Luke 15

Introduction

We come this evening to Luke 15 which is perhaps one of the best known chapters in Luke’s gospel, because it contains four well-known parables. Notice that I said that there are four parables, because there’s the parable of the lost sheep and there’s the parable of the lost coin and there’s the parable of the lost younger son and then, there’s also the parable of the lost elder son. The parables of the younger and elder sons are really one parable, aren’t they? However, I’m dividing them into two, because we mustn’t forget the elder son.

You’ll have noticed right away that there’s one word which unites these four parables. And it’s the word ‘lost’. All four are about something or someone who was lost. In the first, it’s a sheep. In the second, it’s a coin. In the third, it’s the younger son. And in the fourth, it’s the elder son — and when we get to it, we’ll think about how he was as lost as his younger brother. But we should also note that the parables of the two sons feature a banquet. When the lost younger son returns home, his father instructs his servants to kill the fattened calf so that they can have a feast and celebrate his return. And then, when the elder son comes home from the fields, he refuses to come to the banquet. And that means the parables of the two sons relate to what we were thinking about last week when we studied chapter 14 which includes the parable of the great banquet.

Do you remember? The Lord Jesus was a guest at the home of a prominent Pharisee. And while he was there, he told the other guests a parable about a man who was prepared a banquet for many guests. When everything was ready — when the meat had been cooked — he sent his servant to tell the invited guests, who had already said they were coming, that they should now come, because everything is ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. And we saw that they were silly excuses. They made no sense. It was clear that they didn’t want to come to the banquet, even though they had once accepted the invitation. When the man heard that they would not come, he told his servant to go into the streets and alleys of the town and to invite the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame to the banquet. The servant did so, but there was still room for more. And so, the man sent his servant into the countryside to persuade people there that they too can come and enjoy the banquet. Though those who were invited first refused to come, the party would proceed without them and his man’s house would be filled with guests.

And I explained that in the Bible, a banquet or feast often represents salvation. Coming to the banquet and enjoying it stands for coming to Christ and enjoying the salvation which he has won for us by his life and death and resurrection. And our salvation now through faith in Christ culminates at the end of history with a final great banquet in the presence of the Lord, when we will celebrate Christ’s victory for us over sin and death. So, the banquet in the parable stands for salvation. And God has come to the people of Israel in the person of his Son and he’s invited them to receive his salvation. All they had to do to receive it was to believe in his Son. But instead of believing in him, and receiving salvation, the Pharisees and experts in the law and others like them made all kinds of excuses. They made all kinds of excuses and refused to believe in Christ for salvation. But others believed: the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame. They came to Christ and believed in him. And he saved them from their misery by healing and helping them. And he saved them from their sins by forgiving them. The Pharisees and experts in the law, the religious people, the leaders, the proud, the rich refused to come. But the sick and the sinners, the little people, the humble, the poor, the weak came to him. And all who came to him received salvation.

But God saw that there was room for more. And just as the man in the parable sent his servant out of the town and into the countryside, so God has sent preachers out of Israel and into the world to tell people everywhere the good news of salvation through faith in his Son. He sends his preachers throughout the world to persuade people everywhere that there is room for them if only they will believe in the Saviour. And his invitation is a gracious one, because he calls people who do not deserve his salvation and who were not expecting it.

So, that’s what we were thinking about last week when we spent our time on Luke 14. And in chapter 15, we read about a father who arranged a banquet, a feast. His younger son went in and took part in that feast, while his elder son refused to come in. Furthermore, the parable of the lost sheep ends with a celebration to which many are invited. And the parable of the lost coin ends in the same way. All the parables in Luke 15 end with a banquet to which guests are invited. And so, this chapter follows on from last week’s chapter, because both chapters are about God’s gracious invitation to sinners to come to him through Christ for salvation.

Verses 1 and 2

The link with chapter 14 is also indicated by the first two verses of chapter 15 where Luke tells us that the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear the Lord Jesus, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law complained because the Lord was welcoming sinners and eating with them. In other words, the tax collectors and sinners were like the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame in the parable of the great banquet. They were willing to come to Christ for salvation. On the other hand, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were like those invited guests who make up excuses and refused to come to the banquet. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were unwilling to come to Christ for salvation. And instead of rejoicing that sinners were finding salvation, they complained that the Lord was welcoming them.

And so, these two verses link chapter 15 with chapter 14, because the Pharisees and teachers of the law who were complaining are like the invited guests who refused to come to the banquet, whereas the tax collectors and sinners who gathered round the Lord Jesus were like the poor and weak people in the parable who responded to the invitation and who came to the banquet. And these two verses introduce the next parables, because the Lord wanted to teach the Pharisees and teachers of the law and those like them that they should rejoice at God’s kindness to sinners. They should rejoice in it. And they need to come to Christ themselves and not stay away.

