē (pronounced boh-lay) which means “put” or even “throw”). Therefore, a parable puts two or more images or ideas alongside each other to produce a new truth. […] The Shorter Lexicon says that the Greek word parabolē can sometimes be translated as “symbol,” “type,” “figure,” and “illustration,” the latter term being virtually synonymous with parable.
For more information on what a parable is and its purposes, click on this link:
The translation is mine. If you would like to see other translations, click here:
If you don’t read Greek, ignore the left column.
I often quote scholars in print because I learn many things from them. They form a community of teachers I respect (1 Cor. 12:28), though I don’t agree with everything they write. But they do ensure I do not go astray. There is safety in numbers (for me at least).
Now let’s begin.
|
Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32) |
|
| 11 Εἶπεν δέ· ἄνθρωπός τις εἶχεν δύο υἱούς. 12 καὶ εἶπεν ὁ νεώτερος αὐτῶν τῷ πατρί· πάτερ, δός μοι τὸ ἐπιβάλλον μέρος τῆς οὐσίας. ὁ δὲ διεῖλεν αὐτοῖς τὸν βίον. 13 καὶ μετ’ οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας συναγαγὼν πάντα ὁ νεώτερος υἱὸς ἀπεδήμησεν εἰς χώραν μακρὰν καὶ ἐκεῖ διεσκόρπισεν τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῦ ζῶν ἀσώτως. 14 δαπανήσαντος δὲ αὐτοῦ πάντα ἐγένετο λιμὸς ἰσχυρὰ κατὰ τὴν χώραν ἐκείνην, καὶ αὐτὸς ἤρξατο ὑστερεῖσθαι. 15 καὶ πορευθεὶς ἐκολλήθη ἑνὶ τῶν πολιτῶν τῆς χώρας ἐκείνης, καὶ ἔπεμψεν αὐτὸν εἰς τοὺς ἀγροὺς αὐτοῦ βόσκειν χοίρους, 16 καὶ ἐπεθύμει χορτασθῆναι ἐκ τῶν κερατίων ὧν ἤσθιον οἱ χοῖροι, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐδίδου αὐτῷ.
17 εἰς ἑαυτὸν δὲ ἐλθὼν ἔφη· πόσοι μίσθιοι τοῦ πατρός μου περισσεύονται ἄρτων, ἐγὼ δὲ λιμῷ ὧδε ἀπόλλυμαι. 18 ἀναστὰς πορεύσομαι πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ ἐρῶ αὐτῷ· πάτερ, ἥμαρτον εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ ἐνώπιόν σου, 19 οὐκέτι εἰμὶ ἄξιος κληθῆναι υἱός σου· ποίησόν με ὡς ἕνα τῶν μισθίων σου. 20 καὶ ἀναστὰς ἦλθεν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα ἑαυτοῦ. Ἔτι δὲ αὐτοῦ μακρὰν ἀπέχοντος εἶδεν αὐτὸν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐσπλαγχνίσθη καὶ δραμὼν ἐπέπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ καὶ κατεφίλησεν αὐτόν. 21 εἶπεν δὲ ὁ υἱὸς αὐτῷ· πάτερ, ἥμαρτον εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ ἐνώπιόν σου, οὐκέτι εἰμὶ ἄξιος κληθῆναι υἱός σου. 22 εἶπεν δὲ ὁ πατὴρ πρὸς τοὺς δούλους αὐτοῦ· ταχὺ ἐξενέγκατε στολὴν τὴν πρώτην καὶ ἐνδύσατε αὐτόν, καὶ δότε δακτύλιον εἰς τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑποδήματα εἰς τοὺς πόδας, 23 καὶ φέρετε τὸν μόσχον τὸν σιτευτόν, θύσατε, καὶ φαγόντες εὐφρανθῶμεν, 24 ὅτι οὗτος ὁ υἱός μου νεκρὸς ἦν καὶ ἀνέζησεν, ἦν ἀπολωλὼς καὶ εὑρέθη. καὶ ἤρξαντο εὐφραίνεσθαι. 25 Ἦν δὲ ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ὁ πρεσβύτερος ἐν ἀγρῷ· καὶ ὡς ἐρχόμενος ἤγγισεν τῇ οἰκίᾳ, ἤκουσεν συμφωνίας καὶ χορῶν, 26 καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος ἕνα τῶν παίδων ἐπυνθάνετο τί ἂν εἴη ταῦτα. 27 ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὅτι ὁ ἀδελφός σου ἥκει, καὶ ἔθυσεν ὁ πατήρ σου τὸν μόσχον τὸν σιτευτόν, ὅτι ὑγιαίνοντα αὐτὸν ἀπέλαβεν. 28 ὠργίσθη δὲ καὶ οὐκ ἤθελεν εἰσελθεῖν, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ ἐξελθὼν παρεκάλει αὐτόν. 29 ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ· ἰδοὺ τοσαῦτα ἔτη δουλεύω σοι καὶ οὐδέποτε ἐντολήν σου παρῆλθον, καὶ ἐμοὶ οὐδέποτε ἔδωκας ἔριφον ἵνα μετὰ τῶν φίλων μου εὐφρανθῶ· 30 ὅτε δὲ ὁ υἱός σου οὗτος ὁ καταφαγών σου τὸν βίον μετὰ πορνῶν ἦλθεν, ἔθυσας αὐτῷ τὸν σιτευτὸν μόσχον. 31 ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· τέκνον, σὺ πάντοτε μετ’ ἐμοῦ εἶ, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐμὰ σά ἐστιν· 32 εὐφρανθῆναι δὲ καὶ χαρῆναι ἔδει, ὅτι ὁ ἀδελφός σου οὗτος νεκρὸς ἦν καὶ ἔζησεν, καὶ ἀπολωλὼς καὶ εὑρέθη. |
