A Father And Two Sons
Preaching
Preaching the Parables
Series II, Cycle C
Object:
1Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to
listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling
and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
3So he told them this parable:
11Then Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe -- the best one -- and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.
25"Now this elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, 'Your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' 31Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"
Jesus never discussed abstract and systematic theology as far as we have reported. He did communicate profound insights about the nature of God, human nature, and the relationship between God and people. The parable in today's passage is one of those instances where he did so very graphically.
The parable is frequently called "The Prodigal Son." It is sometimes referred to as "The Lost Son" or "The Two Lost Sons." The parable does focus on the attitudes and behavior of the two sons. It also communicates a vivid image of an aggrieved father who still expresses his love and his eagerness to have a close relationship with his sons.
The parable tells us as much about God as it does about human nature. The preacher may try to cover both the characteristics of the two sons and the characteristics of God told in the parable form.
Context
Context of the Season
The parable comes in the period of Lent. The parable of a father and two sons is about the seeking of God to have right relationships with people. As people prepare for the Easter events they may use the parable to examine their own relationships to God.
The parable poses the question of what kinds of attitudes and behaviors alienate us from God and cause grief akin to that of a father who finds his hopes for his children unfulfilled. People can ask themselves how they can better respond to a God who gave his special son that the people in the world might be saved. The parable addresses both the persons who indulge in the sins of the flesh and those whose sin is more in the realm of the spirit.
Context of the Lectionary
The First Lesson. (Joshua 5:9-12) The event described is just after the Hebrew men were circumcised as a sign of the covenant with God. The place where it occurred was called Gilgal after the fact that the disgrace of Egypt was now rolled away. The people celebrated the Passover. With that the manna they had eaten in the wilderness ceased and they now lived off the grain and fruit of Canaan.
The Second Lesson. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) Paul asserts that Christians no longer look at others from the human point of view but from Christ's. Seeing the world in an entirely new perspective is possible because Christians are now reconciled with God. They are then charged to be ambassadors for Christ with a ministry of reconciliation.
Gospel. (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32) The reading first gives the setting for telling of three parables which explain why Jesus was willing to associate with tax collectors and sinners. It then skips over the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin to the parable of the aggrieved father and his two sons.
Psalm. (Psalm 32) The psalmist starts with the blessing for those whose sins are forgiven. He then notes that he wasted away until he admitted his sins to God and was forgiven. The psalm ends with the affirmation that the wicked suffer torments while those who trust in the Lord rejoice and shout for joy.
Context of Related Scripture
Other passages relating to being lost:
Psalm 119:176 -- The psalmist compares his own straying to that of a lost sheep.
Isaiah 6:5 -- Isaiah expresses his sense of being lost in the presence of the Lord.
Jeremiah 50:6 -- The people are like lost sheep because the shepherds have led them astray.
Matthew 10:6 -- The disciples are sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Passages dealing with sonship:
Psalm 2:7 -- The psalmist hears the Lord claiming his own as a son.
Proverbs 3:12 -- The relationship of a person to the Lord is compared to that of a father to a son.
Matthew 5:9 -- The peacemakers are called children of God.
Galatians 4:5-7 -- God adopts people as his children and heirs.
Hebrews 3:6 -- Jesus is faithful as a son over God's house.
Hebrews 12:7-9 -- Being God's children is related to discipline and illegitimacy.
Revelation 21:7 -- Inheriting God's favor as children.
Content
Precis of the Parable
The setting for the parable is first given in the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes because Jesus was eating with the tax collectors and sinners. That has a double thrust. On the one hand Jesus would be contaminated religiously by the contact. On the other hand he would seem to condone their behavior by associating with them in a feast.
The first part of the parable tells of a son who demands his portion of the inheritance in advance of his father's death. He proceeds to waste it on loose living. He ends up taking care of pigs and approaching starvation. He decides to go back home and ask to be a slave. Instead, when he approaches, his father comes out to greet him. The father restores him as a son and a feast is set to celebrate the son's return.
The second part is about the elder brother who never claimed his inheritance. He is angry and resentful when he learns how his father received the younger brother. The father tries to reassure him that he has received even more favored treatment by always sharing with the father.
Thesis: God seeks redemption of both those who sin grossly and those whose sins are more religiously oriented.
Theme: God is still seeking those who grieve him by their attitudes and behavior.