Lost sheep

The Lord asked them to imagine that they were a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. But one of the sheep was lost. Presumably the shepherd counted his sheep from time to time to ensure that they were all present and correct. Since it was such a large flock, then it’s likely the shepherd did not own all of them, but he had been hired to look after all of them. And now one of them was lost. What should he do? And what would you do if you were in his position? The Lord said, ‘Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?’

The commentators explain that the shepherd was not on his own. In those days, with such a large flock of sheep, there would be several shepherds looking after the flock. Think of the story of the Saviour’s birth and how the angels appeared not to one solitary shepherd, but to a group of shepherds who were minding their sheep at night. And so, the shepherd in the parable was able to leave the ninety-nine sheep under the care of his colleagues. He did not abandon them, but he left them under their care while he went to look for the lost sheep. And notice that the Lord said that he would look for the sheep until he finds it. So, he is determined to find the lost sheep and he will not give up the search until he has found it. He is persistent.

And when he finds the lost sheep, what will he do? The Lord says in verse 5 that he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Have you ever considered why he put it on his shoulders? The commentators explain that sheep, when they are lost, will lie down on the ground and will refuse to budge. They will not get up. Dogs will sometimes do this too. When a dog is stuck, or it’s hurt its paw, it will lie down and will not move. And it’s a pain for you to help them. They don’t make it easy for you. And this lost sheep was not going to make it easy for the shepherd. Instead of jumping to its feet and following the shepherd home, the shepherd has to lift the sheep onto his shoulders and carry this heavy burden back home. And a sheep is not light. And yet, despite the burden, the shepherd still rejoices. He’s rejoices, despite the trouble he’s going through, because he’s found his lost sheep.

And notice too that he carried the sheep home. So, not back to the open country where he left the ninety-nine. Why did he go home? Because he wanted to call his friends and neighbours together to celebrate with him. ‘Rejoice with me’, he says. ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

So that’s the parable. But since it’s a parable, then we know that it’s not really about shepherds and lost sheep. It’s about something more important. What’s it about? The Lord tells us himself. He says in verse 7: ‘I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine persons who do not need to repent.’ So, the parable is about repentance. When sinners repent — when they turn from their old life of unbelief and sin and turn with faith to the Saviour — there is joy in heaven. In other words, God is pleased with it. God is pleased when sinners turn to Christ for salvation. He is pleased when we respond to the invitation and come to the banquet.

The Lord refers to the one who repents and the ninety-nine who don’t need to repent. Of course, everyone needs to repent. Everyone needs to repent, because all have sinned. All have done wrong. All have gone astray. We disobey the Lord and fall short of doing his will in thought and word and deed throughout our life. And so, everyone must turn from their unbelief and sin and turn with faith to the Saviour. Everyone needs to repent. And to help us to see that, the focus of the parable is on the one sheep who is lost and not on the other ninety-nine. There’s nothing for us to learn from the ninety-nine safe sheep. But from the one lost sheep we learn that we’re all lost until the repent.

And here’s something to ponder. The shepherd searches for the sheep until he finds it. When he finds the sheep, he carries it home. So, the sheep does nothing. The sheep is completely passive. The shepherd does everything. The shepherd is the one who went and looked for the sheep and found it and lifted it onto his shoulders and carried it home. The sheep was passive, whereas the shepherd was active. The sheep did nothing, whereas the shepherd did everything. And yet the Lord likens this to repentance. Being found by the shepherd is somehow equivalent to repentance when we turn from our sins and turn to Christ for salvation.

So, how is being found the same as repentance? Being found is the same as repentance only because those who repent and who turn from their unbelief and sin and who turn with faith to the Saviour have already been found. They have already been found. Think of the people we read about in the gospels. God came to them in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. He came to proclaim and provide freedom from their sin and misery. And God also came to them in the person of his Spirit, and he enabled them to turn from their unbelief and sin and to turn with faith to the Saviour. And if it were not for the Holy Spirit, working in us, none of us would have repented. We would still be lost and lying down, as it were, in our sin and guilt, with no way to save ourselves. But when God the Holy Spirit came into our lives, he enabled us to get up and to leave behind our old life of unbelief and sin and to go to God for salvation. He enabled us to respond to the invitation and to come to the banquet which God has prepared for us. And God the Holy Spirit comes to us like that only because the Lord Jesus first gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and to make peace for us with God. God the Holy Spirit comes to us and enables us to repent only because the Lord Jesus first took the blame for what we have done wrong. He took upon his shoulders the burden of our guilt and suffered in our place to bring us to God.

