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The Parables of 4 Lost
Prodigals Luke 15:1-32 This is somewhat the situation of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:16 when following his encounter with the risen Christ he said he “immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood;” neither could he be dissuaded by anyone who would discourage him; he immediately arose and stood upon his feet, in obedience to the heavenly call, being moved by divine grace, and he left the “far country,” the “citizen,” the “swine” and the “husks” in the pigsty to return to his father’s house. The truth is that if he should wait for a time when he is better he wouldn’t ever return, why? Because the nature of fallen flesh doesn’t change, it is totally depraved! This is the reason why we read in Jeremiah 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” And why the David writes in Psalms 14:1-3 “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” And the Apostle Paul looks at these same words of David and writes in Romans 3:10-18 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.” We sometimes sing a hymn called “Come, Ye Sinners” and the words of the last stanza says:
In the case of the young man here many people mistakenly believe that this is a picture of a dead alien sinner coming to his senses and going to Christ that He may be born again and receive everlasting life. But is not what Jesus is teaching here. Remember in the beginning of this parable that Jesus was careful to say in verse 11 that “A certain man had two sons?” let’s not lose sight of the fact that both of father’s sons are alive! Nowhere in the parable does Jesus indicate that either of the sons dies! The fact is that the younger son is very much alive, but he has left his father’s house and is now is living in a “far country,” while the other elder son, who is just as alive as the younger son remains at home. Therefore to say that the younger son is dead is to misrepresent the words of Jesus. But what about what Jesus says in verse 44? Doesn’t Jesus say concerning his younger son that “this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found?” The answer is yes of course he did. And I’ll address this in more detail when we get to this verse, but suffice it for now to point out the fact that we are not looking at a dead man in the text, he is very much alive throughout the entire parable. In John 10:10 Jesus says concerning His living sheep, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Notice that He is saying that He gives to His living sheep “life” and not only “life” but He gives them abundant life. What’s this abundant life that Jesus is talking about? The Greek word used here by Jesus in this passage for “abundantly” is perissos, per-is-sos' which means to go beyond; to be superabundant or superior in quantity. Not a superabundant or superior of life in heaven, but a superabundant or superior life here on earth! The later in John 10:27-30 Jesus speaks of His sheep, (not dead sheep, but only living sheep,) “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and My Father are one.” Oh, and lets’ not forget the words of Jesus in John 6:44 “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” What then prompted the young man to “come to himself?” If he were dead he would not be able to “come to himself.” The truth is that the young man is alive, and he is in need of the abundant life that only Jesus Christ can give him! Therefore he is prompted to consider the blessings of his father’s house, and to come to oneself is the act of true repentance! Now back to the young
man again, what was it that he purposed in himself to do? He purposed to
arise, and go back to his father, and his resolve prompted him to
immediately go without delay; he didn’t wait, he did not put it off till
later; no, he struck while the iron was hot. He didn’t go halfway, and
then say I’m too tired and can’t get any further, but, weak and weary as
he was, he made a thorough business of it. And it occurs that many people do not actually understand the meaning of “his father’s house.” The house doesn’t mean the actually house that his father lives in, it means his relations; his father, and mother, and his brothers and sisters, i.e. his family; and so not only did he leave his father, but he left all of his family too. Now notice that his father saw him while he was a “great way off?” The Greek word here is mak-ran' ap-ekh'-o which means from a great distance. How far away do you think the young son was from his father when his father saw him? In a natural sense he saw him coming just over the horizon, or from the furtherest hill from his house. But consider this in a spiritual application. How far away did our heavenly Father see His fallen, sinful children? The answer of course is that God the Father saw His children from eternity past! He saw them and loved them, and placed them in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world!