Key Words in the Passage
1. "Welcomes Sinners and Eats with Them." (v. 2) Pharisees would not eat with sinners because they considered it a religious contamination. They would have to purify themselves after such contacts and before observing other religious ceremonies.
2. "Give Me the Share of the Property." (v. 12) The younger son had a right to claim his share of the property under Jewish law. His share would be one-third of the property since the older son had a right to a double share and the father had only two sons. (See Deuteronomy 21:17.) The son's request was something of an insult to the father since it might imply that he wished his father dead. The father would still have a life interest in the older son's share of the property.
3. "Gather All He Had." (v. 13) Apparently the younger son had his share of the property converted into a liquid form so he could take it with him.
4. "A Severe Famine." (v. 14) Since much of Palestine lived on subsistence agriculture at the time of Jesus, a failure of rain to come at the right time could lead quickly to a famine. Pests could also contribute to a scarcity of food in such situations.
5. "Feed the Pigs." (v. 15) The younger son must have gone outside the Jewish community if he was taking care of pigs. They were considered to be an unclean animal so a Jewish farmer would not raise them. For a Jew to take care of pigs meant that he had sunk very low and was willing to ignore a religious taboo about contact with an unclean animal. It is a sign of his desperate situation.
6. "Pods." (v. 16) The pods were from the carob tree. They had little nutritious value for humans and were considered only fit as animal food.
7. "He Came to Himself." (v. 17) This is an idiom which is reported to be found in Greek and Latin as well as Aramaic. It means that he realized the foolishness of his actions and decided to act according to common sense.
8. "Sinned Against Heaven and Before You." (v. 18) Jesus acknowledges that sin always is two-dimensional. It is against God and against people. The use of heaven is a euphemism for God. Jews were reluctant to use the word God for fear that they would be misusing it and suffer dire consequences as a result.
9. "Kissed Him." (v. 20) The force of the Greek term would be that the father kissed him tenderly.
10. "The Best Robe." (v. 22) The father would have no second best for his returning son. It signified that the son was returning equal to an honored guest.
11. "Put a Ring on His Finger." (v. 22) The ring was a symbol of authority. It means that the son was accepted as a family member with the right to exercise some authority from the father.
12. "Sandals." (v. 22) Slaves went barefooted. To have sandals also meant that the son had the status of a family member.
13. "Refused to Go in." (v. 28) Jesus often used a feast as a symbol of fellowship in the presence of God. The elder brother's refusal to join in the celebration was symbolic of his own alienation from fellowship with God.
14. "Never Disobeyed Your Command." (v. 29) The Pharisees and scribes sought to obey God's laws perfectly. By so doing they expected to merit God's favor.
15. "This Son of Yours." (v. 30) The older son used a contemptuous phrase in referring to his younger brother. It implied that the father was responsible for the younger son's actions.
16. "Son, You are Always with Me." (v. 31) Continuous fellowship with the father is reward in itself. It is more a consequence of the grace of the father than the merit of the son.
17. "This Brother of Yours." (v. 32) When the father still says that the younger son is "your brother" he rejects the attempt of the older son to repudiate his brother.
Contemplation
Issues and Insights
1. God the Father. This parable, more fully than any other, defines Jesus' concept of God as father. When he taught the disciples to pray "Our Father," Jesus probably had in mind the image of the father in this parable.
The image of God portrayed in the parable is quite different from the one Abraham had when he thought God required the sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham's firstborn son. Abraham had a concept of a severe God who required a quid pro quo for sin. If a person sinned, he had to give up something of equal value to appease God.
Instead, Jesus' concept of God was not one who stood in judgment and required a just payment when aggrieved. God was waiting for persons to acknowledge what state they are in, return to God for recognition of it, and receive support in becoming their true selves.
2. Law and Gospel. The contrast between those who struggle to earn God's favor and those who throw themselves on the grace and mercy of God shows up most graphically in the two sons.
The younger son recognizes his need and is ready to assume the role of a slave. Once he comes to that realization, the father receives him joyously. He finds it an occasion for celebration. The gospel is found in the compassionate and waiting father, ready to celebrate when a person comes from spiritual death to real life.
The older son typifies the person who lives under the law. He was always in the father's house, but he never came fully to life. Though he had the formal status of primary heir of his father, he never saw that as a grace given, a true life. He envied the son who left home and wished that he could have the pleasures that he felt were denied him. He was in fact a slave because he was working to deserve the father's riches. He did not see the opportunity to live in the father's presence as a real celebration of life and joy.
