There are three stories Jesus tells - all about "lost" things. The lost sheep and the lost coin are a prelude to the real drama - a lost son. What is crucial to understanding the story is the context: Luke 15:1-3 (NLT)
"Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
So Jesus told them this story..."
The crowd was mixed..."notorious sinners" and "tax collectors" were there. So were the "Pharisees and teachers of religious law". The first ones were there because of the need for forgiveness and hope. They knew they were in great need. They didn't have to translate what Jesus meant by the adjective, "lost". They knew they were far away from God, and had lived recklessly. On the other hand, the Pharisees and the teachers assumed they had no needs like this. As far as they were concerned those who were "lost" were unworthy of God. In the meantime, their own adherence to the law qualified them for a superior status.
"So Jesus told them this story..." and it becomes (in my opinion) Jesus' most famous story.
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.
12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
The young son does the unthinkable...he asks for an estate before his Father dies. It is - for all who hear the story - the ultimate act of despising a parent. Then the son leaves to live a "wild" life. He finds himself one day in a pig pen - no worthy Jew would ever work for, or indulge in the meat of pigs. Finally Jesus says in vs. 17, "he comes to his senses"... (In greek, "heauto" - lit. to come to himself). He comes to see what he has done with himself. So he makes a decision...to go back...- literally to repent. Repentance means to "turn around", and that his what he does. He turns to go back home and is willing to lose his rights as a son, just to be a servant.
Rembrandts portrait of the return of the Prodigal Son is the basis for my favorite Henri Nouwen book: "The Return of the Prodigal Son".
The lost need a Father. But what kind of a Father awaits them? One who will condemn? One who will scold? One who will permit them home, but relegate them to a distance? All sorts of possibilities work there way into our minds...and also the minds of Jesus' listeners. What they didn't think of was that this Father was eagerly awaiting his son's return...and a celebration breaks out... why?
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.
Yet there is not a celebration all around. The older son...the one who had been dutiful, who had not left, nor demanded his share of the estate; who had worked for the Father without regard...this son is angry. AND so, "the Father went out and pleaded with him." This older brother is the Pharisee, the teacher of the law. Jesus' point is not to demean their position, but to show them they are not pushed aside by the Father, but rather by their own will.
Nouwen points out that each of us are in the story. We are the Prodigal son, and we are also the older brother. What each of us needs to become is the Father. It is easy to be religious and because of that filled with pride...a sense of differentness and aloof from "those others". It is easier to do that than maintain the posture of humility that goes with recognizing that ultimately "all" are lost and must be found.
Today's reading ends with 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
We stand before our Savior as welcomed lost ones. He has taken our sin upon himself and he has gifted us with his righteousness...and that's a very good trade for us.
Peace
If you're reading-through-the-bible-in-a-year with me, read 2 Samuel 1, 2, 3
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