Parable of the father and two sons – Part One (Luke 15:11-32)
 
How have we traditionally understood this parable?
 
• We mostly know this parable as the parable of "the lost son" or "the prodigal son"
• And we have so far understood this parable as meaning "if we just repent and go back to the father, He will gladly receive us, so let's repent and go back"
• In this way we have made the lost son to be the main protagonist, main character of this story.
• But we'll hopefully see through the message today and next week, with the evidence from the bible, that the main character is not the son, and the main message is not simply "let's repent and go back to the father"
 
Story Background (Jewish social, cultural background of those times)

• In the Jewish law and tradition, the oldest son would get double the inheritance of the rest of the children
• But the inheritance, even if it was divided among the children before the death of the parents, would never be actually given and handed out to the children until after the death of the parents. So the parents maintained the rights to their possessions until they died.
• Not only that, the laws and traditions of the times were very strict in relation to the children's conduct in relation to their parents. To the extent that there were very severe punishments handed down to children who were constantly disobedient to their parents:
 
<READ Deuteronomy 21:18-21>
 
Of course this law of God in the old testament is a way of God telling us the state of those who have rebelled against and left God, and that we all deserve punishment by death.
 
But regardless the Jews were living under this law…. Under this ideology that rebellion against one's fathers is a heinous act, justly punishable by death.
 
The lost son (second born)
 
In that particular context, asking for your inheritance while your father is still well alive, would have been an unthinkable act of disrespect, rebellion and sin. It was almost like saying "I don't care if you're dead or alive" or even "I'd rather you die, so I can have my inheritance". He could easily be treated as one who has murdered his own father.
 
So the religious Jews, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who Jesus was mainly talking to with this parable, would have become more and more infuriated as Jesus told this story.
 
Not only that, the second son then squandered all that money - which would have been a lot of money given the father's wealth - on indulging himself and loose living, to the extent that he became roommates with pigs. He became as filthy as the filthiest things to Jews --> pigs.
 
Remember the Jews didn't even treat gentiles (foreigners) as humans. They treated Samaritans as less than animals. Yet, this prodigal son was not only a servant to the gentiles, but also became as low as a pig.
 
Who does this remind you of?
 
Does it not remind you of Adam? Same as Adam who left God to make happiness and security of his own, the lost son left the abundance of his father, who had enough to fully take care of his servants let alone his sons, taking his limited resources with him to make happiness and security of his own.
 
And of course, this is exactly our lives. This is how we were before we were saved, and we are still like this, constantly searching for our own independence from God --> a life where we are the Gods of our lives, and pursuing our happiness through the pleasures of this world. We too are rebels that deserve death, just like the lost son.
 
Think about it, we say we have been saved and received all we ever will need in the redemption of Jesus Christ, and the new life within Him… YET, are we satisfied in our inheritance to come in the heavenly kingdom, or do we keep asking for an advance payment of that inheritance that we can enjoy NOW?
 
This is exactly the same as the prodigal son whose attitude was "I don't care if he dies or not, I just want my inheritance now". We are killing God just the same way.
 
Repentance
 
But this son suddenly returns to his father.
 
<READ Luke 15:17-18>
 
Here the important words are "he came to his senses". This seems like he came to his senses all on his own, and this makes theologians and scholars to interpret the parable in a very humanistic sense saying "it is up to us to repent and return to God". These theologians are the ones that say we don't need Jesus for salvation, because we can turn to God on our own.
 
The original words "he came to his senses" here are "eij"e Jauto;n de; ejlqw;n (에이스 헤아우톤 데 엘돈)" in Hebrew and Aramaic, which means "returning to self; seeing himself; seeing his reflections in the mirror" type meaning. It means that the son was suddenly able to see himself fighting with pigs for pig food, and realised that he was living the life of a pig.
 
 Who needs to be involved to make this happen to him? To make him realise? What is the only evidence of a child of God coming to see his own sin? Who comes to teach us about sin, righteousness and judgment? The Holy Spirit, the spirit of God

That is, the only way by which children of God realise themselves to be sinners, is by the irresistible grace of our father God. The only way that he was able to repent, as in see things correctly, was by the unilateral grace of God coming to show him.
 
At first I wasn't so sure about this, from just reading this text…. But now I am so convinced. Let me share with you why, as I learnt as well.
 
Whole of Luke 15
 
Today's parable of the father and two sons is the conclusion of Luke 15. This chapter of Luke 15 contains the core of the gospel in it's purest form, to the extent that some gospel theologians say Luke 15 is the heart of the book of Luke. So does it make sense that we can't find Jesus here?
 
Let's see how Luke 15 begins.
 
<READ Luke 15:1-3>
 
So the whole book of Luke 15 is a response from Jesus to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who grumbled against Jesus and resented him,  for being with sinners.
 