Gospel gives joy and celebration. Gospel makes a person aware of the compassion, mercy, and grace of God. Law leads to resentment and bitterness. God is feared because one would be punished and disinherited for any sin. God is then seen as an angry and severe father.
3. Rebellion Against Love. Both sons rebelled against the father. They did it in different ways. The younger son made a radical break. He left home and tried to deny that he had a good life there. He went in pursuit of independence and what he believed to be the good life. His seeking for independence and pleasure proved to be an illusion. The reality was that he could be fully free and alive when he enjoyed the love and favor of his father. Who knows, perhaps the attitude of his older brother toward him may have led him to leave home. The older brother probably was not an easy person to live with.
The older son also rebelled against the love of the father. When he was invited to join the feast of celebration, he refused. The rebellion which was seething inside him exploded against his brother. He showed that he thought the younger brother really had found life in the far country. The parable leaves us with the question as to whether the older brother ever joined the feast because he recognized that the love of the father was enjoyed every day as they lived and worked together.
4. The Church and the Older Brother. Does the church as a body ever act more like the older brother than like the body of Christ? Does the church by its exclusiveness and condemnation of those with whom it disagrees drive people away instead of receiving them into fellowship? Does the church show occasions of rejoicing and celebrating for persons who were lost and are found, that those who were on the way to death find life?
5. Justice and Love. People define justice in many ways. Some define it in egalitarian terms. The older brother under Jewish law would receive double the inheritance of the younger brother. Is the accident of birth a reason for such a distribution of goods? Did the younger son have a just grievance against the system?
Another definition of justice is that persons get what they deserve. The older brother felt that the younger brother got all the breaks and did not deserve them. Even after the younger brother wasted away the father's goods, he got the fatted calf, the robe, the ring, and the sandals. The older brother never got the means to celebrate with his friends. Did the older brother have a legitimate grievance? Did he deserve more from the father?
Another definition of justice is retributive justice. A person who does wrong should pay a penalty for it. The older brother probably thought that the younger son should have been taken to the woodshed for punishment instead of to a party. Should the younger brother have served a period of time as a slave before being accepted back as a full member of the family? Was the father too lenient, first in letting the son take the inheritance and squander it, and then in showing him honor when he came back home?
A look at the parable and questions of justice leads to the question of whether redemptive love is the fulfillment of justice, as some have suggested. When are mercy, grace, and compassion the fulfillment of justice and not the denial of justice? What do these issues have to say about the Christian attitude toward capital punishment, prison sentences, and reception of persons who come out of prison?
Homily Hints
1. An Aggrieved Father. (vv. 11-32) The sermon would concentrate on the nature of God as portrayed in the parable.
A. Sinned Against. By both of the sons.
B. Taking Initiative. Watching and going to meet the younger son. Going out to the older son.
C. Receiving. Open to extend his love to both of the sons. What it tells us about God's pursuit of us.
2. The Lost Son. (vv. 11-32) The emphasis is on the different ways of being lost, alienated from God.
A. The Younger Son. Lost to independence and pleasure.
B. The Elder Son. Lost in resentment and bitterness, alienated from his brother and the father.
C. Our Sonship. True freedom and life is found in service and fellowship with God and people.
3. Finding Your Way Home. (vv. 17-32)
A. Recognize Your True Condition
B. Repent Your Alienation
C. Accept Restoration Joyfully
4. Slaves and Sonship. (v. 19) Freedom is not found in complete independence. It is found in the discipline of service and right relationships.
A. What is Your Slavery?
B. When Freedom is Slavery
C. Accept Service with Joy
5. Always With Me. (v. 31)
A. Growing up Christian. The perils and promise of never knowing a time when you were not in the church.
B. Maturing as a Christian. Our concept needs to grow as we grow in experience of and relationship to God.
C. The Conscious Christian. At some point in life persons need to make a deliberate choice to accept God's grace and appropriate for their own the Christian life as real living.
6. Celebrating and Rejoicing. (vv. 23, 32) What are the occasions when the church needs to celebrate and rejoice?
A. Lost and Found
B. A Personal and Corporate Response. Do we show God's joy over those who find life in our personal and corporate actions?
C. Style of Worship. Are music and dancing appropriate ways to celebrate worship? How does the church show in its worship and fellowship its joy at life found?
