“The Two Lost Sons”
Luke 15:11-12; 1/10/10
Series: The Prodigal God, by Timothy Keller (Chapter 2)
Introduction: As we continue in our series “The Prodigal God,” we remember from last week that this parable isn’t just about the younger son, but it is about the elder son as well. It is interesting for me to see that there are many in this world that believe that if you are a good person, then that is all that is needed to get to heaven. This viewpoint has a misguided view of sin and holiness. The Bible is clear: “All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” It is also clear that God, in being holy, cannot be in the presence of sin.
So this morning, I want us to take some time to understand that both sons have sin in their lives, and both sons are lost because of this, and both sons need the Father’s unconditional love and forgiveness. Then I want to relate this to how God’s love and forgiveness is there for us.
I. The Younger Son-1. Mutinous- Back in 1789 on the English ship The Bounty there was a
famous mutiny that occurred. This mutiny was led by first mate Christian Fletcher. The reason for the mutiny was because the sailors were attracted to the idyllic life on the Pacific island, Tahiti, and repelled by the alleged cruelty of their Commander (Captain Bligh). They did not want to return to England, but rather wanted to stay on the island with the native women. Beacause of this, Christian Fletcher set afloat Bligh and several other officers of the ship. Then they had to leave the island and sail the ship to Pitcairn Island, where they burned the ship to avoid detection.
In our story of the prodigal, we see a similar kind of mutininous behavior. When the younger son makes a request for his share of the estate, it is a shocking request. The original listeners would have been amazed at such a request. In those days the oldest son received a double portion of what the other children inherited. But this was only done when the father died. Here we see that the younger son asks for the inheritance “now.” This disrespect was like a mutiny, for him to take the money and break away from the family.
2. Self-centered- On top of it being mutinous, it was also very self-
centered. The son only cared about himself. To ask for the money while his father was still alive was like wishing his father dead. It showed that the son didn’t care about what the father, or anyone else thought of him. He just wanted his money, and his freedom, and the opportunity to live his life any way he would choose. He was choosing to disassociate himself from his family.
3. Breaks relationships- Which brings us to his next sin, and that is the
breaking of relationships. It is not hard to see how this request would affect the younger son’s relationship to his father (by being so disrespectful), and to his brother, by walking out on the family. Also, he would be leaving the elder son there alone to do all the work.
Once the younger son gets out into the world, we see that by his wild living he does not intend to develop any significant relationships. His attitude towards his life becomes one of pleasure for the sake of pleasure. While he is spending money, he will have friends. But once he runs out, we see that there is no one there to help him, or to care about his situation. When he finds himself homeless and without money, there isn’t anyone who offers to give him a place to stay or a job to work. He ends up having to live with the pigs. With no significant relationships.
4. Ungrateful- The son is very ungrateful, thinking that he can return to
his father, since he has nowhere else to go. Even though he isn’t asking for full reinstatement, he is believing that in the midst of his terrible rudeness and selfishness, that he still can come back home.
Back then, if you had disgraced the family in that way, you were considered dead. The rabbis taught that if you had violated the community’s standards, an apology was not sufficient—you also had to make restitution. But restitution was not in the son’s plan. Perhaps by asking to become one of the hired men, being given over to one of the tradesmen to learn a trade, he thought he might be able to pay off the debt he owed, but it seems that even more than this, his concern is just for his well being; to have a place to live and food to eat. And so, in the pigsty, he rehearses his speech until he is ready to go back and have this confrontation with his father.
5. Privileged without responsibility- So the first act is the son asking for
his inheritance. The second act is his wild living leading to his plan to return. The third act then is his returning to his father and his home. The son comes within sight of the house, the father sees him, and runs to him. Did you catch that? The father RUNS to the son. As a general rule, distinguished Middle Eastern patriarchs did not run. Children might run; women might run; young men might run; but not the patriarch. But the father picked up his robe and runs to his son. The father shows emotions that are not customarily shown by men. The father falls upon the son and kisses the son.
This would have surely caught the younger son by surprise, in that first of all the son didn’t even expect to be welcomed back in any way, but definitely not with this kind of emotion from his father. Having practiced his speech, the son goes immediately into it, but is cut off by the father who has his own plan. The father calls for the servants, and has the best robe put on his son.
What is the father saying by this? The best robe in the house would have been the father’s robe. This was unmistakable saying that the son had been restored to the family. This was saying that the father wasn’t going to wait until the son’s debt was paid off. This was saying that the son had again received privilege, but with no responsibility to have to earn back his place. The father was covering the poverty of his son with the robe of honor.
