Over the past couple weeks I’ve been teaching on the parable of the prodigal son. Through the research process in preparing for these teachings I’ve learned so much and been re-awakened to how beautiful this story is, so I thought I would share some thoughts about it with you. I can’t include everything I would like in this relatively short post, but hopefully I can at least get you thinking!
The parable of the prodigal son is one of the most well-known parables told by Jesus. It can be found in Luke 15:11-34. While the story is very well-known, the main point that is being made is often easily missed. Many people tend to focus on unconditional forgiveness as the most important point, and while that is a piece of the parable, it is not the primary one.
Before I dive in, I would like to say that the book The Prodigal God by Tim Keller is a great resource on this parable, and just on the gospel in general, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
The Younger Son
The younger son in this story almost certainly represents the tax collectors and sinners, who had upset the Pharisees at the beginning of Luke 15 by flocking to Jesus. The point Jesus is making here is pretty clear; those who are considered sinners and abject failures by religious people are just as available for salvation as anyone else. God freely welcomes those who come to Him, and he embraces them enthusiastically, regardless of their past mistakes.
This point is the one which is often given the most attention when people talk about this parable. Ironically, it is probably the least critical of the three points I am covering. This is certainly a beautiful truth of the gospel, but in this context more than anything it seems to serve as preparation for the second point made with the elder son.
The Elder Son
When Jesus tells this parable in Luke his target audience is primarily Pharisees and Scribes, who had been complaining about the “sinners” flocking to Jesus (Luke 15:1-2). Thus, we would expect teaching directed at them, and that is what the illustration of the elder brother brings.
Many people see the problem of the elder brother as simply not being accepting of his sinful younger brother, and so they say the point is that we should just be less judgmental. However, if we understand the elder brother in context as a critique of the Pharisees and Scribes to whom Jesus was speaking, the meaning gets much more intense.
The elder brother in the story is actually no better than the younger brother. Though he seems to have been obedient and good all his life, when he refuses to go into the giant party his father is throwing, we should see that as an extremely embarrassing and blatant act of disrespect. This was no small dinner his father was hosting; he had killed the fattened calf (v. 23)! The older brother showed just as much disrespect here as the younger brother did at the beginning of the story.
The message to draw from the elder son is not simply that we should judge less, it is that even obedience can be sinful when it is for the purpose of extorting something from God. Just as the younger son only wanted the father’s material goods, so the elder son ultimately only truly cared about what he got from his father. His obedience wasn’t out of true love, but it was out of a desire to obtain blessings and goods. He felt his father owed him something. This is made evident by his reaction to the return of his younger brother.
If our obedience to God is driven, even subconsciously, by the thought that it gives us leverage, or earns us certain rights from God, we are in a dangerous place. Perhaps even more dangerous than abandoning God, because our lost-ness is so much harder to recognize. Through the elder brother, Christ presents a scathing indictment of the religious people of the day, warning them that obedience for the sake of obtaining blessings is just as bad as outright rebellion.
The Larger Context
The story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is preceded by two other parables; the story of the lost sheep and the story of the lost coin. In all three stories, the finding of what was lost ultimately results in celebration and rejoicing on the part of the finder. Thus, based on the context we can see that the celebration in the story of the prodigal son must be the main point. Through all three stories Christ is illustrating that any sinner, even the tax collectors and sinners who were despised by the Pharisees, is precious to God (and that indeed the “morally upright” are still sinners). This parable is a call for all to recognize their lost-ness, including those who who are “good” or “religious”, and their equal standing before a loving God who will rejoice at that realization.
This parable is at the same time a beautiful tale of redemption and a strong rebuke to the religious elite. Each one of us probably has traits of both sons in the story, ultimately boiling down to our desire for God’s blessings over God Himself. As we see it in ourselves may we lean on God’s grace to increase our love for Him.
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