Contact
Points of Contact
1. Squandering Our Property. Each person is born with certain gifts and abilities. They come with being a living person. Most people never approach the full use of all their capacities. In a sense we squander the property given to us as our inheritance in just being alive.
It is reported that very few people use even a large fraction of their intellectual capacity. They are usually satisfied to get by with average activity. They shrink back from the discipline of hard thinking or the mastery of difficult subject matter. Most people could master several languages, for example, if they really tried. They could explore many areas of knowledge and develop many skills.
It does not take a great intellect to love many people. Most people narrowly restrict the extent of their love. For many their love does not reach much beyond their family, their race, their nationality, and their religious group. It was characteristic of Jesus that he could extend his love to a variety of people. He reached the mentally ill; the Samaritan woman who crossed national, religious, and gender taboos of his day; the collaborator with the Roman occupying army; and the Roman nobleman himself.
People need to look at the wealth given them. Do they see it as their right to use it as they please? People spend money in the pursuit of pleasure as an end in itself. They do not always use their enjoyment of pleasures to restore their energies and prepare themselves for better service. They do not always use their wealth as opportunities to build community and to enable others to enjoy the fullness of living. They can be challenged to ask themselves how they will account for the use of their riches when facing the God who gives people all that they receive.
People need the forgiveness of God to help them move beyond their laziness, their self-centeredness, their ethnocentricity, and their exclusiveness. They can bring great joy to God when they use their gifts to the fullest possibilities in Christian service. They can also bring it to those who benefit from their proper use of the property given to them.
2. Death and Life. Is it appropriate to ask how people celebrate death? Most emphasize their grief and loss. People do need to give expression to their grief, especially when the death is tragic, a waste of a life that had great potential that was never realized.
At times when death comes at the end of a rich and useful life, should not the celebration of the life given be an occasion more for rejoicing than mourning? Not every funeral should be a somber and sad affair. A Christian funeral should normally be an occasion for thanksgiving for the gift received in a life of service and faithfulness.
3. The Older Brother Syndrome. Some people have the same problem that the older brother showed. They live with resentment and bitterness over disappointments in their lives.
Everyone can look back and remember dreams and hopes that were unfulfilled. Every person can remember instances of injustice, insult, and injury. Each can look at someone who received what appears to be a better lot in life than that person has had.
Such memories and comparisons may lead to feeling that life is not fair. People can envy what others have received. They can become dour and no longer enjoy what they have received because of resentment at what they did not get out of life. In those cases they need forgiveness as much as the younger son. They need to repent of their attitude and enter into the merriment that celebrates what life has given them of riches and enjoyment.
4. The Need for Empathy. The parable speaks mainly about the relationship of the two sons to the father. It does not speak much about the relationship of the two sons to each other except for the judgmental attitude of the older brother to the younger.
Both sons seem to lack empathy for the other. They dwell on their own wants and needs. So often sibling rivalries, whether of sons or daughters, suffer from this same centering on oneself. People do not put themselves in the other person's place. They need to look at how life appears to the other. Once they suffer with the other vicariously, relationships change.
Illustrative Materials
1. Sowing Wild Oats. Someone once remarked that he would rather have persons sow wild oats when young and get over it than to go through life wishing they had. The older brother probably wished he had!
2. An Inheritance. I believe it was Will Rogers who said that where there is a will, there is usually a family fight.
How many times have questions of inheritance led to a lengthy court battle? The wealth is dissipated and only the lawyers benefit in the process. The heirs are embittered and alienated from each other for the rest of their lives.
3. Wealth Wasted. Would you consider Howard Hughes a prodigal? He is reported to have had a fortune worth $2.5 billion. Yet he ended life as a lonely recluse. It may have been better if he had lost his wealth and found the richness of life.
4. The Loving Father Image.
A. Martin Luther had a very severe father. It is reported that his father whipped him because he stole a nut. That probably conditioned his early understanding of God the Father. He tried all kinds of religious exercises to rid himself of feeling guilt and to gain acceptance by God. None of them gave him satisfaction.
It was when he came to the realization that he was justified by faith, accepted by the grace of God rather than because of his own frantic efforts to win God's favor, that he was able to enjoy his Christian life.
B. Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He strove to live a life of perfection under the law. It left him full of hate, breathing fury and hatred against the Christians.
It was through his encounter with Christ and the realization that he was saved by grace that his full possibilities for mission were released. He could use his gifts to build up rather than to destroy. It changed him from one with a narrow view of who belonged as God's people and enlarged it to a universal hope for humanity.
