Luke 15
Verses 1 and 2 provide two central characters for this story, the sinners and tax collectors, and the Scribes and Pharisees. The sinners are called this because their sin was public to the community. The Scribes and Pharisees were the cultural elite and believed what your life looked like was far more important than the state of your heart. Jesus’ teaching in Luke 15 is geared toward a heart transformation. He wants us all to see that, whether sinner or Pharisee, we are all broken. The prodigal son is written for the Pharisee to see the pride they harbor in their own works, and because of this they miss the glory of God in salvation. Maybe you feel like your faith is more about your own deeds and not what Christ has done on your behalf. This Easter, repent and trust Christ’s work more than your own. We all need the Gospel, even if we act like we really don’t. -Landry Franks; Council Road Baptist Church
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Luke 15:3-7:And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
4What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 5And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. |
The parable of the lost sheep recounts a story from a man's world (vv. 3–7). If a shepherd loses one sheep out of one hundred, he pursues it until he finds it. Upon finding the lost sheep, "he calls together his friends and his neighbors," summoning them to rejoice with him (v. 6). The earthly joy over finding a lost sheep reflects the joy in heaven over a sinner who repents. Since the Pharisees and scribes were not rejoicing but grumbling over Jesus' table fellowship with sinners, they were not mirroring God's attitude toward those who repent. -Thomas Schreiner: Ligoniers
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Luke 15:11-32:
Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the part of the estate which falls to me.' So his father divided his living between them. Not many days after, the son realized it all and went away to a far country, and there in wanton recklessness scattered his substance. When he had spent everything a mighty famine arose throughout that country and he began to be in want. He went and attached himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs; and he had a great desire to fill himself with the husks the pigs were eating; and no one gave anything to him. When he had come to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, and I--I am perishing here with hunger. I will get up and I will go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer fit to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants."' So he got up and went to his father. While he was still a long way away his father saw him, and was moved to the depths of his being and ran and flung his arms round his neck and kissed him tenderly. The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger; put shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and rejoice, for this my son was dead and has come back to life again; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to rejoice. |
In Luke 15:11-21 after the younger son had squandered his estate by living dissolutely and spending all he had, he did not improve himself before returning to his father’s house. He did not have anything that would enable him to improve himself, nor did he know that this would not deter his father. The younger son did not change himself; rather, he returned to his father in his true, unchanged condition and let his father change him. His father said, “Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him...And bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry” (vv. 22-23). The father changed his son’s robe and his food, that is, his son’s outer condition and inner condition. Previously, the younger son wore rags, but he now had the best robe. Previously, he ate carob pods, but he now ate the fattened calf. The father brought about these changes, not the son. This is the principle of prayer. To pray is to come to God just as we are in our true condition, without changing or improving ourselves. Our coming to God in this way is not an ordinary crying out; it is our meeting and contacting God. When we contact Him, we absorb Him. - Living Stream Ministry
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Let us stop there and see the truth so far in this parable.
(i) It should never have been called the parable of the Prodigal Son, for the son is not the hero. It should be called the parable of the Loving Father, for it tells us rather about a father's love than a son's sin.
(ii) It tells us much about the forgiveness of God. The father must have been waiting and watching for the son to come home, for he saw him a long way off. When he came, he forgave him with no recriminations. There is a way of forgiving, when forgiveness is conferred as a favour. It is even worse, when someone is forgiven, but always by hint and by word and by threat his sin is held over him.
Once Lincoln was asked how he was going to treat the rebellious southerners when they had finally been defeated and had returned to the Union of the United States. The questioner expected that Lincoln would take a dire vengeance, but he answered, "I will treat them as if they had never been away."
It is the wonder of the love of God that he treats us like that.
That is not the end of the story. There enters the elder brother who was actually sorry that his brother had come home. He stands for the self-righteous Pharisees who would rather see a sinner destroyed than saved. Certain things stand out about him.
(i) His attitude shows that his years of obedience to his father had been years of grim duty and not of loving service.
(ii) His attitude is one of utter lack of sympathy. He refers to the prodigal, not as any brother, but as your son. He was the kind of self-righteous character who would cheerfully have kicked a man farther into the gutter when he was already down.
(iii) He had a peculiarly nasty mind. There is no mention of harlots until he mentions them. He, no doubt, suspected his brother of the sins he himself would have liked to commit.
Once again we have the amazing truth that it is easier to confess to God than it is to many a man; that God is more merciful in his judgments than many an orthodox man; that the love of God is far broader than the love of man; and that God can forgive when men refuse to forgive. In face of a love like that we cannot be other than lost in wonder, love and praise. Barclays Commentary
(i) It should never have been called the parable of the Prodigal Son, for the son is not the hero. It should be called the parable of the Loving Father, for it tells us rather about a father's love than a son's sin.
(ii) It tells us much about the forgiveness of God. The father must have been waiting and watching for the son to come home, for he saw him a long way off. When he came, he forgave him with no recriminations. There is a way of forgiving, when forgiveness is conferred as a favour. It is even worse, when someone is forgiven, but always by hint and by word and by threat his sin is held over him.
Once Lincoln was asked how he was going to treat the rebellious southerners when they had finally been defeated and had returned to the Union of the United States. The questioner expected that Lincoln would take a dire vengeance, but he answered, "I will treat them as if they had never been away."
It is the wonder of the love of God that he treats us like that.
That is not the end of the story. There enters the elder brother who was actually sorry that his brother had come home. He stands for the self-righteous Pharisees who would rather see a sinner destroyed than saved. Certain things stand out about him.
(i) His attitude shows that his years of obedience to his father had been years of grim duty and not of loving service.
(ii) His attitude is one of utter lack of sympathy. He refers to the prodigal, not as any brother, but as your son. He was the kind of self-righteous character who would cheerfully have kicked a man farther into the gutter when he was already down.
(iii) He had a peculiarly nasty mind. There is no mention of harlots until he mentions them. He, no doubt, suspected his brother of the sins he himself would have liked to commit.
Once again we have the amazing truth that it is easier to confess to God than it is to many a man; that God is more merciful in his judgments than many an orthodox man; that the love of God is far broader than the love of man; and that God can forgive when men refuse to forgive. In face of a love like that we cannot be other than lost in wonder, love and praise. Barclays Commentary