6. The Celebration- The celebration that takes place then is the message
that God’s love and forgiveness can pardon and restore any and every kind of sin or wrongdoing. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if you’ve deliberately oppressed others, or how much you’ve abused yourself. The younger brother knew that in his father’s house there was abundant “food to spare,” but he also discovered that there was abundant grace to spare. The son discovered that there is no evil that the father’s love cannot pardon and cover.
This is God’s message to us. We have sin in our lives. Like the younger son we have our times when we have dishonored God. When we have demanded our share of the inheritance. When we have gone off and lived wildly, or broken relationships. But God reminds us through this story, that while we are like the younger son, God’s love and acceptance of us is absolutely free.
II. The Elder Son-
But the story isn’t finished. Jesus has more to share. That is because the story isn’t just about the younger son. The story isn’t just about the recklessness and wildness of the younger son. The story is also about the sin of the elder son.
1. Furious- When the elder brother hears from the servants that his
younger brother has returned and has been reinstated by his father, he is FURIOUS. Now it is his turn to disgrace the father.
He refuses to go in to what is perhaps the biggest feast and public event his father has ever put on. He remains outside the door, publicly casting a vote of no-confidence in his father’s actions. This forces the father to come out to speak to his older son, a demeaning thing to do when you are the lord of the house. The father was the host, but had to leave that role to go and be a father to his rebellious elder son. The father hopes for reconciliation, but instead encounters refusal and anger.
2. Refuses to Celebrate- Anger can create real problems in our lives. Not
only does it cause us to be mean and hurtful to others, but it keeps us from enjoying life. How often have we gotten angry, and our anger left us in a place that disturbed our relationships? Maybe you’ve gotten angry at a spouse and haven’t talked to them for a while, or angry at a child and caused them some emotional hurt.
I have seen people who get angry at someone, and then they choose to not participate in events with this person with whom they are angry. But the sad thing, is that the other person went to the event and had a great time. Isn’t this what is happening here in the story? The elder son is angry at the brother, and angry at the father, and consequently he is choosing not to participate in the party. But the younger son and the father are having a great time.
On top of this, the anger of the elder son is trying to bring down the party, and keep others from enjoying themselves. And so we see that the anger of the son is sinful on many levels. Even as the father tries to calm the son down, it only causes the son to be all the more angry.
3. Resents the cost- Another reason why the elder son is furious, is
because he is upset at the cost of the celebration. The words of the son are: “You’ve never given me even a goat for a party, how dare you give him a calf.” The fattened calf is only a symbol, however, because what the father has done costs far more than the calf. By bringing the younger brother back into the family he has made him an heir again, with a claim to one-third of their (now very diminished) family wealth. This is completely unacceptable to the elder brother. As he adds things up in his mind, he is thinking: “I’ve worked myself to death and earned what I’ve got, but my brother has done nothing to earn anything, indeed he’s merited only expulsion, and yet you lavish him with wealth! Where’s the justice in that?” That is why the elder brother says to his father: “I have never disobeyed you! So I have rights!” The elder brother is insinuating to the father that because of his place in the family as the eldest, he should have been consulted before his father made this decision to restore the younger brother.
4. Insults his father- And so the elder brother’s fury leads him to insult
the father even farther than he already has. He refuses to address the father in the respectful manner that an inferior is to relate to a superior in that culture; especially in public. Remember, even though this is happening outside, it is still visible, and possibly audible to the attendees of the party. He does not speak in a respectful tone, or with respectful words. Such behavior is outrageous, and would have thoroughly embarrassed the father. A modern day equivalent might be a son writing a humiliating tell-all memoir that destroys his father’s reputation and career.
If the elder son truly was one who had stood by his father (when the younger son had not), then the respectful thing to do would be to stand by him now. If the elder son wanted to show his father love, he would have waited for a better time to have this discussion, and spoken to his father with different words. If the elder son had truly respected his father, and was one who sought to honor his father, then he would have given his father the benefit of the doubt, and trusted that the father knew what was right to do in this situation.
5. “But I’ve Earned it”- But even more, he dishonors his father by
responding in the same way as the younger son; with demands. While the younger son demanded his inheritance, and then left, the elder son is showing now that he too has this expectation of wanting the full inheritance due to him. We see this with the words “I have worked like a slave for you…” How hurtful those words must have been to the father. To hear these words would be the same as hearing: “I really wasn’t doing what I was doing for the family, or because I loved you. I was really working all this time (like a slave) so that I would show that I deserved my inheritance. All this work I have done was for the money I would one day receive!”