3So he told them this parable:
11Then Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe -- the best one -- and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.
25"Now this elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, 'Your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' 31Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"
Jesus never discussed abstract and systematic theology as far as we have reported. He did communicate profound insights about the nature of God, human nature, and the relationship between God and people. The parable in today's passage is one of those instances where he did so very graphically.
The parable is frequently called "The Prodigal Son." It is sometimes referred to as "The Lost Son" or "The Two Lost Sons." The parable does focus on the attitudes and behavior of the two sons. It also communicates a vivid image of an aggrieved father who still expresses his love and his eagerness to have a close relationship with his sons.
The parable tells us as much about God as it does about human nature. The preacher may try to cover both the characteristics of the two sons and the characteristics of God told in the parable form.
Context
Context of the Season
The parable comes in the period of Lent. The parable of a father and two sons is about the seeking of God to have right relationships with people. As people prepare for the Easter events they may use the parable to examine their own relationships to God.
The parable poses the question of what kinds of attitudes and behaviors alienate us from God and cause grief akin to that of a father who finds his hopes for his children unfulfilled. People can ask themselves how they can better respond to a God who gave his special son that the people in the world might be saved. The parable addresses both the persons who indulge in the sins of the flesh and those whose sin is more in the realm of the spirit.
Context of the Lectionary
The First Lesson. (Joshua 5:9-12) The event described is just after the Hebrew men were circumcised as a sign of the covenant with God. The place where it occurred was called Gilgal after the fact that the disgrace of Egypt was now rolled away. The people celebrated the Passover. With that the manna they had eaten in the wilderness ceased and they now lived off the grain and fruit of Canaan.
The Second Lesson. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) Paul asserts that Christians no longer look at others from the human point of view but from Christ's. Seeing the world in an entirely new perspective is possible because Christians are now reconciled with God. They are then charged to be ambassadors for Christ with a ministry of reconciliation.
Gospel. (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32) The reading first gives the setting for telling of three parables which explain why Jesus was willing to associate with tax collectors and sinners. It then skips over the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin to the parable of the aggrieved father and his two sons.
Psalm. (Psalm 32) The psalmist starts with the blessing for those whose sins are forgiven. He then notes that he wasted away until he admitted his sins to God and was forgiven. The psalm ends with the affirmation that the wicked suffer torments while those who trust in the Lord rejoice and shout for joy.
Context of Related Scripture
Other passages relating to being lost:
Psalm 119:176 -- The psalmist compares his own straying to that of a lost sheep.
Isaiah 6:5 -- Isaiah expresses his sense of being lost in the presence of the Lord.
Jeremiah 50:6 -- The people are like lost sheep because the shepherds have led them astray.
Matthew 10:6 -- The disciples are sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Passages dealing with sonship:
Psalm 2:7 -- The psalmist hears the Lord claiming his own as a son.
Proverbs 3:12 -- The relationship of a person to the Lord is compared to that of a father to a son.
Matthew 5:9 -- The peacemakers are called children of God.
Galatians 4:5-7 -- God adopts people as his children and heirs.
Hebrews 3:6 -- Jesus is faithful as a son over God's house.
Hebrews 12:7-9 -- Being God's children is related to discipline and illegitimacy.
Revelation 21:7 -- Inheriting God's favor as children.
Content
Precis of the Parable
The setting for the parable is first given in the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes because Jesus was eating with the tax collectors and sinners. That has a double thrust. On the one hand Jesus would be contaminated religiously by the contact. On the other hand he would seem to condone their behavior by associating with them in a feast.
The first part of the parable tells of a son who demands his portion of the inheritance in advance of his father's death. He proceeds to waste it on loose living. He ends up taking care of pigs and approaching starvation. He decides to go back home and ask to be a slave. Instead, when he approaches, his father comes out to greet him. The father restores him as a son and a feast is set to celebrate the son's return.
The second part is about the elder brother who never claimed his inheritance. He is angry and resentful when he learns how his father received the younger brother. The father tries to reassure him that he has received even more favored treatment by always sharing with the father.
Thesis: God seeks redemption of both those who sin grossly and those whose sins are more religiously oriented.
Theme: God is still seeking those who grieve him by their attitudes and behavior.
Key Words in the Passage
1. "Welcomes Sinners and Eats with Them." (v. 2) Pharisees would not eat with sinners because they considered it a religious contamination. They would have to purify themselves after such contacts and before observing other religious ceremonies.
