Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRO: Milk Carton Kids

Transition:

Context:

the parable of the prodigal son, implies that it is primarily about the younger son.

Such is not the case, however.

Though he does not appear until the end, it is actually the older brother who is the main focus of the parable.

The tax collectors were not highly regarded, for they both helped the hated Romans in their administration of conquered territory and enriched themselves at the expense of their fellow-countrymen.

They were ostracized by many and regarded as outcasts by the religious.

The sinners were the immoral or those who followed occupations that the religious regarded as incompatible with the Law.

Read v.25-32

One way they tried to discredit Jesus was by attacking Him for associating with the “unsynagogued” riffraff of Jewish society, the tax-collectors and sinners (15:1–2).

That Jesus associated with Satan’s people (as they viewed them) instead of God’s people (as they viewed themselves) proved, they argued, that He could not be from God.

Remember why tell the story?

Older brothers were upset v.1-2

Running necessitated gathering up the long robes worn by men and women alike and thus exposing the legs, which was considered shameful.

He became at that time the object of shame—taking shame on himself to prevent shame on his son.

Even more shocking was what he did when he reached the prodigal; he embraced him despite his impoverished filthiness and the vile rags he wore and repeatedly kissed him.

That gesture of acceptance, love, forgiveness, and reconciliation would have further shocked the scribes and Pharisees.

Here in this father the Lord Jesus Christ presents Himself, the one who left the glory of heaven, came to earth and bore the shame and humility to embrace repentant sinners, who come to Him in faith, and give them complete forgiveness and reconciliation.

And this party, like the first two, in reality honored not the one found, but the finder, who sought his son and gave him full reconciliation through his merciful forgiveness and gracious love.

God patiently pursues older brothers

God’s patience

1st Sin was sin of passivity… (Same as Adam)...

The people listening to the story would have wondered why the Lord did not bring in the older brother at this point to act as a mediator.

That would have been expected.

If he truly loved his father, he would have defended his honor from the irresponsible actions of his younger brother; if he loved his brother, he would have intervened to prevent him from ruining his life and heaping shame on everyone.

He bears shame for his absence.

The picture is of a loving, generous father who gave his all to two ungrateful, unloving sons, both of whom had absolutely no relationship to him, or to each other.

Older brothers

Are often unaware of their own sin

In its original setting the parable clearly has the Pharisees in view in the older brother.

They stand close to God, at least in an apparent way, and appear to have an inside track to his blessing.

starts off he is just unaware… the whole village is having a party (fattened calf feeds 200)… he doesn’t even know it is happening.

When he came in from the field and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.

That he knew nothing of the reconciliation and had not heard the sounds of the party earlier indicates the huge size of the family estate designed into the story.

Surprised at finding a village-wide celebration in progress that he knew nothing about, he summoned one of the servants (perhaps one of the young boys hanging around the fringes of the party) and began inquiring what these things could be.

He was not in the loop regarding the party, even though as the firstborn the responsibility for planning it should have fallen to him.

Further, it was his resources, from his share of the estate, that were being used for the party, yet he had not been consulted.

Legally, his father did not have to get his permission to use the resources, even though he had already dispersed to him the remaining two thirds of the estate.

As noted above, the father retained control (according to the legal principle known as usufruct) of the estate as long as he lived.

But his father’s failure to consult him indicates once again that the older brother had no relationship with him or his younger brother.

In terms of his relationship to his family he was metaphorically, as well as literally, far away in a field.

All along, though, he had been wicked like his brother, only inwardly, not outwardly.

But this event exposed his real attitude.

What is the problem?

USE THIS WHEN RETELLING THE STORY

The scribes and Pharisees would have applauded his reaction.

Finally, they must have thought, someone is upholding honor and acting righteously in anger over the son’s shameful sin and the father’s shameful forgiveness.

They would have considered his father’s actions outrageous and shameful, in the same way they considered Christ’s associat ing with tax collectors and sinners wicked.

And picturing them, the older son was a hypocritical legalist, doing what was expected of him on the outside, but inwardly filled with secret sins, such as bitterness, hatred, jealousy, anger, and lust (Matt.

23:28).

The truth is, he was more profoundly and truly lost than his profligate younger brother, because he had spent his life convincing himself and others that he was good and morally upright.

That made it impossible for him to acknowledge that he was in reality a wretched sinner.

So it was with the scribes and Pharisees, they were “the righteous” that unlike “sinners” would not come to repentance (Matt.

9:13).

Its like the person who says I never break the speed limit while speeding or I never interupt people while interupting you or I never lie while talking.

“I have never neglected a command of yours” (cf.

Luke 18:21).

Reflecting the amazing capacity for self-deception

2. Mistake proximity for intimacy

THE PARABLE IS open-ended.

It calls on Luke’s readers to reflect on what they would do if they were in the older brother’s sandals.

Would we accept the sinner home and celebrate, or would we be too worried about ourselves to share in the joy of the return?

The parable obviously implies that we should respond as the father calls the older son to do.

We should pursue sinners and welcome them with joy when they return home.

The text also warns us through the older brother that activity for God by itself or proximity to him is not the same as knowing him through a relationship grounded in a conscious, humble turning to him.

3. Live/Act like servants instead of sons or daughters

Older brothers don’t understand forgiveness

Like let me repay

was to be allowed to work toward restitution (cf.

Matt.

18:26) of all he had wasted and after that hope to be reconciled with his father.

The scribes and Pharisees would have agreed that he needed to confess, repent, be humiliated, shamed, and perhaps receive forgiveness and mercy, but only after making full restitution.

In their thinking, people earn their way back from shame.

The father responds without defensiveness, noting that the older son already has access to what is the father’s.

Given that the older son represents the Pharisees, this detail suggests that the full rights of sonship are the older son’s as well, if he asks for them.

But the celebration for the sibling (“this brother of yours”!) is necessary, since he is back from the dead.

A sinner found is a cause to celebrate.

THE PARABLE IS open-ended.

It calls on Luke’s readers to reflect on what they would do if they were in the older brother’s sandals.

Would we accept the sinner home and celebrate, or would we be too worried about ourselves to share in the joy of the return?

The parable obviously implies that we should respond as the father calls the older son to do.

We should pursue sinners and welcome them with joy when they return home.

The older brother sees God more as a taskmaster who uses his services rather than as a gracious Father.

When we come to God on the basis of his grace, humbly recognizing our need for him rather than trying to earn his favor, we find the arms of God ready to welcome us in celebration.

We risk missing the joy of relationship with God when we turn him into a scorekeeper.

Jesus did not let the Pharisaic censure interfere with his ministry.

He had come to help sinners, which he could scarcely do if he did not meet them.

We should not let the modern chapter division make us miss an important point.

Jesus has just made an uncompromising demand for whole-heartedness as he showed what following him meant.

He finished with ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear’.

Luke’s very next words tell us that these sinners came near to hear him.

Whatever the case with the Pharisees and their like, these sinners had been challenged.

They knew what discipleship meant.

They were called on to hear.

And they heard.

20.

So he went back.

Significantly Jesus does not say to his own village or even to his home, but to his father.

and he kissed him (cf.

David’s forgiving kiss of Absalom, 2 Sam.

14:33).

He had already gone out to meet one son and he now went out to plead with the other.

But he was met by a torrent of words as the pent-up feelings of years came tumbling out.