We have all been in the place where we begin to doubt the love of someone in our lives. We think to ourselves: “Maybe they just tell me they love me to get something out of me.” Or, “Maybe the love they speak of is just a show to make themselves look good.” Well, here the truth comes out, and the elder son is saying that in essence it was all a show. The work was not done out of loving obedience, but out of subservient obedience.
6. Response of the father- And how does the father respond to the
elder’s son disrespect, and fury, and resentment, and rebellion? It wouldn’t be unheard of for a father of his time and place to disown him on the spot. Instead, we see that he responds with the same tenderness, and love, and forgiveness that he showed the younger son. If we were to summarize what he says to the son, it might sound like this: “My son, despite how you’ve insulted me publicly, I still want you in the feast. I am not going to disown your brother, and I am not going to disown you either. I challenge you to swallow your pride and come into the feast. The choice is yours. Will you, or will you not?” It is an appeal that should have surprised the elder son. It is an appeal that is gracious and dramatic.
You can imagine that the listeners are on the edge of their seats as Jesus tells this story. Will the family be reunited in unity and love? Will the brothers be reconciled? Will the elder brother be softened by this remarkable offer and be reconciled to the father? And we too might wonder the same things, because this is where the story ends. We do not know what the elder son chose to do.
Conclusion: Why would Jesus end the story there? Why doesn’t Jesus tell us how the story ends? It is because the real audience is the Pharisees. Jesus is pleading with them to respond to his message. What is the message? That message we will get to more in the coming weeks. But all in all, it is about connecting with God. Jesus is redefining sin. Jesus is redefining what it means to be lost. Jesus is redefining what it means to be saved.
As I said before, it isn’t about just trying to be good, or go to church, or do the right things…. that will connect you with God and get you into heaven. It is about having the forgiveness of God in your life. The forgiveness we saw offered to the younger son, and the forgiveness that was offered to the elder son. The forgiveness that is offered to you and me.
Really, the end of the story is about how you and I respond. We have sin in our lives. We have dishonored God in many ways. God offers us forgiveness and an invitation to the party. Will you accept you?……………………AMEN.
Luke 15:11-12; 1/10/10
Series: The Prodigal God, by Timothy Keller (Chapter 2)
Introduction: As we continue in our series “The Prodigal God,” we remember from last week that this parable isn’t just about the younger son, but it is about the elder son as well. It is interesting for me to see that there are many in this world that believe that if you are a good person, then that is all that is needed to get to heaven. This viewpoint has a misguided view of sin and holiness. The Bible is clear: “All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” It is also clear that God, in being holy, cannot be in the presence of sin.
So this morning, I want us to take some time to understand that both sons have sin in their lives, and both sons are lost because of this, and both sons need the Father’s unconditional love and forgiveness. Then I want to relate this to how God’s love and forgiveness is there for us.
I. The Younger Son-1. Mutinous- Back in 1789 on the English ship The Bounty there was a
famous mutiny that occurred. This mutiny was led by first mate Christian Fletcher. The reason for the mutiny was because the sailors were attracted to the idyllic life on the Pacific island, Tahiti, and repelled by the alleged cruelty of their Commander (Captain Bligh). They did not want to return to England, but rather wanted to stay on the island with the native women. Beacause of this, Christian Fletcher set afloat Bligh and several other officers of the ship. Then they had to leave the island and sail the ship to Pitcairn Island, where they burned the ship to avoid detection.
In our story of the prodigal, we see a similar kind of mutininous behavior. When the younger son makes a request for his share of the estate, it is a shocking request. The original listeners would have been amazed at such a request. In those days the oldest son received a double portion of what the other children inherited. But this was only done when the father died. Here we see that the younger son asks for the inheritance “now.” This disrespect was like a mutiny, for him to take the money and break away from the family.
2. Self-centered- On top of it being mutinous, it was also very self-
centered. The son only cared about himself. To ask for the money while his father was still alive was like wishing his father dead. It showed that the son didn’t care about what the father, or anyone else thought of him. He just wanted his money, and his freedom, and the opportunity to live his life any way he would choose. He was choosing to disassociate himself from his family.
3. Breaks relationships- Which brings us to his next sin, and that is the
breaking of relationships. It is not hard to see how this request would affect the younger son’s relationship to his father (by being so disrespectful), and to his brother, by walking out on the family. Also, he would be leaving the elder son there alone to do all the work.