2. "Give Me the Share of the Property." (v. 12) The younger son had a right to claim his share of the property under Jewish law. His share would be one-third of the property since the older son had a right to a double share and the father had only two sons. (See Deuteronomy 21:17.) The son's request was something of an insult to the father since it might imply that he wished his father dead. The father would still have a life interest in the older son's share of the property.
3. "Gather All He Had." (v. 13) Apparently the younger son had his share of the property converted into a liquid form so he could take it with him.
4. "A Severe Famine." (v. 14) Since much of Palestine lived on subsistence agriculture at the time of Jesus, a failure of rain to come at the right time could lead quickly to a famine. Pests could also contribute to a scarcity of food in such situations.
5. "Feed the Pigs." (v. 15) The younger son must have gone outside the Jewish community if he was taking care of pigs. They were considered to be an unclean animal so a Jewish farmer would not raise them. For a Jew to take care of pigs meant that he had sunk very low and was willing to ignore a religious taboo about contact with an unclean animal. It is a sign of his desperate situation.
6. "Pods." (v. 16) The pods were from the carob tree. They had little nutritious value for humans and were considered only fit as animal food.
7. "He Came to Himself." (v. 17) This is an idiom which is reported to be found in Greek and Latin as well as Aramaic. It means that he realized the foolishness of his actions and decided to act according to common sense.
8. "Sinned Against Heaven and Before You." (v. 18) Jesus acknowledges that sin always is two-dimensional. It is against God and against people. The use of heaven is a euphemism for God. Jews were reluctant to use the word God for fear that they would be misusing it and suffer dire consequences as a result.
9. "Kissed Him." (v. 20) The force of the Greek term would be that the father kissed him tenderly.
10. "The Best Robe." (v. 22) The father would have no second best for his returning son. It signified that the son was returning equal to an honored guest.
11. "Put a Ring on His Finger." (v. 22) The ring was a symbol of authority. It means that the son was accepted as a family member with the right to exercise some authority from the father.
12. "Sandals." (v. 22) Slaves went barefooted. To have sandals also meant that the son had the status of a family member.
13. "Refused to Go in." (v. 28) Jesus often used a feast as a symbol of fellowship in the presence of God. The elder brother's refusal to join in the celebration was symbolic of his own alienation from fellowship with God.
14. "Never Disobeyed Your Command." (v. 29) The Pharisees and scribes sought to obey God's laws perfectly. By so doing they expected to merit God's favor.
15. "This Son of Yours." (v. 30) The older son used a contemptuous phrase in referring to his younger brother. It implied that the father was responsible for the younger son's actions.
16. "Son, You are Always with Me." (v. 31) Continuous fellowship with the father is reward in itself. It is more a consequence of the grace of the father than the merit of the son.
17. "This Brother of Yours." (v. 32) When the father still says that the younger son is "your brother" he rejects the attempt of the older son to repudiate his brother.
Contemplation
Issues and Insights
1. God the Father. This parable, more fully than any other, defines Jesus' concept of God as father. When he taught the disciples to pray "Our Father," Jesus probably had in mind the image of the father in this parable.
The image of God portrayed in the parable is quite different from the one Abraham had when he thought God required the sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham's firstborn son. Abraham had a concept of a severe God who required a quid pro quo for sin. If a person sinned, he had to give up something of equal value to appease God.
Instead, Jesus' concept of God was not one who stood in judgment and required a just payment when aggrieved. God was waiting for persons to acknowledge what state they are in, return to God for recognition of it, and receive support in becoming their true selves.
2. Law and Gospel. The contrast between those who struggle to earn God's favor and those who throw themselves on the grace and mercy of God shows up most graphically in the two sons.
The younger son recognizes his need and is ready to assume the role of a slave. Once he comes to that realization, the father receives him joyously. He finds it an occasion for celebration. The gospel is found in the compassionate and waiting father, ready to celebrate when a person comes from spiritual death to real life.
The older son typifies the person who lives under the law. He was always in the father's house, but he never came fully to life. Though he had the formal status of primary heir of his father, he never saw that as a grace given, a true life. He envied the son who left home and wished that he could have the pleasures that he felt were denied him. He was in fact a slave because he was working to deserve the father's riches. He did not see the opportunity to live in the father's presence as a real celebration of life and joy.