11 Then he said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that comes to me.’ And he divided for them his property. 13 After not many days the younger son gathered up everything and struck out on a journey into a faraway country, and there he squandered his property, by living recklessly. 14 And while he was spending everything, a powerful famine occurred in that country, and he began to be in lack. 15 He went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. 16 And he even longed to be fed from the carob pods that the pigs were eating. But no one was giving him anything.
17 But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have an abundance of food, but I perish here in this famine! 18 I will get up, go to my father, and tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired workers.’” 20 So, he got up and went to his own father. And while he was coming from a long distance away, his father saw him and felt compassion. He ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21 But his son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly! Bring the best robe and put it on him! Give him a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! 23 Bring out the fatted calf and slaughter it! Let’s eat and celebrate, 24 because this son of mine was dead and lives again; he was lost and has been found!’ And they began to celebrate. 25 His older son was in the field, and as he was coming in and nearing the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And when he summoned one of the servants, he began asking what these things possibly could be. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has returned safe and sound!’ 28 But he got angry and was unwilling to go in. And his father went out and invited him in. 29 But in reply he said to his father, ‘Consider how many years I have served you and never broke your commandment, and you never gave me even a kid goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends! 30 But when this son of yours has come, who had devoured all your property with prostitutes; you slaughter the fatted calf for him!’ 31 But he said to him, ‘Child, you are always with me, and everything of mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead, and he lives; he had been lost and was found!’” |
I approach this most beloved parable with fear and trembling. In fact, I got a little moved once or twice while I translated it. Preachers have rightly gotten much use out of it. They have focused on the lost son, which speaks to a wayward sinner outside of Christ and his kingdom, and that interpretation is fine. But one commentator labels this parable, Parable of the Forgiving Father (Bock). Exactly right. It is more about the father than the son, but since in Luke 15 the previous two parables were about being lost, I stayed with the United Bible Society’s Greek New Testament’s suggestion: Parable of the Lost Son. The traditional title is Parable of the Prodigal Son. “Prodigal” means wasteful or spending money prodigally or drunken behavior or loose and reckless living. See v. 13 for more comments.
