Seeker of Lost Things, Part 4

Greetings everyone.

Today, I will finish up my examination of Luke 15 and the story of the prodigal son.  The parable of the prodigal son is the third of three parables told by Jesus, in response to the complaints of the Pharisees and scribes that Jesus associates and eats with the wrong kinds of people, the tax collectors and the 'sinners.' 

We see the pattern of these three parables.  Something has been lost.  When they are found, there is celebration.  Jesus tells these parables to defend his association with these ‘sinners.”  These “sinners” are people who have gotten lost and Jesus is trying to help them find their way back to God.  Rather than stand in condemnation of them, like the Pharisees, Jesus is trying to help them. 

In our third, we have already discussed the younger son and how he hit rock bottom and returned to his father and a celebration. Now the older brother enters the picture.  He, too, is separated from his father, but in a less obvious way.  While all of this is happening with the younger brother, the older brother is in the field working.  When he returns home. He hears the sound of the celebration.  He inquires as to what is going on, and he learns that his younger brother has returned. This son refuses to go in to the celebration. His father may have forgiven his brother, but he cannot.  

When the father comes out to appeal to his older son to enter the party, the son reveals his true heart.  He says, “Look, I have been enslaving myself for you for so many years, and I have never disobeyed a command from you, and you have never even given me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. Yet, when this son of yours, who took what you worked for your whole life, and squandered it with prostitutes, comes home, you slaughter a fattened calf for him.” (Luke 15:29-30)

The  response of the older son is telling. We can see what he really thinks. First, he views his service to his father as slavery.   Even though everything the father has worked for belongs to the son, the son does not enjoy it and sees himself as being put upon, while his wasteful brother is celebrated.  

He also claims to have never disobeyed his father. This seems to be referring to the Pharisees, who claim strict obedience to the Law. They view themselves as the obedient ones, and don’t understand why Jesus wastes time eating and drinking with these sinners.  He has nothing but disdain for his brother.  He doesn’t even refer to him as “my brother,” but as “this son of yours.” 

The father is full of love.  He does not rebuke his older son for his bad attitude.  He merely explains the situation through the lenses of his fatherly love.  The father does refer to the younger son as ‘your brother.’  His point is that the son was dead to him , but is now alive again, and this is reason for celebration. 

Jesus leaves the story open-ended.  Does the older brother repent and join the celebration?  Does he remain obstinate and continue to refuse to go in?  Jesus doesn’t say.  By Luke 15, the story of the Pharisees is not yet written. They are given many opportunities to repent. Some Pharisees, like Nicodemas, Joseph of Arimathea and Saul of Tarsus become disciples of Jesus, while most of them remain like this picture of the older brother and are estranged from God. 

Whatever the feeling of the Pharisees, Jesus presents his Father as a great father, abounding in love for both the obvious sinner, and the sinner whose sin might not be so obvious.  We all fit into one of those two categories, and either way, we can be assured that we have a Father who loves us in spite of ourselves and who celebrates our repentance.