Gospel gives joy and celebration. Gospel makes a person aware of the compassion, mercy, and grace of God. Law leads to resentment and bitterness. God is feared because one would be punished and disinherited for any sin. God is then seen as an angry and severe father.
3. Rebellion Against Love. Both sons rebelled against the father. They did it in different ways. The younger son made a radical break. He left home and tried to deny that he had a good life there. He went in pursuit of independence and what he believed to be the good life. His seeking for independence and pleasure proved to be an illusion. The reality was that he could be fully free and alive when he enjoyed the love and favor of his father. Who knows, perhaps the attitude of his older brother toward him may have led him to leave home. The older brother probably was not an easy person to live with.
The older son also rebelled against the love of the father. When he was invited to join the feast of celebration, he refused. The rebellion which was seething inside him exploded against his brother. He showed that he thought the younger brother really had found life in the far country. The parable leaves us with the question as to whether the older brother ever joined the feast because he recognized that the love of the father was enjoyed every day as they lived and worked together.
4. The Church and the Older Brother. Does the church as a body ever act more like the older brother than like the body of Christ? Does the church by its exclusiveness and condemnation of those with whom it disagrees drive people away instead of receiving them into fellowship? Does the church show occasions of rejoicing and celebrating for persons who were lost and are found, that those who were on the way to death find life?
5. Justice and Love. People define justice in many ways. Some define it in egalitarian terms. The older brother under Jewish law would receive double the inheritance of the younger brother. Is the accident of birth a reason for such a distribution of goods? Did the younger son have a just grievance against the system?
Another definition of justice is that persons get what they deserve. The older brother felt that the younger brother got all the breaks and did not deserve them. Even after the younger brother wasted away the father's goods, he got the fatted calf, the robe, the ring, and the sandals. The older brother never got the means to celebrate with his friends. Did the older brother have a legitimate grievance? Did he deserve more from the father?
Another definition of justice is retributive justice. A person who does wrong should pay a penalty for it. The older brother probably thought that the younger son should have been taken to the woodshed for punishment instead of to a party. Should the younger brother have served a period of time as a slave before being accepted back as a full member of the family? Was the father too lenient, first in letting the son take the inheritance and squander it, and then in showing him honor when he came back home?
A look at the parable and questions of justice leads to the question of whether redemptive love is the fulfillment of justice, as some have suggested. When are mercy, grace, and compassion the fulfillment of justice and not the denial of justice? What do these issues have to say about the Christian attitude toward capital punishment, prison sentences, and reception of persons who come out of prison?
Homily Hints
1. An Aggrieved Father. (vv. 11-32) The sermon would concentrate on the nature of God as portrayed in the parable.
A. Sinned Against. By both of the sons.
B. Taking Initiative. Watching and going to meet the younger son. Going out to the older son.
C. Receiving. Open to extend his love to both of the sons. What it tells us about God's pursuit of us.
2. The Lost Son. (vv. 11-32) The emphasis is on the different ways of being lost, alienated from God.
A. The Younger Son. Lost to independence and pleasure.
B. The Elder Son. Lost in resentment and bitterness, alienated from his brother and the father.
C. Our Sonship. True freedom and life is found in service and fellowship with God and people.
3. Finding Your Way Home. (vv. 17-32)
A. Recognize Your True Condition
B. Repent Your Alienation
C. Accept Restoration Joyfully
4. Slaves and Sonship. (v. 19) Freedom is not found in complete independence. It is found in the discipline of service and right relationships.
A. What is Your Slavery?
B. When Freedom is Slavery
C. Accept Service with Joy
5. Always With Me. (v. 31)
A. Growing up Christian. The perils and promise of never knowing a time when you were not in the church.
B. Maturing as a Christian. Our concept needs to grow as we grow in experience of and relationship to God.
C. The Conscious Christian. At some point in life persons need to make a deliberate choice to accept God's grace and appropriate for their own the Christian life as real living.
6. Celebrating and Rejoicing. (vv. 23, 32) What are the occasions when the church needs to celebrate and rejoice?
A. Lost and Found
B. A Personal and Corporate Response. Do we show God's joy over those who find life in our personal and corporate actions?
C. Style of Worship. Are music and dancing appropriate ways to celebrate worship? How does the church show in its worship and fellowship its joy at life found?
Contact
Points of Contact
1. Squandering Our Property. Each person is born with certain gifts and abilities. They come with being a living person. Most people never approach the full use of all their capacities. In a sense we squander the property given to us as our inheritance in just being alive.
