Let us pray: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” AMEN
(Please be seated)
Jesus told parables to teach the crowds and to explain the Kingdom of God to his disciples. A
parable is a simple story from which a moral lesson can be drawn. The four Gospels are filled with
these stories from Jesus. The parables that are found only in Luke seem to be the most realistic.
This morning we will look at three of these parables.
In today’s gospel reading we have the well known parable of the Prodigal Son. To begin, let’s
look at what was happening when Jesus told this story. I invite you to open your pew Bible to the
New Testament page 59 and locate Luke Chapter 15. In the first verse, we learn that the tax
collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to listen to Him.
In the second verse, we see that the Pharisees and the scribes, the religious leaders of the Jews,
were complaining that Jesus was associating with “low lifes”. They often complained about the folks
with whom Jesus associated—not only tax collectors, but also prostitutes, lepers, the lame and the
sick, the mentally deranged and on and on. Look at the end of verses 2, “This fellow welcomes
sinners and eats with them.” OH NO! Doing this was totally against the law for a Jew.
In response to the grumbling of the religious leaders, Jesus told three parables. These are
familiar stories to us: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. To understand these parables,
it is critical to interpret them within the culture of the world that Jesus lived.
Although the first two stories are not included in today’s gospel, let’s look at them briefly in the
light of the Middle Eastern culture of the first century. In Luke 15:4 Jesus says, “Which one of you,
having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness
and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” In Jesus’ time, sheep were taken to the market in
Jerusalem to sell in groups of 100. If there were not exactly the right number of sheep in the flock
when it reached the market, the shepherd would be in grave trouble. The sheep could not be sold
and the shepherd would not be paid. He would lose his livelihood. This shepherd would have been
highly motivated to find the one sheep that was lost.
Look at verse 8, “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a
lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?” In first century Jewish society, the
ten coins were the woman’s dowry. She wore them strung together as a headdress—the equivalent
of a wedding ring. These coins could not be taken from her, even if a debt were owed. When she
lost a part of her dowry, the woman would have been extremely motivate to find the coin! Like the
shepherd’s one hundredth sheep, her tenth coin was an essential part of her economic stability.
Jesus reports that there is great rejoicing when the sheep and the coin are found! In verse 6 the
shepherd calls his friends and neighbors and says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that
was lost.” In verse 9 the woman calls her friends and neighbors and says the same, “Rejoice with
me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.”
Jesus ups the ante with the third parable. There is a definite progression here. Jesus intensifies
the situation. Now it is not one of the possessions that are lost, the sheep or the coin, but a man’s
son—his flesh and blood—is lost.
Consider this. Kenneth Bailey, in his book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, says that each
parable that Jesus told is “a house within which we are invited to take up residence.” PAUSE Let
me repeat that: each parable that Jesus told is “a house within which we are invited to take up
residence.”
This morning, I invite you to take up residence within the house of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Beginning with verse 11 Jesus says, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said
to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his
property between them.”
Hold on here! Jesus’ audience would have been stunned from the very beginning of this story. The
son’s request to his father would have been unheard of! It amounts to his saying “Hey Dad, why don’
t you drop dead!” What an insult this young man is hurling at his father. The first century audience
would never expect this father to comply with the wishes of this arrogant and ungrateful son. But he
does! Jesus definitely has the attention of his audience.
We know what happens next. In verse 13 we read that the son “squandered his property in
dissolute living.” He gets into big trouble when a severe famine hits the land. He hires himself out to
a landowner who sends him out to feed the pigs. He is starving. I can imagine that the first century
audience was thinking, “He’s getting just what he deserves!” Maybe we think that as well.
Then the direction of the story takes an unexpected turn. In verse 17 Jesus says, “But when he
came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but
here I am dying of hunger!’ Note that the scripture says “when he came to himself”—when he
recognized what was going on—when he was confronted with his wrongdoing, he realized that he
needed to do something different.
He made a plan: go home and face his father. And he prepared a script for just what he would say.
The next part of the story would be astonishing to Jesus’ audience. In the cultural view of the day,
this son would be dead to the father. The father would have already been mourning the death of his
son. There is no way that he would expect the son to return to him, no way that he would even
consider accepting him back into the family.
But in this story Jesus tells his listeners that the father was looking for him, waiting for him and
probably praying for his beloved son’s return! In verse 20 we read, “But while he was still far off, his
father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.”
