Luke 15:11-19

Transcript

00:00:00:23 – 00:00:23:29
Clint Loveall
Chapter 15. In some ways, a high point, I think, of Luke, one of the one of the beloved sections, one of the beloved parables. This is one of those parables, I think, Michael, that no matter how many times you return to it, I won’t say there’s maybe something new in it every time, but there’s something striking in it every time.

00:00:23:42 – 00:00:54:04
Clint Loveall
This is incredibly well crafted. There’s a lot of depth here. There’s more character development in some ways than there are in other parables. This is this is more along the line of like a story. And maybe because it’s relational, because it involves a family, it’s a little easier to connect to. But we will probably spend a couple of days here in this parable, generally known as the parable of the Prodigal Son.

00:00:54:09 – 00:01:14:18
Clint Loveall
Lately, it’s also been called the prodigal of the older brother. Sometimes it’s called the prodigal of the forgiving father, the loving father. It has lots of names, and I think that reflects the depth and the breadth of the characters in it. And the development of those characters. So we’ll just kind of go through a couple verses at a time here.

00:01:14:19 – 00:01:37:12
Clint Loveall
And like I said, we’ll do our best to get as close as we can to some of the depth and the bottom of this. But that’s a that’s a tall order. So let’s jump in verse 11 then. Jesus said there was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to the father, give me my share of the property that will belong to me.

00:01:37:17 – 00:02:06:50
Clint Loveall
So he divided his property between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country. And there he squandered his property in dissolute living. Well, let’s just maybe start there, Michael. This is not really a thing. Scholars, historians point out that this isn’t really a thing that would be done. It’s an incredible a it’s an offensive, really request.

00:02:06:55 – 00:02:37:37
Clint Loveall
The younger son is coming dangerously close to saying, I wish you were dead to his father, or at least I wish I wasn’t part of this family. Also, as the younger son, he’s really guaranteed no inheritance. But for whatever reason, the way the story is told, this son says to the father, Give me what belongs to me. And then, of course, with all of his pockets full of money, he is intrigued by the distant country.

00:02:37:37 – 00:03:01:31
Clint Loveall
And, you know, this is one of the things I like about this parable, Michael, is having preached it, there’s just there’s so many places to dig in. And one of them is the appeal of the distant country. And you get the sense, I think most of us grow up with some restlessness as a kid. We look outside of our hometown or our home area and we think there’s a better life out there.

00:03:01:31 – 00:03:24:09
Clint Loveall
If I could afford it, if I could do it. And here we have that. We have that sense of unhappy meanness, that sense of unsettledness. And we have a young man here, at least the younger man, we don’t know his age, but the younger brother here who wants who wants to get away, says this bold, possibly offensive thing to his father.

00:03:24:14 – 00:03:29:10
Clint Loveall
And then having gotten his request, he takes off.

00:03:29:15 – 00:03:59:42
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, I think one of the, you know, benefits of doing a study like the way that we do it, where we slow down is it gives us an opportunity to see some of the details and facets of a story that you might miss otherwise. Today’s a classic example because you’re exactly right. I think you make the point and you say it well, that this parable in particular is incredible at fleshing out characters and just sharing the story of characters.

00:03:59:42 – 00:04:28:57
Michael Gewecke
And so it makes it a really compelling story, but it’s really worth slowing down and not getting to that part right away so that you can see how the story is being told so well. Luke is really recounting this in a beautiful way because the setup to the story is simple, right? You have a man, two sons, and the younger is framed as the leading character because he is the one who comes to the father.

00:04:28:57 – 00:04:58:37
Michael Gewecke
And in this culture and time and place per your previous comment, the one who would have expectations of receiving the choice goods from the inheritance would be the older son. And so the idea that Jesus is going to begin this parable, this story, this telling, and He’s going to do so with the younger being, the one to initiate the conversation about inheritance with Father, this would have gripped the original hearers.

00:04:58:37 – 00:05:19:30
Michael Gewecke
They would have understood that culturally we’re now talking about a thing that is way out in left field. And Jesus does this. Clint right. Sometimes he gives parables of the sower, which is the thing that everyone can relate to, and it’s about sowing seed. You know, that’s a thing that everybody would have had some experience with in that time and place here.

00:05:19:44 – 00:05:58:12
Michael Gewecke
No one had experience with younger sons demanding inheritances from fathers. And so this story is being told from the very start, within the first couple words as this out of the ordinary, out of the blue, out of the field of even possibility kind of extreme situation that this father has been put into, which is why when we get further down the road, both literally and figuratively, we’re going to discover that the father and the older brother have such an important role in this parable is because of how how the field, the set up for this parable really is.