It is reported that very few people use even a large fraction of their intellectual capacity. They are usually satisfied to get by with average activity. They shrink back from the discipline of hard thinking or the mastery of difficult subject matter. Most people could master several languages, for example, if they really tried. They could explore many areas of knowledge and develop many skills.
It does not take a great intellect to love many people. Most people narrowly restrict the extent of their love. For many their love does not reach much beyond their family, their race, their nationality, and their religious group. It was characteristic of Jesus that he could extend his love to a variety of people. He reached the mentally ill; the Samaritan woman who crossed national, religious, and gender taboos of his day; the collaborator with the Roman occupying army; and the Roman nobleman himself.
People need to look at the wealth given them. Do they see it as their right to use it as they please? People spend money in the pursuit of pleasure as an end in itself. They do not always use their enjoyment of pleasures to restore their energies and prepare themselves for better service. They do not always use their wealth as opportunities to build community and to enable others to enjoy the fullness of living. They can be challenged to ask themselves how they will account for the use of their riches when facing the God who gives people all that they receive.
People need the forgiveness of God to help them move beyond their laziness, their self-centeredness, their ethnocentricity, and their exclusiveness. They can bring great joy to God when they use their gifts to the fullest possibilities in Christian service. They can also bring it to those who benefit from their proper use of the property given to them.
2. Death and Life. Is it appropriate to ask how people celebrate death? Most emphasize their grief and loss. People do need to give expression to their grief, especially when the death is tragic, a waste of a life that had great potential that was never realized.
At times when death comes at the end of a rich and useful life, should not the celebration of the life given be an occasion more for rejoicing than mourning? Not every funeral should be a somber and sad affair. A Christian funeral should normally be an occasion for thanksgiving for the gift received in a life of service and faithfulness.
3. The Older Brother Syndrome. Some people have the same problem that the older brother showed. They live with resentment and bitterness over disappointments in their lives.
Everyone can look back and remember dreams and hopes that were unfulfilled. Every person can remember instances of injustice, insult, and injury. Each can look at someone who received what appears to be a better lot in life than that person has had.
Such memories and comparisons may lead to feeling that life is not fair. People can envy what others have received. They can become dour and no longer enjoy what they have received because of resentment at what they did not get out of life. In those cases they need forgiveness as much as the younger son. They need to repent of their attitude and enter into the merriment that celebrates what life has given them of riches and enjoyment.
4. The Need for Empathy. The parable speaks mainly about the relationship of the two sons to the father. It does not speak much about the relationship of the two sons to each other except for the judgmental attitude of the older brother to the younger.
Both sons seem to lack empathy for the other. They dwell on their own wants and needs. So often sibling rivalries, whether of sons or daughters, suffer from this same centering on oneself. People do not put themselves in the other person's place. They need to look at how life appears to the other. Once they suffer with the other vicariously, relationships change.
Illustrative Materials
1. Sowing Wild Oats. Someone once remarked that he would rather have persons sow wild oats when young and get over it than to go through life wishing they had. The older brother probably wished he had!
2. An Inheritance. I believe it was Will Rogers who said that where there is a will, there is usually a family fight.
How many times have questions of inheritance led to a lengthy court battle? The wealth is dissipated and only the lawyers benefit in the process. The heirs are embittered and alienated from each other for the rest of their lives.
3. Wealth Wasted. Would you consider Howard Hughes a prodigal? He is reported to have had a fortune worth $2.5 billion. Yet he ended life as a lonely recluse. It may have been better if he had lost his wealth and found the richness of life.
4. The Loving Father Image.
A. Martin Luther had a very severe father. It is reported that his father whipped him because he stole a nut. That probably conditioned his early understanding of God the Father. He tried all kinds of religious exercises to rid himself of feeling guilt and to gain acceptance by God. None of them gave him satisfaction.
It was when he came to the realization that he was justified by faith, accepted by the grace of God rather than because of his own frantic efforts to win God's favor, that he was able to enjoy his Christian life.
B. Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He strove to live a life of perfection under the law. It left him full of hate, breathing fury and hatred against the Christians.
It was through his encounter with Christ and the realization that he was saved by grace that his full possibilities for mission were released. He could use his gifts to build up rather than to destroy. It changed him from one with a narrow view of who belonged as God's people and enlarged it to a universal hope for humanity.