Marshall quotes another scholar (Danker) who offers an ancient, real-life papyrus letter from a son to his mother:
‘Greetings: I hope you are in good health; it is my constant prayer to Lord Serapis. I did not expect you to come to Metropolis, therefore I did not go there myself. At the same time, I was ashamed to go to Kanaris because I am so shabby. I am writing to tell you that I am naked. I plead with you, forgive me. I know well enough what I have done to myself. I have learned my lesson. I know I made a mistake. I have heard from Postumus who met you in the area of Arisnoe. Unfortunately he told you everything. Don’t you know that I would rather be a cripple than owe so much as a cent to any man? I plead, I plead with you … (Signed) Antonios Longus, your son.’
The letter was not written in a Christian context, but it shows common humanity, when people mess up. In this case Antonius Longus messed up and begged for forgiveness. We don’t know the outcome, but we know how the Father in Jesus’ parable responds.
The parable is divided into four movements:
(1).. The younger son’s decision to strike out on his own;
(2).. His spending wastefully and consequently suffering under a famine;
(3).. His coming to himself or his senses and returning home;
(4).. His older brother’s response.
Each of those major movements could be subdivided, but I’ll let the reader decide how to do this.
Recall at in 15:2, the Pharisees and teachers of the law grumbled about welcoming sinners. This parable can be applied to family relationships, salvation, redemption after major mistakes, overcoming resentments, and a loving, generous and wise father. A good story has multiple layers. And Jesus may intend to rebuke the Pharisees and teachers of the law in the older son.
With this introduction concluded, let’s understand the parable verse by verse.
11-12:
Academic commentators calculate the younger son’s age to be about seventeen. He went out ahead of the natural order of things. It was, in fact, a violation of family rules. An insult. The father writes up a will, and only on his death does the property pass to his two sons. The younger son usually did not get as much, but sometimes in Israelite culture the entire estate remained within the clan, so the younger son could inherit, if the estate was large enough. And it seems this father’s estate was large and prosperous, judging from the servants and hired workers. In any case, his father saw the inevitable and realized his son had free will. He divided up the estate.
The younger son’s knowledge of his father was shallow. He should have remained at home and come to know him. But he knew better and left. How many times do believers abandon their shallow faith and walk away from deepening their knowledge of God?
13:
Then the younger son looked around at all the hustle and bustle on his father’s estate and said, “No thanks! I’m leaving. I can do better than this. All these rules are stifling me. I gotta be me!” So he gathered up all his belongings, including his money, and took off, without even an appreciative goodbye or a friendly word to his father. He just left. He did not know his father deeply enough. Gratitude before God is a signal that a person has a deeper relationship with him and understands how God sustains him. He knows his own heart and his Father’s heart.
Then he went full-scale lunatic with his foolish and deficient personal life, his wild lifestyle. He spent money like there was no tomorrow.
Two background passages:
Whoever loves pleasure will become poor;
whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich. (Prov. 21:17)
21 For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
and he examines all your paths.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;
the cords of their sins hold them fast.
23 For lack of discipline they will die,
led astray by their own great folly. (Prov. 5:21-23)
The verb for “squandered” is diaskorpizō (pronounced dee-ah-skohr-pea-zoh), and it means “scatter, disperse … waste, squander.” It is used in the next chapter in the Parable of the Prudent Manager, when the manager was accused of wasting his owner’s property (16:1).
“recklessly”: It is easy to picture the youth visiting crowded taverns every night with women sitting on his lap, as he hoists a cup of strong drink or wine and laughs and yells with his friends. “Drinks on me!”