Could his father forgive him for his grievous sin against him? Could it be possible that he would welcome him home again? And if so, what would be his place in the family? The answer to all three questions is yes! Consider Jesus! While He was still hanging upon the cruel cross, having His hands and feet driven through with nails, with a crown of thrones driven deep into His head, He prayed to God saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). And as parent we are to live by this example when our children are foolish and disobedient, and when they repent and humbly submit themselves to us, that we are not harsh and hard with them, but instead follow after the admonition of James in James 3:17 “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy;” let us be followers of God, and be merciful, as He is toward us. And so notice how the father received his wayward repenting son: “When he was yet a great way off his father saw him, compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” And notice that His son hasn’t said a single word! Even before he asked he answered! The truth is that God knows our hearts! David said in Psalms 32:5 “I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.” The Apostle John says in 1 John 2:1-2 “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (Not the sins of the whole world of Adam’s race, but the sin of the whole world of God’s elect.) Oh, how lively are the images that are given to us here by Jesus! The father sees his son through the eyes of grace and mercy, and his eyes are life giving eyes! Before anyone else saw the son; before anyone in the town where they lived, before anyone in the family saw him, His father saw him! There is joy in heaven and among the angels when “one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7,10)! Here were bowels of mercy, and those bowels turning within him, and yearning at the sight of his son: He had compassion. Misery is the object of pity, even the misery of a sinner; though he has brought it upon himself, yet God has compassion:
And he
“ran, and fell on his neck.” His father ran to him “and fell on his neck!” I can just see this in my mind, his father each and every day no doubt went out and looked at the distant horizon in hope that he would one day see his beloved son. Then on that day, he saw the small figure of a man just coming over the hill, and he knew instantly that it was his son! Thus he arose and ran with all haste to meet him and embrace his son and to shower him with kisses of a father’s unfailing love! He ran to meet his son, who had left years earlier in self-pride, he was then clean and well fed, and now he returned in shame and humiliation, he is dirty, hungry and lean, and is almost an unrecognizable sight by human standards. This is very much like the image of many of those who were liberated from the Nazi death camps! This is his child; his erring and repenting son, coming slowly toward home, toward his father’s house. It was considered a shame and beneath the dignity of a man in the Middle East, especially a man of his advanced years to run. And yet Jesus says that he ran to meet his repenting son. To run in that time was not as easy as it sounds. Both men and woman wore long flowing robes down to their feet, and so if he were to run, he would have to reach down and gather up his tunic so he would not trip. And in doing this he would by necessity show his bare legs which in that culture was considered humiliating and shameful. So here’s the question: if it was considered humiliating and shameful for a man to run in that culture, why did the father run when his son returned to him? After all he could have easily have waited and his son would have come to him where he was waiting, right? So what motivated him to shame himself that way? And his father knows how the town will treat his son when he arrives home. Before I answer these questions, there is something that we also need to understand about first-century Jewish customs that we are told about in the parable but which all Jewish listeners would have been aware of. You see when a Jewish son lost his inheritance among Gentiles, and then returned home, the community would perform a ceremony, called the kezazah. Kezazah literally means “the cutting off.” When a Jewish member of the town left and went to live with the Gentiles and spent all of his wealth and then wanted to return to his town he would be met at the gate where everyone would gather together and a large pot would be broken in front of him and they would yell, “You are now cut off from your people!” And the whole community would reject him. But his father loved him so much that he already had a plan to save his son! Day after day he would be watching for his sons return, and as soon as he saw him coming down the road that leads to the town, he was going to run quickly to meet him before he gets close to the town and he was going to welcome him back and protect him from the wrath that he knows surely awaits him. He will reconcile with his son in public, and then no one will treat his son badly. But in order to do so the father must first humiliate himself in front of everyone. So, why did the father run? He runs – and shames himself – for his son sake! Because of his great love for him! When he runs it is a public witness of what takes place at the edge of town between the father and his son! This removes the public dishonour of the son, and thus the will be no kezazah ceremony; there would be no rejecting this son - despite what he has done. The son had repented and returned to his father, and his father has taken the full shame that should have fallen upon his son and clearly shown to the entire community that his son was welcome back home! What can we take away from this? Our heavenly Father has taken the shame away from us and laid it upon His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who willingly endured the cross on our behalf. He took upon Himself the shame of our sins’ so that we would not have to. As a result we are forgiven, restored and “accepted in the beloved.” Because of what Christ has done for us we do not have to fear going home to our Father’s house, which is the Lord kingdom church, and to confess our sins, no matter what we have done, or how many times we have done it. The son is forgiven and received by the father and is also forgiven and received by the whole community!
By the way when we do the math we find that “seventy times seven” is 490 times every day!
In the parable, in the same way that only the father could restore the son to full sonship in the family. And in our case, we are sinners, and there is nothing that we can do to restore our lost relationship with the Holy God of the Universe. Jesus Christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves! [CONTINUED] |
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