A Tale of Two Sons

 

Luke 15:11-32

The Parable of Lost Sons

The Gospel Books depict the Pharisees and teachers of the law (scribe) as religious leaders in Jesus’ time. These people have hardened and self-righteous hearts. They despise sinners or anyone who does not conform to their behavioral standards. On the other hand, Jesus has the heart of the Father that loves the world and hope for sinners to repent.

In the preceding text 15:1-2, the Pharisees criticized Jesus, saying, “How can Jesus accept the sinner, and even dine with them?” (15:1-2)

So, in response, Jesus told them the Parable of the Lost Son/Prodigal Son.

The Younger Lost Son

There was a father, he had two sons. One day, the younger son came to the father and said, “Father, give me my share of the estate.”

In that ancient time, if this father died, two thirds of his property would be given to the older son; one third to the younger son. The oldest son would get double portion because he inherited the father’s responsibility of maintaining the integrity and status of the family.

Of course, the splitting of family estate only happened after the father passed away. When the younger son requested for his portion of the estate while the father was still alive, this basically meant he hoped his father died immediately.

The younger son wanted the father’s estate but not the father. He thought that after getting his father’s riches, he would be comfortable and free from the father’s supervision.

What’s surprising is that the father really gave the younger son his share of the inheritance. The younger son then went to a faraway place with the inheritance. He squandered his wealth on alcohol and women and soon he spent everything he had (prodigal means “recklessly lavish, having spent everything”. He was then in poverty and his life was a mess. He became a hired hand ho looked after pigs.

As he was lying in the mud and couldn’t even eat the pods that the pigs were eating, he realized that he was a fool. He came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I want to confess my guilt to my father.” He wanted to go home!

A home is not only a place of residence, but also a place of family relationships, a place of belonging, a place of acceptance and ultimately a place for the soul to find rest.

He knew that merely apologizing could not restore the life to what it was initially. He had broken social ethics and compensation had to be made. He wanted to tell his father, “Father, I do not wish to be a son anymore, I do not deserve it, nor am I worthy of it. I want to be a servant in order to make up for it, to repay my debts.”

So, he went home, and his father saw him from afar. If you were the father, and you saw the son who hurt your family and squandered your wealth, what would you do? Maybe you would show a stern expression and say, “You better act well enough and show that you are pitiful enough, and kneel and beg for forgiveness.”

But how does the story go?

The father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son. In ancient Middle East, children would run, teenagers would run, and women might run, but a father would never run. Running meant that you needed to lift up your robe and expose the feet/calf; this is a self-humiliating behavior. In spite of that, the father did it anyway. He let loose his emotions, ran towards his son, and kissed him.

At that moment, the younger son told his father his plan to compensate his father, but the father did not pay any heed to that. Instead, the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.”

The ring was a signet ring with the family’s seal on it. In that era, the way to sign a contract was not by putting a signature on it, but by placing the family seal that was on the signet ring. The father did not require the son to make up for his guilt. He restored his sonship without any compensation. This is the meaning of free grace. The father even had a feast and celebrated the return of his son. Luke often uses “feasting together inside the house” to signify acceptance, reunion and salvation in the Lord.

Some people are like this younger son who do not want God. They only want what God can give them. These people wish to be independent, live a life they want to live, believing that this will bring them happiness. But in the end, they stumble and fail just like the younger son.

In the parable, the father represents God the Father. Today, no matter who you are, no matter what terrible things you have done, if you go back to the Father’s house, God the Father will accept you, love you, and freely give you grace.

We might just be like the younger son, thinking that we are not worthy, trying to get home with our own methods. We might want to restore things/situations back to the way they were through our works, but the God in the Bible does not need that. He has endowed upon us the rights of a son: a status, identity, and guarantee. Just like that, we are accepted by God through salvation in Christ.

At the end of the first scene, everything seems to be back to normal. The conflict was resolved, the younger son was forgiven by the father, the family was reunited, happy ending, isn’t it?

The Older Lost Son

When the father held the feast, a new conflict arose. The older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So, he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. The servant replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”

The older son became angry and refused to go in. Now it was his turn to sully the honor of the family. He said, “I would not want to be a part of this family. I am the only heir and I do not wish to live under the same roof with that prodigal son.”

This forced the father to go out and plead with him, but he still refused to go in. He told his father in a rough manner, “Look!” Take note that he did not call “father”, and he continued to say, “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him. I’m not going in!”

He did not refer to the younger son as “my brother”, he did not even refer to him as “your son”, but instead he said “this son of yours”. He did not admit that he and his younger brother were family.

The older brother was furious, especially resentful about the expenses of the feast. In that era, people did not have meat with every meal. Meat was a delicacy, and the most luxurious meat was the fattened calf. When the father killed the fattened calf, this meant that the whole village was invited to participate in this expensive banquet.

The older son realized that this was the most important day in his father’s life, but he did not care. What he only saw was his father using his portion of the inheritance in the way that he himself is unwilling to use. He was very concerned about the expenditure, the fattened calf, and his father’s property. He was not concerned about his father’s heart. And of course, he despised his young brother.

When the father went out to persuade the older son, he said, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

This statement is indeed true. When the father distributed the inheritance to his two sons, the younger son already took his portion and spent all of it. Now, the older son was going to inherit all that the father had left. He was the sole heir, everything was his. And now that the younger son is back, his portion had decreased. He was furious, did not give face to his father, causing his father to leave the banquet to clear the truth with him.

The father gently replied his son, “My son, I still wish that you attend this banquet.”

Just when we are anxious about what happened next, Jesus ended this parable. He did not tell us the ending. Why?