Lost coin

After the parable of the lost sheep, we have the parable of the lost coin.

The Lord asks the people to imagine a woman who had ten silver coins, but loses one. If you and I lose a coin, we wouldn’t be too worried about it. What would we lose? Two pounds at the most. But these coins were drachmas and one of them was worth what a labourer might earn in a day. Furthermore the care she took to find it shows us just how valuable the coin was to her and how important it was for her to get it back.

The Lord tells us that she lit a lamp and swept her house and searched carefully for the lost coin. Like the shepherd, she was prepared to search for the lost coin until she found it. She was determined to recover it. She must find it. And so, she kept looking and would not give up. And when she at last found it, she called her friends and neighbours together and asked them to rejoice with her, because she has found her lost coin.

Once again, since this is a parable, then it’s not really about a lost coin. It’s about something more important. What’s it about? The Lord once again tells us himself: ‘In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’ That is to say, it pleases God when sinners repent: when they turn from their unbelief and sin and turn with faith to the Saviour.

And we should note once again that the Lord equates being found with repentance. The coin did nothing in order to be found. The woman did all the work. She was up and active. She looked for the coin. She searched for it. The coin did nothing. And we only repent of our sins because God first found us. He sent his Son into the world to give us his life on the cross as the ransom to pay for all that we have done wrong. And then he sent his Spirit into our lives to convince and convert us to faith in Christ. He graciously and freely enabled us to repent and to believe in the Saviour who took the blame for all that we have done wrong when he suffered and died for us on the cross.

Lost younger son

And so, we come to the parable of the lost younger son. The Lord tells us in verse 11 that there was a man who had two sons. And the younger one said to his father one day: ‘Give me my share of the estate.’ The commentators explain that in effect he was saying to his father that he wished his father was dead. He knew that he would inherit part of his father’s property whenever his father died. But he can’t wait that long. He wants his share now.

The father’s reaction is remarkable. One of the commentators (Bailey) explains that people who heard this parable first would have expected the father to react with anger and to punish his son for making such a demand. Not only is the son saying that he wishes his father is dead, but he’s reducing the father’s income by taking some of his land. His request to divide up the property will reduce his father’s income, because it would mean having fewer fields on which to grow crops. But remarkably, instead of refusing, the father did what his son asked. He divided his property among his two sons.

And then, not long after getting the property, we’re told that the son got together all he had and he headed for a far off country. By saying that he got together all he had, the Lord implies that the son sold the property. Since land was normally passed down from one generation to the next, this was highly unusual and it was a sign of the son’s wickedness. Instead of keeping the property in the family, he sold it to strangers. And since the son headed for a far off country, it seems that this son wanted nothing more to do with his father and with his family and with the family farm. He wanted to get hold of some good cold cash and get as far away as he could from them.

What happened next? The Lord says that he squandered his wealth on wild living. We often assume that he lived an immoral life and that’s how he wasted his money. However, the Greek phrase translated ‘wild living’ doesn’t necessarily imply immorality. It means ‘reckless’. Lots of people waste money without doing anything particularly immoral. They just squander it. They make bad investments. They’re foolish with it.

The point is not what the son did with the money, but that he lost all that he had. And then, just when he lost everything, there was a famine in the land. So, the price of everything went up. What was he going to do? The Lord tells us that he hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. No doubt this was a dirty job. However, for the Jews, it meant working with ceremonially unclean animals. This man was brought up to have nothing to do with pigs. But now he was having to look after them. Furthermore, although he hired himself out, he clearly wasn’t earning enough to feed himself, because the Lord says that he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. One of the commentators thinks he knows what type of pods there were and that they are bitter and provide no nourishment. They’re fine for pigs, but not for humans. So, if the younger son ate them, they would not fill him up. And according to the Lord, no one else gave him anything. After all, he was a foreigner. He was an outsider. Because of the influence of Christianity, many people in the UK are inclined to help immigrants. However, it was different in those days and there was no one to help him.

And that’s when he came to himself. He thought about his present condition and he compared himself to the hired men in his father’s householf who were so much better off than he was. And so, he decided to return home and to confess his sins and to ask his father to take him back: not as a son, but as a hired man. We therefore see how he has been humbled by his circumstances. Once he was his father’s son, but now he doesn’t feel worthy of it. But perhaps his father will show him mercy and will hire him as a servant. And so, he got up and returned to his father.