14:
Then an unforeseen natural disaster struck the faraway country—a famine. The youth began to go without or to be in lack. Be sure that unforeseen circumstances of the world system set up by people or the natural world left to secondary causes will arise and hit home. Are you prepared? It is best to come to know God deeply so that when disaster does strike, you won’t be shaken too much. Your faith will resist the temptation to become bitter. God did not cause the famine, but he can use it to wake up the young man. It was the first step in the man’s coming to his senses.
Does God Cause Natural Disasters to Punish People Today?
15:
So now another set of circumstances teaches the younger son. He joins a citizen of the faraway country, who was apparently prosperous enough to give him a job. The prosperous citizen must have looked him up and down and saw his delicate hands, unused to real work, and scoffed at him. He may have heard his accent and concluded that a foreigner doesn’t deserve real work. So he sent him out into the fields to feed the hogs. He didn’t deserve to live near the center of prosperity in the rich citizen’s household. He became a swineherd. Jesus was speaking to Jewish culture, so instantly his listeners would have understood that the youth sunk down to the lowest of the low. Pigs are unclean animals.
“Wallowing in sin, he now wallows with hogs” (Garland, comment on vv. 14-15).
He joins up with hogs and Gentiles, and both were considered unclean to extra-devout Jews (Garland, ibid.).
Stein says this is the Jewish equivalent of “skid row” (comment on v. 15),
What will happen next?
16:
The youth had fallen so far that he lusted after the “carob pods” that grew on trees in the greater Middle East and were indeed used to fatten pigs (please google it). One commentator says it was idiomatic for “hungered,” but he offers no source. I like lusting or strongly desiring. So he was craving to be fed with what the pigs were feeding on.
“to be fed”: this indicates even more devastation and helplessness. It is another circumstance that makes the young man come to his senses. No one gave him any. “Any” has been added, because the Greek is silent. What is the “any”? It is the carob pods. Apparently the other hired workers were treating him like dirt. It is easy to imagine his supervisor saying, “Stay away from our food!” “Can I have what the pigs are eating?” “No! Now get back to work!” Circumstances are a cruel teacher. Will he come to his senses? What will it take?
17:
Here it is! Enough is enough! He finally comes to himself or comes to his senses. The Greek literally says, “coming to himself, he said […], ” Apparently his training or childhood upbringing kicked in. Prov. 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6, ESV). Some academics and severe and austere teachers tell us that this verse is a general statement tucked inside the genre of wisdom literature (Proverbs). It is not a hard-and-fast, guaranteed rule. That may be true, but when parents hold on to this verse and pray it out loud, I believe God is pleased with their faith. He will arrange circumstances to bring the wayward child to his senses. God will work overtime to bring the child to his senses. I for one would never go on national TV or radio and tell parents not to “claim” this verse as a foundation to pray. Pray, parents, pray! Use this verse, and never give up on praying for them until the day you die. My mother prayed from her oldest son until the day she passed, and finally, a few years before he died, he too got his heart right with God. No doubt the two had a relieved and happy reunion Up There.
The young guy talked to himself. It is a good idea to exhort or strongly urge yourself. King David and other psalmists talked to their own souls (Pss. 42:5, 11; 43:5; 57:8; 62:5; 103:1-2, 22; 104:1, 45; 116:7; 146:1). This youth finally spoke the truth out loud. His confession was accurate, at long last. The circumstances, which he acknowledges in this verse, were like a series of glasses of cold water thrown in his face.
“came to himself”: Liefeld and Pao: It “was a common idiom, which in this Jewish story may carry the Semitic idea of repentance … Certainly repentance lies at the heart of the words the son prepared to tell his father … The subsequent physical act of returning to his father affirms … the existence of a repentant heart in the younger son. … Jesus is redefining the traditional understanding of repentance here; repentance is no longer understood simply as a mental act—it is to be accompanied by an observable act” (Comment on vv. 9-10 and p. 256).
The son further drew the right conclusion: his father’s hired workers have an abundance of food (literally “bread”) to eat.