Once the younger son gets out into the world, we see that by his wild living he does not intend to develop any significant relationships. His attitude towards his life becomes one of pleasure for the sake of pleasure. While he is spending money, he will have friends. But once he runs out, we see that there is no one there to help him, or to care about his situation. When he finds himself homeless and without money, there isn’t anyone who offers to give him a place to stay or a job to work. He ends up having to live with the pigs. With no significant relationships.
4. Ungrateful- The son is very ungrateful, thinking that he can return to
his father, since he has nowhere else to go. Even though he isn’t asking for full reinstatement, he is believing that in the midst of his terrible rudeness and selfishness, that he still can come back home.
Back then, if you had disgraced the family in that way, you were considered dead. The rabbis taught that if you had violated the community’s standards, an apology was not sufficient—you also had to make restitution. But restitution was not in the son’s plan. Perhaps by asking to become one of the hired men, being given over to one of the tradesmen to learn a trade, he thought he might be able to pay off the debt he owed, but it seems that even more than this, his concern is just for his well being; to have a place to live and food to eat. And so, in the pigsty, he rehearses his speech until he is ready to go back and have this confrontation with his father.
5. Privileged without responsibility- So the first act is the son asking for
his inheritance. The second act is his wild living leading to his plan to return. The third act then is his returning to his father and his home. The son comes within sight of the house, the father sees him, and runs to him. Did you catch that? The father RUNS to the son. As a general rule, distinguished Middle Eastern patriarchs did not run. Children might run; women might run; young men might run; but not the patriarch. But the father picked up his robe and runs to his son. The father shows emotions that are not customarily shown by men. The father falls upon the son and kisses the son.
This would have surely caught the younger son by surprise, in that first of all the son didn’t even expect to be welcomed back in any way, but definitely not with this kind of emotion from his father. Having practiced his speech, the son goes immediately into it, but is cut off by the father who has his own plan. The father calls for the servants, and has the best robe put on his son.
What is the father saying by this? The best robe in the house would have been the father’s robe. This was unmistakable saying that the son had been restored to the family. This was saying that the father wasn’t going to wait until the son’s debt was paid off. This was saying that the son had again received privilege, but with no responsibility to have to earn back his place. The father was covering the poverty of his son with the robe of honor.
6. The Celebration- The celebration that takes place then is the message
that God’s love and forgiveness can pardon and restore any and every kind of sin or wrongdoing. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if you’ve deliberately oppressed others, or how much you’ve abused yourself. The younger brother knew that in his father’s house there was abundant “food to spare,” but he also discovered that there was abundant grace to spare. The son discovered that there is no evil that the father’s love cannot pardon and cover.
This is God’s message to us. We have sin in our lives. Like the younger son we have our times when we have dishonored God. When we have demanded our share of the inheritance. When we have gone off and lived wildly, or broken relationships. But God reminds us through this story, that while we are like the younger son, God’s love and acceptance of us is absolutely free.
II. The Elder Son-
But the story isn’t finished. Jesus has more to share. That is because the story isn’t just about the younger son. The story isn’t just about the recklessness and wildness of the younger son. The story is also about the sin of the elder son.
1. Furious- When the elder brother hears from the servants that his
younger brother has returned and has been reinstated by his father, he is FURIOUS. Now it is his turn to disgrace the father.
He refuses to go in to what is perhaps the biggest feast and public event his father has ever put on. He remains outside the door, publicly casting a vote of no-confidence in his father’s actions. This forces the father to come out to speak to his older son, a demeaning thing to do when you are the lord of the house. The father was the host, but had to leave that role to go and be a father to his rebellious elder son. The father hopes for reconciliation, but instead encounters refusal and anger.
2. Refuses to Celebrate- Anger can create real problems in our lives. Not
only does it cause us to be mean and hurtful to others, but it keeps us from enjoying life. How often have we gotten angry, and our anger left us in a place that disturbed our relationships? Maybe you’ve gotten angry at a spouse and haven’t talked to them for a while, or angry at a child and caused them some emotional hurt.
I have seen people who get angry at someone, and then they choose to not participate in events with this person with whom they are angry. But the sad thing, is that the other person went to the event and had a great time. Isn’t this what is happening here in the story? The elder son is angry at the brother, and angry at the father, and consequently he is choosing not to participate in the party. But the younger son and the father are having a great time.
On top of this, the anger of the elder son is trying to bring down the party, and keep others from enjoying themselves. And so we see that the anger of the son is sinful on many levels. Even as the father tries to calm the son down, it only causes the son to be all the more angry.