00:05:58:17 – 00:06:43:21
Clint Loveall
I think, one of the things one of the how do I say this? One of the struggles that we sometimes have with the Bible is it often seems so foreign, the first century so different. The Roman culture very different, and sometimes it’s hard to find points of connection. I think one of the things that makes this story so applicable is we all know a younger brother, maybe we’ve been the younger brother and that that person that for some reason thinks happiness lives somewhere else and they think if they could get to it, life will be better there.

00:06:43:26 – 00:07:20:49
Clint Loveall
And if through no fault of anyone’s, they just are restless. They have that kind of spirit and we’ve all seen that happen. And that person is not particularly good generally at holding on to things. And so Luke tells us he asks for the property and so the father does it. And then this says so much verse 13 a few days later, it is a matter of days between the receiving of his inheritance and the running off to spend it.

00:07:20:49 – 00:07:50:13
Clint Loveall
He it. You can almost see him thinking now I can go, I can go, I can go. And immediately he heads for the far country, the distant country, which is always the place you think happiness lies. We don’t know what country that is. And I think to Luke’s credit, he doesn’t give it a name because again, we resonate with that idea of thinking that our happiness is someplace else.

00:07:50:18 – 00:08:31:18
Clint Loveall
And then what happens when he’s there? He squandered the property in dissolute living, and we’ll find out later that dissolute living is a very cleaned up version of what this young man is doing. That’s sort of Bible speak for immorality and partying. But I think one of the things, Michael, that is convicting about a story like this is that for some of us, this brings a name to mind and it might be our own name in some cases, but I think we know, we feel like we know this person either either personally or relationally.

00:08:31:22 – 00:09:00:14
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, this is one of the aspects of Luke’s storytelling that I am just blown away by in verse 13. Look at how quickly Luke is able to portray this young man being separated from his entire inheritance. It’s literally just a couple of words there. He squandered his property in dissolute living, squandered property and dissolute living gone, and that is the inciting action.

00:09:00:14 – 00:09:29:49
Michael Gewecke
There’s very clearly some expert storytelling happening here, and what you needed to know was you have younger and older brother, father, and now you have inheritance which should have never been asked for, given and lost. That is the that is the necessary start of the parable. Luke has successfully done that in two verses. And so now the rest of this story is all what happens next.

00:09:29:49 – 00:09:58:30
Michael Gewecke
It’s literally a series of what happens next. What happens next? This, this crazy thing starts it all. And now the action following. We’re going to just follow what these characters do in response to, as Luke puts it, dissolute living. What’s the response to it? And this is what makes this so powerful. Remember the context of this parable? Remember where we’ve been all of these stories of the lost things that lost sheep, lost coin.

00:09:58:35 – 00:10:23:43
Michael Gewecke
These are images of the thing that is lost and then the celebration that is really received or found in the finding of that thing. And so here what we start with in the story is lost property, right? The inheritance given it is completely squander the dissolute living. But of course we know that this parables much deeper than the stuff that’s lost.

00:10:23:43 – 00:10:40:43
Michael Gewecke
It’s about the person who was lost in the midst of this entire story. And by the way, there might be people missing. Why not just be one? And so this amazing, complex story has already been set into motion by just a couple few short sentences.

00:10:40:48 – 00:11:00:24
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And then we do get a focus on this young man. So continuing from 14 here, when he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the field to feed the pigs.

00:11:00:28 – 00:11:22:10
Clint Loveall
He would have gladly filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father’s hired hands have bread? Enough to spare, but here I am, dying of hunger. I will get up and go to my father and say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against heaven.

00:11:22:10 – 00:11:50:12
Clint Loveall
And before you I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands. So here we find this man in dire straits. The money is gone, the party is over, the friends have disappeared, and he now finds himself in desperate need. He hires himself out again. Keep in mind, though, that doesn’t say this explicitly in the parable.

00:11:50:16 – 00:12:15:32
Clint Loveall
This is a parable being told by a Jewish man to Jewish people. So the idea that he’s feeding pigs, that he’s working with swine and unclean animal is just another way that Luke says this is the bottom of the barrel for this man. And not only that, he’s looking jealously at their food. He’s coveting what these unclean animals are eating.

00:12:15:32 – 00:12:44:00
Clint Loveall
And it says here even he would have gladly filled himself. And then there’s this detail, Michael, that I think is Luke being a wonderful storyteller. No one gave him anything. So when he didn’t have need at home, he wanted more and his father gave it to him. Now he’s in desperate need away from home in the distant country, and no one will give him a thing.