There are folks that believe that the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” is misnamed. In this view, the
central figure in the story is the father, not the wayward son. This man who shows incomparable
compassion for his lost son should hold the name of the story—the “Parable of the Compassionate
Father.”
Consider this interesting turn in the story. In verse 21, the son repents. “Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Notice that the father
doesn’t dwell on this. He is so overjoyed at his son’s return that he is already instructing his
servants on how to prepare the celebration. He makes sure that his son, who must be skin and
bones covered in rags, is dressed in a manner worthy of his station and fed the best meal possible.
The father “puts on the dog”—he kills the fatted calf—the meal that is reserved for only the most
important people. The father says, “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost
and is found.”
And like the shepherd, who after vigorous searching found the lost sheep, and the woman, who after
diligent cleaning found the lost coin, the father rejoices that his precious son is returned. This is a
most astonishing story. When we see it through the eyes of the first century, the meaning of this
father’s actions intensify. The father is so much more than a “nice man!” He goes against every
accepted practice of the day because he loves his son so much!
Kenneth Bailey says that when we “move into the house of this amazing parable and take up
residence, we can look out on the world from different windows.” REPEAT “We can look out on the
world from different windows.”
There are a number of different things we can see from inside this parable. For example: the
nature of sin, self righteousness, repentance; finding the lost, rejoicing in the found, intolerance of
grace (as we see in the older brother’s response to his father’s unimaginable mercy). Each of these
views is significant and we could spend hours discussing each one of them. I bet you’re not
disappointed to know that I don’t plan to do that this morning.
What matters here is that all of these different views are related to each other. The meaning of
each one can only be understood in relationship to the others.
The MOST IMPORTANT PART IS THIS—the overarching view, the glue that holds this parable
together, is the outrageous, lavish, love of the father.
The point of the parable is that this outrageous, lavish love of the father is merely a shadow of the
love that our Father in heaven has for each one of us.
APPLICATION What does all of this mean to us today?
In this season of Lent we are invited to take stock of our lives and look at our behavior—what we are
doing or not doing that needs realigning. On Ash Wednesday we heard from the Book of Common
Prayer: “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-
examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on
God’s holy Word.
We have gone astray, we have sinned. It is not politically correct in our society today to talk about
sin. But we have sinned against God and our neighbor.
“Sin” to Jesus is not about breaking the law, but about breaking relationship with the Father. The
law is important because it lets us know what is right and wrong. As Fr. Dan told us a few weeks
ago, “If our thoughts or behaviors violate God’s standards, this is called sin and we need to do a
course correction.”
Today, I invite us to expand our view of “sin.” Sin is when our thoughts or actions cause a break in
our relationship with God: as in the parable, the son’s behavior broke his relationship with his father.
A few weeks ago, Fr. Dan gave us a three step process to help us live as good citizens of the
kingdom. Let’s take a brief look at the story of the Prodigal Son and apply his behavior to that
process.
In the first step the son “came to himself.” He came to the realization that his behavior was wrong.
He recognized his misdoing, his sin, and how he had broken relationship with his father.
The second step is course correction and confession. The son made a plan to leave his dissolute
life and face his father. And he followed through and confessed to his father. He told his father
that he had sinned against him and was no longer worthy to be his son.
The third step is going beyond confession to repentance. Repentance is not merely a confession of
sin. It is more, it is a conscious turning away from the things that are displeasing to God. In the
context of Jesus’ parable, repentance is not simply a confession of sin, it is the acceptance of being
found.
Jesus doesn’t tell us how this parable ends. Often he does not tell us how a story ends. He leaves
it up to us to fill it in. How would you end this parable? I choose to believe that the prodigal son
basked in the love of his father and accepted his amazing love. I believe that the changes in his life
were a process that continued as the relationship was restored between him and his father.
This is how the next step in our story can be as we accept the outrageous, lavish, amazing love of
Our Father in heaven. When we come to the realization of our broken relationship, we too can
confess our brokenness, and repent—turn away from our wrongdoing.
Our Father in heaven is seeking us, waiting for us, looking for us to return to Him. Like the father in
the parable, He will meet us—He will run to us when we take the first baby step to come to him.
With God, we have an advantage over the prodigal son and his earthly father. In God’s grace, if we
ask Him, he gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to change our ways and walk in His path.