Both Sons are Lost though in Different Ways

The older son complained to the father, “I’ve never disobeyed your orders.”

The key is here. He refused to go into the house, causing him to be distanced from his father, not because he had done an obvious sin, but because of his own sense of goodness and self-righteousness.

The younger son cut off and controlled his father by leaving the house while the older son cut off and controlled his father through obedience and staying at home. The younger son obtained the father’s estate through breaking all the rules while the older son through observing all the rules.

Jesus is showing us that both of them are lost, they did not build a relationship with their father; they were cut off from their father.

Humans can get away from God by living a moral and religious life, just like getting away from God through an immoral and non-religious life. Many Christians are like the older son. If you say in your heart, “I am very hardworking, I do my best to obey, I go to church, I pray, I serve Jesus, therefore God owes me salvation and blessing; He must listen to my prayers, give me a comfortable life. When I die, He must bring me to heaven.”

If this is what your heart says, then Jesus is only a model or your employer. He is not regarded as your Savior. You are working to be your own savior. The moral values and religious practices that you do are just to compel God to give you what you want, but not giving God what He desires. On the other hand, a Christian who truly believes in the Gospel and trusts the Lord Jesus obeys and serves God because he loves God, wants God, wants to know God, wants to imitate Christ and find rest, joy and satisfaction in God alone.

The two sons in the parable got lost in their attempt to control their father and obtain the father’s estate, causing them to be separated from God the Father. Whether we are the younger son or the older son, Jesus calls us to come home. Jesus did not tell us the ending of the story because He hopes that we will see ourselves in the story and desire to come home. So, then, how do we come home?

Jesus is the True Older Brother who Redeems Us Home

In chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus actually told three parables of the lost. The first parable is the lost sheep. A sheep was lost, and the shepherd went to search for it and brought it home. The second parable is about the lost coin. A woman went into the house, sweep the house and search carefully for it until she finds it. The third story is the parable of the lost son. However, nobody went out to look for the son to bring him home. Why?

Jesus did this on purpose to make us ask the question: who should go out and search for the son?

During Jesus’ time, the people understood well that it was the older son’s responsibility. Why did the eldest son get the largest portion of the inheritance? It was to preserve the unity of the family, to make sure the family estate remains complete. His responsibility was to make the family look like a family.

Therefore, in this story, a good eldest brother will come to the father and say, “Father, my younger brother left and now his life in in shambles. But I want to go and search for him. I will find him and do everything I can to bring him back, even if it’s at my great expense.”

When the younger son depleted his share of the inheritance, this meant that the older brother will inherit all that the father had left. Every robe, every ring, every shoe and fatten calf belongs to the older brother. When the father welcomed the son home, he spent the older son’s property. Of course, to the younger son, there is no price to pay for coming home; all these are grace freely given. But to the older son, this is extremely expensive for he paid a great price.

We all need a true eldest brother. God cannot allow us to go home just like that. Unless God sacrifices a true eldest brother, God cannot adopt us, accept us, and provide us with food and clothing.

The younger brother in the story unfortunately had an oldest brother who is like a Pharisee, but our oldest brother is different. We have a true oldest brother, who loves and obeys the father. He is Jesus. Jesus is God’s only son; he left his heavenly home and came to this world to bring us home.

Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that me might receive adoption to sonship.”

Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus is the eldest brother who loves God with all his heart, soul, strength and mind, and loves others as he loves himself. He is the eldest brother that has won everything. He won the robe, the ring, the sandals… but what do we see when his life ended? He did not have the robe; he was stripped naked. He did not have the fattened calf; he drank the vinegar. He did not have the ring of glory; he had the crown of thorns.

Today, this true eldest brother is coming to us and telling us, “I did all these for you. I was stripped, or else you cannot be worn; I lost the robe, ring and sandals, otherwise you would not get them. I have won everything, these things are mine, and I give them freely to you.”

Salvation is absolutely free, but to Jesus, it is unbelievably expensive. Jesus Christ’s inclusion of a bad older brother in the story is so that we may desire for a good older brother. We need an older brother who is willing to lay down his life as a price. Jesus sacrificed his own life on the cross to pay for our sins. Deep in our hearts, we know that this is a debt we owe. He died on the cross for our trespasses and self-righteousness so that he can bring us home.

Tim Keller describes God as a “prodigal God” for He had lavishly spent all (free grace) – having Christ died on the cross in order to save sinners.

Are you moved by the sacrifice that Jesus made to bring you home? If you are moved by him, it will transform the way you treat God, according to the degree that you have been moved. You would not simply become an ethical person, you would not simply want self-actualization or self-fulfillment, but you will become a true Christian.

A true Christian will happily go into the feast of salvation with a grateful heart. He will not make a fuss over any and every little thing, nor will he be annoyed and anxious. He will love others even if there is a price to pay. He will not lose hope even if he lost some wealth or is criticized. He knows that he is merely a sinner who received grace; he knows he will be in the feast with God the Father in the heavenly home. He has already been accepted by God, given the status of sonship and is very grateful, satisfied, no more bitterness, no more worries.

Altar Call and Prayer

Where do you find security and purpose of life? How do you satisfy your heart’s desire and purpose?

I don’t know your answer, but whatever it is, if it’s not God, although it might be something good, it’s not a true home for your soul! It cannot bear all the burdens and longings of your soul.

Our true eldest brother, Jesus, is calling and inviting us to go home and into the banquet of salvation, to find rest in the presence of God, and to have our hearts’ deepest desires fulfilled. Come home, all who are heavy laden by accepting Jesus as your savior!