00:12:44:00 – 00:12:49:48
Clint Loveall
And it’s a really nice way that Luke sets up his change of circumstance.

00:12:49:53 – 00:13:12:03
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. So we go from the ask. That should have never happened to the gift, that should have never been received to the gift that is squandered. And I think it is interesting to Clint that Luke includes this detail, that it wasn’t just that he spent all of that, but now there’s a famine that take place, takes place in the country.

00:13:12:03 – 00:13:38:16
Michael Gewecke
There’s there’s further action that makes his situation even worse. It’s not only the choices he made himself, but it’s the things that happened to him that were even outside of his control. And it’s at that point that he tries to take action. It’s maybe the first besides asking his father for money, the first thing he does besides dissolute living is he tries to hire himself out to try to make some money.

00:13:38:16 – 00:14:12:58
Michael Gewecke
And of course it is indeed in the act of feeding pigs that no Jew could have allowed themselves to do except in the absolute worst of imaginable circumstances. Whatever you think would be bottom of the barrel. This represents that to those who heard this story from Jesus’s lips. And so this idea that he’s longing after the most despicable creatures, food, not even the creature itself is, it’s just a telling of how drastic this young man’s situation has deteriorated.

00:14:13:03 – 00:14:39:00
Michael Gewecke
And it is, of course, the inciting action, The what ifs that flows out of this is what what would happen if I returned to the country the last place I was given something? What would happen if I return there? What might I receive in that place? And of course, as a reader, I mean, our our gut response to that, if we did not know this parable as well as many of us do, we would say, You get nothing.

00:14:39:10 – 00:15:00:48
Michael Gewecke
You got what you got. You got exactly what you asked for, and now you’re getting the fruit of what you’re asked for. It’s just farther down the road. And and that’s exactly what this man deserves. I mean, Luke is making it clear both through choices he’s made and the choices he’s not made, this young man now finds himself at the dead end of where those choices have led him.

00:15:00:48 – 00:15:02:58
Michael Gewecke
And those are his to deal with.

00:15:03:03 – 00:15:43:29
Clint Loveall
Yeah, he has. And what modern language we might call his rock bottom moment. And there’s a wonderful phrase here in the gospel. It says when he came to himself and there’s a sense in which that means when he remembered who he was, when he remembered where he was from. But but when he came to himself, when he got past this false narrative, when he got when he recognized the distant country as not the place that would make him different, but he remembered who he was.

00:15:43:30 – 00:16:12:11
Clint Loveall
It’s a it’s a beautiful phrase here. And from a preaching perspective, it’s a really nice place to to look for some spiritual truth. When he came to himself, he remembered home and he remembered the father. And he said, I will go and say I’ve sinned. I will confess I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as a hired hand.

00:16:12:16 – 00:16:38:10
Clint Loveall
So his plan now is to go back and see if his father will hire him. He if he’s going to work for someone, he says, I’d rather work for my dad. The men there have plenty to eat. And he he takes account of what he’s been and he’s seems willing to pay the price for that, the consequences of that.

00:16:38:15 – 00:17:05:58
Clint Loveall
And so he turns for home no longer in the context of the story. I don’t want to I don’t want to over dramatize size this, but in the context of the story in his mind, he turns for home no longer a son, but an outsider. He goes back to the place that he was once an insider, but he doesn’t believe that’s still true.

00:17:06:03 – 00:17:14:40
Clint Loveall
He believes he’s now an outsider and he hopes that there is a place there for him as a hired hand.

00:17:14:45 – 00:17:37:19
Michael Gewecke
And claimed for the first time in the story, this character, this young man, portrays a kind of awareness of reality, right? He’s received this gift. He’s squander that dissolute living. But now here, this this language, he plans to say, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands. It is true that this is a true statement.

00:17:37:19 – 00:18:09:02
Michael Gewecke
This young man has committed the sins, he’s committed immorality, he’s committed a great sin against his father and the asking and taking of his inheritance. And now, in the midst of all of that, he now seeing himself through that right lens, is going to return and ask for mercy. He’s going to ask for grace, for for forgiveness. And, you know, I think one has to be careful because a text like this can move from Bible exegesis or studying the scripture.

00:18:09:04 – 00:18:30:06
Michael Gewecke
They can move into preaching and devotion very, very quickly. But it was intended to be open to that. And I really think that we have to say at this point in the story that one of the reasons that this I think hits us so deeply is because all of us at some level know what it feels like to turn back, to go home.