AND “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous
persons who need no repentance.” AMEN
sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” AMEN
(Please be seated)
Jesus told parables to teach the crowds and to explain the Kingdom of God to his disciples. A
parable is a simple story from which a moral lesson can be drawn. The four Gospels are filled with
these stories from Jesus. The parables that are found only in Luke seem to be the most realistic.
This morning we will look at three of these parables.
In today’s gospel reading we have the well known parable of the Prodigal Son. To begin, let’s
look at what was happening when Jesus told this story. I invite you to open your pew Bible to the
New Testament page 59 and locate Luke Chapter 15. In the first verse, we learn that the tax
collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to listen to Him.
In the second verse, we see that the Pharisees and the scribes, the religious leaders of the Jews,
were complaining that Jesus was associating with “low lifes”. They often complained about the folks
with whom Jesus associated—not only tax collectors, but also prostitutes, lepers, the lame and the
sick, the mentally deranged and on and on. Look at the end of verses 2, “This fellow welcomes
sinners and eats with them.” OH NO! Doing this was totally against the law for a Jew.
In response to the grumbling of the religious leaders, Jesus told three parables. These are
familiar stories to us: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. To understand these parables,
it is critical to interpret them within the culture of the world that Jesus lived.
Although the first two stories are not included in today’s gospel, let’s look at them briefly in the
light of the Middle Eastern culture of the first century. In Luke 15:4 Jesus says, “Which one of you,
having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness
and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” In Jesus’ time, sheep were taken to the market in
Jerusalem to sell in groups of 100. If there were not exactly the right number of sheep in the flock
when it reached the market, the shepherd would be in grave trouble. The sheep could not be sold
and the shepherd would not be paid. He would lose his livelihood. This shepherd would have been
highly motivated to find the one sheep that was lost.
Look at verse 8, “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a
lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?” In first century Jewish society, the
ten coins were the woman’s dowry. She wore them strung together as a headdress—the equivalent
of a wedding ring. These coins could not be taken from her, even if a debt were owed. When she
lost a part of her dowry, the woman would have been extremely motivate to find the coin! Like the
shepherd’s one hundredth sheep, her tenth coin was an essential part of her economic stability.
Jesus reports that there is great rejoicing when the sheep and the coin are found! In verse 6 the
shepherd calls his friends and neighbors and says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that
was lost.” In verse 9 the woman calls her friends and neighbors and says the same, “Rejoice with
me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.”
Jesus ups the ante with the third parable. There is a definite progression here. Jesus intensifies
the situation. Now it is not one of the possessions that are lost, the sheep or the coin, but a man’s
son—his flesh and blood—is lost.
Consider this. Kenneth Bailey, in his book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, says that each
parable that Jesus told is “a house within which we are invited to take up residence.” PAUSE Let
me repeat that: each parable that Jesus told is “a house within which we are invited to take up
residence.”
This morning, I invite you to take up residence within the house of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Beginning with verse 11 Jesus says, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said
to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his
property between them.”
Hold on here! Jesus’ audience would have been stunned from the very beginning of this story. The
son’s request to his father would have been unheard of! It amounts to his saying “Hey Dad, why don’
t you drop dead!” What an insult this young man is hurling at his father. The first century audience
would never expect this father to comply with the wishes of this arrogant and ungrateful son. But he
does! Jesus definitely has the attention of his audience.
We know what happens next. In verse 13 we read that the son “squandered his property in
dissolute living.” He gets into big trouble when a severe famine hits the land. He hires himself out to
a landowner who sends him out to feed the pigs. He is starving. I can imagine that the first century
audience was thinking, “He’s getting just what he deserves!” Maybe we think that as well.
Then the direction of the story takes an unexpected turn. In verse 17 Jesus says, “But when he
came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but
here I am dying of hunger!’ Note that the scripture says “when he came to himself”—when he
recognized what was going on—when he was confronted with his wrongdoing, he realized that he
needed to do something different.
He made a plan: go home and face his father. And he prepared a script for just what he would say.
The next part of the story would be astonishing to Jesus’ audience. In the cultural view of the day,
this son would be dead to the father. The father would have already been mourning the death of his
son. There is no way that he would expect the son to return to him, no way that he would even
consider accepting him back into the family.
But in this story Jesus tells his listeners that the father was looking for him, waiting for him and
probably praying for his beloved son’s return! In verse 20 we read, “But while he was still far off, his
father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.”
There are folks that believe that the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” is misnamed. In this view, the
central figure in the story is the father, not the wayward son. This man who shows incomparable
compassion for his lost son should hold the name of the story—the “Parable of the Compassionate
Father.”
