It has been said, in truth, that there are only two types of people: the saved and the lost. That’s it. Just the redeemed and the unredeemed. The forgiven and condemned. Those who are in Christ and those who remain in Adam.
This binary perspective of people is quite important. For those of us in Christ, it should remind us of our unity. And for those not in Christ, it should remind us of our need to share the gospel.
But this does not mean that we should only look at people this way. Primarily, yes. Solely, no. Who we are is more comprehensive than that. We are not clones, all with the same skills, talents, abilities, experiences, and needs. To fail to see this and account for this is failing to appreciate God’s creative design of humanity, one that reflects His very nature. For even within the perfect and complete unity of the Trinity, we find distinctions.
The Father is God, but He is not the Son or Spirit.
The Son is God, but He is not the Father or Spirit.
The Spirit is God, but He is not the Father or Son.
Such a perspective of people—again, primarily in one of two groups, but secondarily unique—matters as we serve kids today and as we seek to share the gospel in word and deed in our culture. It is also important to remember as you read and teach this week’s Bible story of the prodigal—or lost—son. Because in this story, we see not one lost son, but two. And they are lost in very different ways.
Overview
Before we delve into the two sons, let’s set the stage of the parable first. As I shared in the last blog post, it is important to keep the context in mind as we study parables—to see what point Jesus was making.
Luke 15 opens with the Pharisees and scribes complaining that Jesus was eating with “sinners.” By “sinners” the Pharisees and scribes were employing their own binary view of people, only theirs was flawed. The Pharisees and scribes considered themselves “good” because they behaved properly. They washed their hands the right way. They ate the right foods. They prayed and fasted. And in these actions, they believe they had found God’s acceptance. Meanwhile, “sinners” were all those who failed to do what they did, but those who drew their ire the most were those who were obviously sinners. Such as tax collectors, who betrayed Israel by collecting taxes for Rome, an occupying force. Such as prostitutes and those who interacted with Gentiles. These were all obvious sinners, and Jesus had no business eating with them. A shared meal connoted acceptance, so by eating with sinners, Jesus was broadcasting that He accepted them. No good religious man would do such a thing.
This is the pride that Jesus wanted to expose when He told His triplet of “lost” parables. First, He shares about a shepherd who loses one sheep and leaves the other 99 to find it. He is overjoyed when he finds that one lost sheep and when he returns home, he invites his neighbors to celebrate with him.
It’s not difficult to see Jesus’ point: the shepherd represents Him and the lost sheep is a sinner. But just so that this is not lost on the thick-headed and hard-hearted Pharisees and scribes, Jesus connects the dots for them:
I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance. — Luke 15:7 (CSB)
Translation: “God loves ‘sinners’ and seeks them out—which is why I am here. You should rejoice in my eating with these image-bearers.”
Jesus then tells a second parable with the exact same message: the lost coin. A woman loses a coin, but instead of being content with the other 99, she looks all through her house to find it and celebrates when she does.
But them, Jesus rolled into a third parable—the lost son, but perhaps we would be better to call it the parable of the lost sons.
The younger brother
A man had two sons and the younger son decided that he wanted a different life. So he demanded his share of his father’s inheritance—in essence telling his father he wished he were dead.
This son then went off and squandered all the money had had been given, leaving broke, feeding pigs. Don’t miss this detail. Pigs were unclean, so this is beneath low for a Jew to do. Imagine Jesus telling this story to the Pharisees, scribes, and people around Him that day. Imagine the audible gasp when Jesus spoke of the son demanding his inheritance. Imagine the laughs and chuckles when Jesus spoke of the son feeding pigs. This is exactly what he would have deserved—to be brought so low for his greed and lack of love—respect even—for his father.
This son then comes to his senses (I love that phrase in v. 17), and recalls his father’s love and compassion. So he decides to return home, trusting that his father will accept him as a servant, and he would have a better life than the one he had with the pigs.
We know the story. The father sees him from afar, indicating that his practice had been to search the horizon for the son, and then runs to him—an inelegant display revealing the father’s joy and urgency in reuniting with his son. The father does not welcome back his son as a servant—he doesn’t even allow him to finish his pitch to that end—rather, he restores the son to his full position as beloved son.
What an act of compassion! What an act of forgiveness! What an act of grace!
It’s not difficult, once more, to see how this parable follows the blueprint of the first two. The father is Jesus. The prodigal is the sinners. The point the same.
But this parable is not over.
The older brother
Jesus had made His point about loving sinners…three times. But there was another point He wanted to make to the Pharisees and scribes. This time, the Son of Man with eyes like fiery flame (Rev. 1:14) fixed His gaze on them. It was time to talk about the older son.
When the older son returned from the fields and learned what had happened, he threw a fit. That his younger brother—the terrible son he was—had returned home and been welcomed by the father was too much for him. He became enraged. How could the father do this? The younger brother didn’t deserve it. He was the good son. He was the son who had been “slaving” (don’t miss this word’s implications) for years. He was the one who had obeyed the father every step of the way. And yet, he never even got a goat.
Notice the lack of relationship. The older son defends his anger as righteous indignation based on his behavior for the father, not his relationship with the father. And in doing so, he reveals his true motive for such behavior. It was not love. It was not joy. It was to receive reward.
And in the older son, Jesus presents another type of sinner who is just as much in need of forgiveness as the younger son. The first son would be rightly condemned as a rebel, and only was a son because of the father’s mercy and grace. But the older son was no better. He should be rightly condemned as a legalist, just as much in need of the father’s mercy and grace. This son represents the Pharisees and scribes. The CSB Study Bible provides a good summary of the case Jesus makes against these religious leaders in His extension of this third parable:
They did not understand (1) the opportunity for a close relationship with God, (2) the generosity of his grace, (3) his joy at the salvation of sinners, or (4) the profound transformation of conversion. Perhaps most crucial of all, however, is the reminder of kinship to the sinners intended in the phrase this brother of yours. Like the older brother in this story, the religious leaders refused to accept their Jewish brethren, the “sinners.”
Holman Bible Staff, CSB Study Bible. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017) Retrieved from https://app.wordsearchbible.lifeway.com, 1639.
So where do we go with this parable? Exactly where it takes us: to consider how we might rebel against God in different ways. Some of our kid will be more like the younger son—they might be in active rebellion against God. But some of our kids—perhaps most of them—will be like the older son. They believe they have earned God’s favor by their behavior. Being at church. Reading the Bible. Obeying their parents. The list goes on and on.
What we want to do is to help kids who can relate to either of these see the beauty of the loving father extending mercy and grace. We want that first group to know they cannot go far enough away where they can never come to their senses (thank you, Holy Spirit) and trust in the love of God, poured out to us in Jesus Christ. At the same time, we want kids in that second group to recognize potential pride that might veil their appreciation of mercy and grace. For some, this might mean putting their “good” works to death and trusting in Jesus alone for salvation. For others, it might be recognizing that the grace that saved them before sustains them now as believers. Somehow they lapsed from grace toward legalism, and they need to come to their senses to live in grace instead (see Galatians). Our job this week is to make sure every kid—and every adult—discovers or is reminded of the beauty of the gospel.
Repentance doesn’t mean just feeling sorry for what we’ve done. It involves action. It means moving back toward God, humbly confessing our sin to Him, and receiving His forgiveness and restoration. When we do these things, God welcomes us back to Himself, forgives our sin, and redeems what we’ve lost when we were away from Him.”
Tony Evans, God Can Not Be Trusted (And Five Other Lies of Satan) (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2005), 60.
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