00:18:30:10 – 00:18:59:02
Michael Gewecke
All of the doubts and questioning and the imagining of what’s going to happen when you get ready to say I’m sorry to someone who you’ve hurt or when it’s comes time that you have to ask for forgiveness for words you’ve said or things you’ve done. And you know, I have to face the reality of this consequence. That moment is a soul wrenching, a deep and difficult moment in life.

00:18:59:02 – 00:19:20:21
Michael Gewecke
For many of us, it’s a turning point. It’s a it’s a point in life where our choice result in the outcome of what we know today, both sometimes for the good and for the bad. And the reality is this young man now sits in that moment a fulcrum of his life and he’s come to evaluate. It’d be better to be a servant for my father.

00:19:20:25 – 00:19:59:46
Michael Gewecke
I’ve given up sonship, but it’s better to be a servant in his house that is, to be a servant in the wayward country. And so with that, as the presupposition with that is the idea that this story will turn and we will continue asking, as Luke has expertly asked us to ask this entire story, what next? What happens then, once you’ve lost everything, once you’re eating, or when you’re looking at the pig’s food with envy, what will happen next if you try to go home and and he’s leading us down this road and surprising us at every turn.

00:19:59:51 – 00:20:33:54
Clint Loveall
If you’ve never been restless and you’ve never been prodigal, it is perhaps easy to look at this young man and say, Good, he gets what he deserved. He wasted his father’s money, he squandered the dissolute living. He made poor choices and and now he has to face the consequences of that. And he. And that’s right. That’s in the story.

00:20:33:59 – 00:21:15:25
Clint Loveall
But I think what can get missed in that is an appreciation for this young man who took a path realized through hardship. It was a bad path, went to work and then face the consequences in confession and and repentance, saying, I realize what I’ve lost, but I’m going to I mean, yeah, he’s tucking his tail in and he’s going home, but he’s not going home to say, you know, Dad, I, I put me back in the big house.

00:21:15:25 – 00:21:47:19
Clint Loveall
So he’s going back to say, Hmm, can can I be a servant? Will you hire me? And I think we have to be careful because of the way the parable is framed, not to not to under appreciate the journey that this young man has taken. Some of us, for whatever reason, do tend to need to learn things the hard way.

00:21:47:24 – 00:22:10:00
Clint Loveall
And and once we’ve learned those things, they’re good things. And it’s unfortunate that that some people have to have to do that, have to end up bruised in order to learn some truth. But it’s better that they learn. And so we want to make sure we appreciate this young man for facing the lessons that he’s brought upon himself.

00:22:10:04 – 00:22:41:46
Michael Gewecke
That’s really interesting and I think helpful. And I don’t want nor should we spoil tomorrow’s story, but I’m going to make a statement that we’ll come back to in our discussions tomorrow. And that is quite simply, I think, where Luke is going to bring us in the end is going to require us to ask ourselves, Am I like this younger brother who’s made these choices and is now facing responsibility and consequences for those choices?

00:22:41:51 – 00:23:06:25
Michael Gewecke
Or am I like the other brother, which will get to tomorrow? I just want to submit to you in Luke’s parable telling it may be far superior to identify with the younger brother than the older. There’s some harsh reality that lies on the other side of that fence. There’s a sense in which, yes, this is not a story that any of us want to choose.

00:23:06:25 – 00:23:25:37
Michael Gewecke
None of us want to lose everything to bad choices. No one wants to end up hitting the rock bottom of our life. But yet that is all that is universally our experience. We all do hit rock bottom. We all do find experiences in life where we reach the end of ourselves. And the question is, what do you find there?

00:23:25:51 – 00:23:48:43
Michael Gewecke
Do you find the emptiness? You find being supremely alone? Or do you find a father? Do you find someone whose love and grace and compassion exceeds what you could have ever imagined? What do you find at the end? And Luke is helping us see that that experi ence is something that Jesus not only knew, but that Jesus himself taught.

00:23:48:57 – 00:24:00:33
Michael Gewecke
Jesus literally is giving words to a human experience. And I think if we’re humble enough, we will find ourself in this story really almost at every character level.

00:24:00:37 – 00:24:23:58
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I want to I just want to be careful. So we’re not giving things away. But it it is if there’s a sense in which Luke wants us to find a character to identify with, it is perhaps much easier to admit we are one than the other. Yep. So we’ll we’ll come back to that tomorrow.

00:24:24:03 – 00:24:42:28
Michael Gewecke
We hope you come back and that we hope that you’ll join us for that conversation. Certainly give this video a like if you found it helpful and encouraging that does help other people find us as they are studying the Bible for themselves. Subscribe for more videos like these as we continue our daily Bible study until tomorrow. Friends Be blessed.