“abundance”: Clearly the father of the estate was an effective farmer-business man who started up all sorts of agricultural endeavors requiring servants and hired workers, so he prospered. God can cause this second definition to become real in our lives.
18:
So apparently the son was languishing on the earthen floor, or he was seated, possibly on a small boulder or rocky ledge, watching the pigs eat their food. (or some say it was an idiom meaning, “I will immediately go,, so “get up” is seen in the modifier “immediately”.) But I like to keep things a little more literal. He had had enough of longing for what they ate. “Getting up” in Greek has a hint of a resurrection of sorts. He was about to live again (see v. 24). But let’s not over-interpret things—just the tiniest hint.
“I have sinned”: To repent effectively, he must realize that he is a sinner. His repentance will be revealed in his getting up and going back to his father’s estate.
19:
This verse expresses deep humility, and God loves it. This is true repentance. The young man is at the end of the rope, and just before he loses his grip and slides off into the abyss, he realizes he needs to ask for forgiveness. I get the impression that many teachers in the Renewal Movement would advocate that the young man strut right up to the father and point a finger in his father’s face and say, “I am your son! Reinstate me, now!” But Jesus’s story version is better. It is best to humble yourself under God’s mighty hand and let him lift you up (1 Pet. 5:6). He himself will call you his son, the moment you kneel, humble yourself, and repent.
Repentance is defined in Luke-Acts “as abandoning one’s former ways of thinking and living and ‘adopting new ways of thinking and living consistent with the lifestyle prescribed in the teachings of Jesus.’ The son’s confession demonstrates how he now recognizes the errors of his ways and must now change. His actions show appropriate changes in behavior and thinking (more important than any emotional feelings or remorse), and his joyous reception by his father shows how repentant sinners should be received (as in 5:27-39)” (Garland, comment on 15:18-19).
Would the father accept him, welcome him back? Would his father be furious? Would his father scold him? Lecture him?
20:
So the boy got up and returned home, just as he exhorted himself to do.
And here is the most moving verse in the whole parable. His father saw him from a long way off. He recognized the familiar gait of his younger son. But his usual gait looked a little worn down. Tired. No one else is said to have seen him. Only the father did. However, if the boy walked past a hired worker harvesting the grain with a sickle, the worker may have stared at him, but did not come running. He may have just said to himself, “What’s he doing here? His father’s going to kick him out!” And then he went back to his sickle work. As a hireling, he did not know who his boss was. Come to think of it, neither did the younger son. He is about to learn who his father was.
“felt compassion”: The verb is used 12 times, exclusively in the Gospels. “It describes the compassion Jesus had for those he saw in difficulty” (Mounce, New Expository Dictionary, p. 128). BDAG is the authoritative Greek lexicon, and it defines the verb simply: “have pity, feel sympathy.”
Do I Really Know God? He Is Compassionate and Merciful
Here the father, who represents God the Father, feels compassion for his son. A wonderful image. Hold on to it in your life.
It moved me to think of the older guy running to meet his son. Now we get a clear picture of who God is, when a sinner returns home. God loves him.
“fell on”: that is what the Greek verb literally says (KJV, NKJV), but some translations modernize it and say “embraced him” (NASB, NLT, MSG, ESV); “threw his arms around him” (NIV); “hugged”: (NCV, CEV, NET). I like “threw his arms around him.”
“kissed”: it has the added prefix to indicate intensity. I also like to picture the father shedding a tear of gratitude, while the son dropped his traveling bag (if he still had it and didn’t sell it off to survive) and hesitated to embrace his father because the son felt so unworthy.
It is a very, very moving scene. Repeat: the scene reveals Father God’s heart to all of humanity when it returns to him. God loves Gentiles. God loves the whole world (John 3:16).