Consider this interesting turn in the story. In verse 21, the son repents. “Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Notice that the father
doesn’t dwell on this. He is so overjoyed at his son’s return that he is already instructing his
servants on how to prepare the celebration. He makes sure that his son, who must be skin and
bones covered in rags, is dressed in a manner worthy of his station and fed the best meal possible.
The father “puts on the dog”—he kills the fatted calf—the meal that is reserved for only the most
important people. The father says, “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost
and is found.”
And like the shepherd, who after vigorous searching found the lost sheep, and the woman, who after
diligent cleaning found the lost coin, the father rejoices that his precious son is returned. This is a
most astonishing story. When we see it through the eyes of the first century, the meaning of this
father’s actions intensify. The father is so much more than a “nice man!” He goes against every
accepted practice of the day because he loves his son so much!
Kenneth Bailey says that when we “move into the house of this amazing parable and take up
residence, we can look out on the world from different windows.” REPEAT “We can look out on the
world from different windows.”
There are a number of different things we can see from inside this parable. For example: the
nature of sin, self righteousness, repentance; finding the lost, rejoicing in the found, intolerance of
grace (as we see in the older brother’s response to his father’s unimaginable mercy). Each of these
views is significant and we could spend hours discussing each one of them. I bet you’re not
disappointed to know that I don’t plan to do that this morning.
What matters here is that all of these different views are related to each other. The meaning of
each one can only be understood in relationship to the others.
The MOST IMPORTANT PART IS THIS—the overarching view, the glue that holds this parable
together, is the outrageous, lavish, love of the father.
The point of the parable is that this outrageous, lavish love of the father is merely a shadow of the
love that our Father in heaven has for each one of us.
APPLICATION What does all of this mean to us today?
In this season of Lent we are invited to take stock of our lives and look at our behavior—what we are
doing or not doing that needs realigning. On Ash Wednesday we heard from the Book of Common
Prayer: “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-
examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on
God’s holy Word.
We have gone astray, we have sinned. It is not politically correct in our society today to talk about
sin. But we have sinned against God and our neighbor.
“Sin” to Jesus is not about breaking the law, but about breaking relationship with the Father. The
law is important because it lets us know what is right and wrong. As Fr. Dan told us a few weeks
ago, “If our thoughts or behaviors violate God’s standards, this is called sin and we need to do a
course correction.”
Today, I invite us to expand our view of “sin.” Sin is when our thoughts or actions cause a break in
our relationship with God: as in the parable, the son’s behavior broke his relationship with his father.
A few weeks ago, Fr. Dan gave us a three step process to help us live as good citizens of the
kingdom. Let’s take a brief look at the story of the Prodigal Son and apply his behavior to that
process.
In the first step the son “came to himself.” He came to the realization that his behavior was wrong.
He recognized his misdoing, his sin, and how he had broken relationship with his father.
The second step is course correction and confession. The son made a plan to leave his dissolute
life and face his father. And he followed through and confessed to his father. He told his father
that he had sinned against him and was no longer worthy to be his son.
The third step is going beyond confession to repentance. Repentance is not merely a confession of
sin. It is more, it is a conscious turning away from the things that are displeasing to God. In the
context of Jesus’ parable, repentance is not simply a confession of sin, it is the acceptance of being
found.
Jesus doesn’t tell us how this parable ends. Often he does not tell us how a story ends. He leaves
it up to us to fill it in. How would you end this parable? I choose to believe that the prodigal son
basked in the love of his father and accepted his amazing love. I believe that the changes in his life
were a process that continued as the relationship was restored between him and his father.
This is how the next step in our story can be as we accept the outrageous, lavish, amazing love of
Our Father in heaven. When we come to the realization of our broken relationship, we too can
confess our brokenness, and repent—turn away from our wrongdoing.
Our Father in heaven is seeking us, waiting for us, looking for us to return to Him. Like the father in
the parable, He will meet us—He will run to us when we take the first baby step to come to him.
With God, we have an advantage over the prodigal son and his earthly father. In God’s grace, if we
ask Him, he gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to change our ways and walk in His path.
AND “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous
persons who need no repentance.” AMEN
The Prodigal Son/The Compassionate Father
Luke 15 1-3, 11b-32
Luke 15 1-3, 11b-32
March 14, 2010
The Rev. Jane Ross
The Rev. Jane Ross
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