3. Resents the cost- Another reason why the elder son is furious, is
because he is upset at the cost of the celebration. The words of the son are: “You’ve never given me even a goat for a party, how dare you give him a calf.” The fattened calf is only a symbol, however, because what the father has done costs far more than the calf. By bringing the younger brother back into the family he has made him an heir again, with a claim to one-third of their (now very diminished) family wealth. This is completely unacceptable to the elder brother. As he adds things up in his mind, he is thinking: “I’ve worked myself to death and earned what I’ve got, but my brother has done nothing to earn anything, indeed he’s merited only expulsion, and yet you lavish him with wealth! Where’s the justice in that?” That is why the elder brother says to his father: “I have never disobeyed you! So I have rights!” The elder brother is insinuating to the father that because of his place in the family as the eldest, he should have been consulted before his father made this decision to restore the younger brother.
4. Insults his father- And so the elder brother’s fury leads him to insult
the father even farther than he already has. He refuses to address the father in the respectful manner that an inferior is to relate to a superior in that culture; especially in public. Remember, even though this is happening outside, it is still visible, and possibly audible to the attendees of the party. He does not speak in a respectful tone, or with respectful words. Such behavior is outrageous, and would have thoroughly embarrassed the father. A modern day equivalent might be a son writing a humiliating tell-all memoir that destroys his father’s reputation and career.
If the elder son truly was one who had stood by his father (when the younger son had not), then the respectful thing to do would be to stand by him now. If the elder son wanted to show his father love, he would have waited for a better time to have this discussion, and spoken to his father with different words. If the elder son had truly respected his father, and was one who sought to honor his father, then he would have given his father the benefit of the doubt, and trusted that the father knew what was right to do in this situation.
5. “But I’ve Earned it”- But even more, he dishonors his father by
responding in the same way as the younger son; with demands. While the younger son demanded his inheritance, and then left, the elder son is showing now that he too has this expectation of wanting the full inheritance due to him. We see this with the words “I have worked like a slave for you…” How hurtful those words must have been to the father. To hear these words would be the same as hearing: “I really wasn’t doing what I was doing for the family, or because I loved you. I was really working all this time (like a slave) so that I would show that I deserved my inheritance. All this work I have done was for the money I would one day receive!”
We have all been in the place where we begin to doubt the love of someone in our lives. We think to ourselves: “Maybe they just tell me they love me to get something out of me.” Or, “Maybe the love they speak of is just a show to make themselves look good.” Well, here the truth comes out, and the elder son is saying that in essence it was all a show. The work was not done out of loving obedience, but out of subservient obedience.
6. Response of the father- And how does the father respond to the
elder’s son disrespect, and fury, and resentment, and rebellion? It wouldn’t be unheard of for a father of his time and place to disown him on the spot. Instead, we see that he responds with the same tenderness, and love, and forgiveness that he showed the younger son. If we were to summarize what he says to the son, it might sound like this: “My son, despite how you’ve insulted me publicly, I still want you in the feast. I am not going to disown your brother, and I am not going to disown you either. I challenge you to swallow your pride and come into the feast. The choice is yours. Will you, or will you not?” It is an appeal that should have surprised the elder son. It is an appeal that is gracious and dramatic.
You can imagine that the listeners are on the edge of their seats as Jesus tells this story. Will the family be reunited in unity and love? Will the brothers be reconciled? Will the elder brother be softened by this remarkable offer and be reconciled to the father? And we too might wonder the same things, because this is where the story ends. We do not know what the elder son chose to do.
Conclusion: Why would Jesus end the story there? Why doesn’t Jesus tell us how the story ends? It is because the real audience is the Pharisees. Jesus is pleading with them to respond to his message. What is the message? That message we will get to more in the coming weeks. But all in all, it is about connecting with God. Jesus is redefining sin. Jesus is redefining what it means to be lost. Jesus is redefining what it means to be saved.
As I said before, it isn’t about just trying to be good, or go to church, or do the right things…. that will connect you with God and get you into heaven. It is about having the forgiveness of God in your life. The forgiveness we saw offered to the younger son, and the forgiveness that was offered to the elder son. The forgiveness that is offered to you and me.
Really, the end of the story is about how you and I respond. We have sin in our lives. We have dishonored God in many ways. God offers us forgiveness and an invitation to the party. Will you accept you?……………………AMEN.
posted by Logan's Blog at 2:46 PM
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