21:
Then the son spoke out what he had been rehearsing a million times on his long journey back. He is no longer worthy or deserving to be called the father’s son, but he omits the part about accepting him as a hired worker! Once again, humility is better than presumptuous demands. After the display of his father’s love, the words must have seemed a little empty, but the boy needed to say them out loud. It is best to repent and pray out loud. But it must have been a good feeling in the boy to realize that the outcome was revealed: forgiveness and love from his father.
22-23:
The father issues a series of orders to his servants (or slaves): Bring out literally the “first” or “primary” robe, which is translated as “best”; put a ring on his hand (literally), which should be read nonliterally as “on his finger,” and that’s how translations have it. “The ring may contain a seal and thus represents the son’s membership in the family … but it stops short of being a transfer of authority” (Bock, p. 1315). In other words, his repentance does not soon elevate him to leadership. He has to grow into it. Bock also reminds of us of how the Pharaoh put a ring, fine clothes and a gold chain on Joseph, but Joseph was second in charge (Gen. 41-42).
Next, put sandals on his feet; either the son journeyed back home barefoot or his sandals were worn out. My guess is that he was barefoot. Lead out and slaughter the fattened calf. (Sorry for animal rights activists, but they lived in an old agricultural society, and animals were slaughtered humanely, by cutting the throat.) Then everyone was to come in out of the fields and into the house, which must have been large, indicating wealth, and enjoy the celebratory barbeque.
24:
Garland suggests we translate it as “came back to life.”
Why should everyone join the festival? The father explains. His younger son had been dead, so to speak, but now he was alive again. This indicates that the son never wrote home (yes, they had primitive postal services back then). So the father didn’t know how his son was doing. Today, we have modern technology. We can get instant messages and emails. We can see each other over our smart phones. We can even use the old-school telephone. Imagine how life was back then! His son had been lost and now found, and the father learned of his survival only when he saw his son at a distance, on the old road home.
So that’s a good sermon title: Lost and Found. Or, Once Dead, Now Alive Again.
Verses in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians are relevant, because they also speak of being dead and now living:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins, in which you once walked … But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places [….] (Eph. 2:1-2a, 5-6, ESV)
The “heavenly places” in this parable is his father’s estate. The father hugging and embracing him is the lifting or raising his son up and reinstating him to his rightful place. He had abandoned it, but the father was so generous that he returned it to his wayward son.
No, the son in the parable was not a Christian after Pentecost (Acts 2), but his coming alive does bring up issues of salvation and forfeiting it.
Remaining a Christian or Falling Away?
Possible Apostasy or Eternal Security?
Parable of the Sower: Eternal Security or Possible Apostasy?
25:
Now we shift over to the fourth movement of the terrific parable. The older son returned home from the fields, no doubt supervising what the hired workers were doing. As he got closer to the house, he heard music and dancing. A millennial TV pastor said, humorously, that the people must have been dancing loudly to hear them from outside! They were getting down! He even danced a dorky dance as he spoke. Fair enough.
I like the word for music here. It is the noun sumphōnia (pronounced soom-foh-nee-ah), and yes, we get our word symphony from it. It literally means “sounds [coming] together.”
Bible Basics about Praise and Worship
26:
He summoned a servant and asked, “What these things might be” (literally). He didn’t know about the return of his younger brother. The elder brother must have been in another area of the large estate.
27:
The servant informs him why the celebrations were going on.
The father did not literally kill the calf, but a servant did. Here is the causative idea. The father is said to kill it, but he caused his servant to do it, actually.
The father received him back “safe and sound”: the verb is used in the NT twelve times, it means “healthy,” as here, but the NIV mostly translates it as “sound.” In 3 John 2, it is translated as “enjoy good health.” It speaks of soundness in body and mind (Luke 5:32; 7:10; 15:27), but also sound doctrine (1 Tim. 1:10, 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3; Tit. 1:9, 13; 2:1, 2). It is interesting that Dr. Luke sees it exclusively as healthy in body and mind, while Paul transforms the verb into sound doctrine (though the adjective is translated as “healthy” in body throughout the NT). Here “safe and sound” is best.