So Jesus proceeds to tell 3 parables in a row, non-stop, to give them an answer.
 
Interestingly though, Luke writes "Jesus told them this parable" instead of "these parables". Jesus tells them 3 parables but Luke uses singular instead of plural. That's because the three parables are saying the exact same message of the gospel.
 
Let's take a look.
 
Before the parable of the father and two sons, there are two parables in front of it.
 
o The first one is the parable of the lost sheep where the shepherd leaves 99 sheep behind to go and look for 1 lost sheep, then comes back with the sheep to a celebration because of that one found sheep.
 
o The second parable is the lost coin where a woman loses 1 coin out of 10, but still goes looking for the lost coin and is joyful when she finds it.
 
<DRAW>
 
1. 1 in 100 | Sheep (animal)
2. 1 in 10  | Coins (money)
3. 1 in 2      | Sons (life)
Jesus is using the gradation technique to emphasize God's heart. Even a shepherd is joyful to find one sheep back out of 100, even the bride is joyful at finding 1 coin back out of 10, how much greater will the father's joy be when he finds one of his two sons? This is illustrating God's deep love and affection towards the lost souls.
 As you can see, the three parables are illustrating the same point, the same message.
 
But out of the blue, Jesus connects the parables to repentance.
 
o READ --> Verse 7 is straight after the parable of the lost sheep
o READ --> Verse 10 is straight after the parable of the lost coin
 
As you know, the lost sheep cannot find the shepherd, and nor can a coin find the owner on it's own. Yet, Jesus says that what happened to the lost sheep was repentance and what happened to the lost coin was repentance.
 
In both cases it was the shepherd and the owner of the coin who went after the lost with love and diligence. But Jesus calls this repentance on behalf of the lost, not once but twice.
 
So we can be SURE that the repentance Jesus speaks of is one born out of the work of the finder, and not of the lost.
 
…. Then comes the story of the lost son, where the son also repents. Like I mentioned earlier, the original words that "he came to his senses" has the meaning of "finding one's self, realising one's self". All this son was doing was living a loose life filled with indulging one's physical and worldly desires, living the life of a pig, but suddenly the spirit of God comes upon him to make him see that he is a pig.
 
So repentance is realising that:
 
o leaving God to pursue a life of happiness and satisfaction independent of God is like life of a pig in a pigpen
o all the things of the world that we pursue are nothing but pig food
 
How?… by God's grace 

Repentance isn't shedding tears and saying sorry for the few things you remember doing bad.

 So to summarise, what is Jesus doing here?
 
He is using the lost son to describe God's heart towards the tax collectors, the prostitutes and all the sinners, in response to the resentment of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.
 Jesus is saying "Yes, I know that you are angry at the behavior and conduct of the lost son, to the extent that you'd like to punish him with death, just as you despise the tax collectors and the prostitutes I'm eating with. But you have to know that the Father's grace and love is so great to even cover the filth of these sinners"
 
The message isn't simply "if you repent God will forgive you", but the message is "this is who God is. He is the one who by His grace and love, goes to find His children and rescues them, redeems them as His own."
 
Conclusion
 
In conclusion, when was the son able to see his father? When was he able to see the goodness of his father, the goodness of his father's grace, his need for his father?
 
When, by the grace of his father, he was able to see his pigness - fact that he was a pig.
 
Similarly, Job makes the confession that "I had heard of you and I knew about you, but now finally I can see you, I know you" only after Job lost all his possessions, his wife, even his children. After everything in his life was stripped away
 
In this way God's intention for us is to correctly see that we are nothing but dust, nothing but a jar of clay in the hands of the potter. Only then will we see Him for who He is, and that we really need him.
 
In our lives as God's people, He will continue to expose us so that we are placed in that position of humility, position of the lowest of the lowest.
 
After seeing himself correctly, the son is of the attitude that "I am not worthy to be his son". He knows better than anybody that he deserves death and that there is a high probability that he may be stoned to death by the community upon his return. Yet he submits to that possibility. And the son goes back to the father with the thought that "I will be his servant".
 
This is very well described in the book of Psalms:
 
<READ Psalms 84:10-11>
 
This is the life of the Christian, to know we deserve to face eternal damnation if God wills it, and to submit self to the grace of the father. 
 
The more we know the greatness and mightiness of God, the more we should see the littleness of ourselves. The less and less we should be proud of ourselves. Ultimate, we should be able to make the confession "I am not worthy to enter your kingdom, it is excessive for me to even be the gatekeeper. No, I cannot have any say if you were to send me to hell".
 
Only then will you come to value God, praise God and love God. I pray and hope that you'll see this in you, in Jesus' name.


Part two of this parable to come next week when we’ll discuss more in depth the actions of the father and the older son when the younger son returns.