28:
A TV pastor said the elder brother had a point. But this is not clear to me.
The oldest son got angry. He was unwilling or refused to go inside and enjoy the party. The elder brother certainly did not rejoice. “I’m so happy he returned! I’ll go in right now and show them some dance moves!” His loving and generous father went outside to find out why his elder son wouldn’t come in. He must have seen anger on his face, as well. He invited him in, but the son said no. The son did not understand the grace and favor of his father. The younger brother did not know his father until he returned, and now it is clear the older brother did not, either.
29-30:
“this son of yours”: this phrase drips with sarcasm. He does not call him “my brother.”
Why did he get angry? His argument: it is simply unfair that he had been slaving for years and never disobeying orders, but his father never celebrated his son’s work ethic and obedience. He had been scrupulous in keeping the household law, which the father had implemented in his estate. In fact, the younger brother didn’t deserve the grace of his father but got it anyway.
“consider”: the verb is usually translated as “behold.” He pointed out the obvious. He has been “serving” or “slaving” for many years—his whole life, the moment he could use a farming tool or show the hired workers and servants what to do. In my view, we should not see him wielding a sickle like a slave but overseeing the entire large farm or landed estate. So his statement of “slaving” is an exaggeration.
Apparently a fatted calf was a more important animal than a kid goat. So it seems the calf symbolized more joy and was used on special occasions.
“This son of yours”: he does not call him by name or even “my brother.” It is easy to imagine the elder son gesturing contemptuously. But the father also called his younger son, “this son of mine” (v. 24), so maybe that’s the way this family talked.
In any case, Jesus did not want to burden the essence of the story with too many details, like names. That would have distracted the listeners with word games and puzzles. “Who is he talking about? Let’s guess!” It was best to leave those things out when the main point is so significant for the nation of Israel and the original listeners.
The parable had not said the younger son spent his money on prostitutes, but it was a safe bet that he did. In any case, the elder son pointed out the specifics, just to take a shot at his brother and possibly turn the father away from him. Be wary of people who bring up your old sins. Do they have your best interests at heart?
Bock writes:
The elder brother’s concern for justice is natural. But the point is that God’s actions is gracious, not deserved. Repentance yields God’s kindness, which wipes the slate clean and is a reason to rejoice. A proper response is not to compare how you are treated in relationship to the penitent, but to remember that repentance yields the same gracious fruit for all, so it is just. Repentance also represents a new direction in life, and one might share in the joy of a changed direction. The brother is so consumed by the issue of fairness that he cannot rejoice at the beneficial transformation that has come to his brother. (p. 1318).
31-32:
Now it is the father’s turn to speak. He called him “child.” In a passage where the word son is used often, the father did not use the term. “Child” seems much more intimate. He is always with the father. The firstborn son has everything the father has. All the privileges of his father’s estate belong to him. He should not complain.
And finally the father describes the before-and-after photos. This brother of yours was dead and now alive, “lost and found.” That’s what the final clause of the parable literally says: “lost and found.” The father had the last word. A perfect ending to a perfect parable.
I like how Bock introduces this wonderful parable:
The basic theme centers on God’s character, and the parable offers vindication of criticism for associating with sinners. God’s forgiveness is always available. No history of sin is too great to be forgiven. Our need is to turn to God and take what he offers on his terms. We need also to accept those who seek forgiveness, for there is joy in heaven over those who repent. One should not compare how God blesses, but be grateful that he does bless. In turning to God, one gains total acceptance and joyful reception into God’s family. (p. 1308)
GrowApp for Luke 15:11-32
A. We are supposed to see ourselves in parables. Which character are you? The older brother? Younger one? Generous father? The servants and hired workers “getting down” on the dance floor and watching the family drama?
B. How does this parable reveal the God the Father’s heart for humanity generally and you specifically?
SOURCES
At this link you will find the bibliography at the very bottom.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 