And the Lord tells us that when he was still a long way off, his father saw him. And the Lord says that his father was filled with compassion. And so, before the father heard his son’s confession, he already felt compassion for him. And he ran to his son. This again is remarkable, because those who listened to this parable at first would expect the father to be angry at his son. One of the commentators says that it would not have been unrealistic for the father to kill the son rather than the fattened calf. The son was a rebellious son and the Old Testament law allowed parents to put such children to death. But this father ran to his son in order to welcome him. He threw his arms around his son and kissed him. And when his son began his confession, his father interrupted him by calling for the servants to fetch the best robe for him. No doubt the best robe belonged to the father, and he was now giving it to his son to indicate that he was to be treated with honour and respect. And then the servants were told to bring a ring for his finger, which signified authority; and sandals for his feet, because only slaves, and not sons, went barefoot. And the father then ordered his servants to kill and prepare the fattened calf so that they can have a feast and celebrate. And since they were to kill a calf, this meant the whole community was to join them. The whole village was to come and celebrate with the father and to rejoice with him because his son, who was as good as dead is alive. He was once lost, but now he’s found.

And since this is a parable, then we it’s not really about a lost younger son. Like the previous two parables it’s about repentance. But it adds to the previous two parables by making clear God’s love and his willingness to receive anyone who repents and turns to him.

Just as the father let his son go his own way, so God lets us go our own way. He does not force our obedience. He does not coerce us. He lets us go our own way. But then, when we realise that we have done wrong, we don’t need to be afraid to return to God, because the parable makes clear God’s willingness to pardon anyone who comes to him. Indeed, just as the father had compassion on his son before his son made his confession, so God has compassion on us even before we turn to him and confess our sins to him. And no matter what we have done, no matter how far we have sunk, no matter how far we have gone from him, the moment we turn to God and confess our sins, he is willing to forgive us and to receive as, not as a slave, but as one of his children.

The feast the father held for his son signifies the salvation which God has prepared for us. And just as the father welcomed his younger son and invited him into the feast, so God invites lost sinners to come to him for salvation and eternal life. And God is able to welcome us and to pardon us because of Christ our Saviour who took the blame for what we have done wrong and who suffered the punishment we deserve. He gave up his life to make peace for us with God. And so, when we return to God, he is willing to welcome us and to pardon us for the sake of Christ who died for us.

Lost elder son

But we still have the parable of the lost elder son. Why do I say that he was lost? Because he refused to join the feast. He refused to take part in the banquet, which signifies the salvation which God has prepared for us.

When he came in from the fields, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He made inquiries and discovered the reason for the party. And instead of being happy like his father, he became angry and refused to go in. This would have been regarded as insulting behaviour. It was his duty, as the elder son, to be present at any feast his father arranged. But he refused.

We might expect his father to be angry. And his father could have ordered him to come in. But instead of ordering him, the father went out to him and tried to persuade him to come in. The father pleaded with him, just as God pleads with sinners through the preaching of the gospel to come to Christ for salvation. But he refused.

And take a look at his words in verses 29, because they reveal what is in his heart. Firstly, like the Pharisees and teachers of the law, he thinks he has done nothing wrong. He says that he has never disobeyed his father. And there are plenty of people in the world — and in the church — who think they have done nothing wrong. They are confident of their own goodness, without realising that all of us need mercy from God, because all of us have fallen short of doing God’s will. This is true of us all, even those of us who grew up in the church and who have never done anything scandalous. Secondly, he says that he has been slaving for his father. So, he regards his father as a master or a tyrant; and he’s the slave. So, while he’s been obeying his father, he resents it. He obeys it, not because he wants to, but because he has to. This is not the loving obedience of a grateful child. And there are plenty of people in the world — and in the church — who obey God, not because they want to and not out of gratitude for all that God has done for us, but because they have to. And they have always resented it. And they think they have to obey because of the third thing we see in the elder son. which is that he expects his father to pay him back. For his years of service, he expects something in return. And he’s annoyed because it seems to him that his father has given him nothing in return for his years of service. And so, the reason he obeyed his father was because he expected something in return. And there are plenty of people in the world — and in the church — who expect something from God in return for their obedience. ‘Look at what I’ve done for you. Look at what I’ve given up for you. Look at the sacrifices I’ve made. What will you do for me? What will you give me? And why haven’t you done more for me, because look at all that I’ve done for you?’

And just as the elder son would not come into the feast, so there are many people in the world — and in the church — who refuse the salvation which God offers them in Christ. Instead of coming to the feast which God has prepared, they stand outside. And until they turn to God through Christ, they are lost.

Conclusion

And the final thing to say before we finish is to compare the elder son in the parable to the Lord Jesus Christ. The elder brother in the parable assumed the worst about his brother. He assumed that his brother had wasted his father’s property on prostitutes, even though there’s no evidence of that in the parable. But he assumed the worst and accused his brother before his father. And it’s clear that he wanted his father to punish his brother instead of forgiving him. His attitude was: ‘Look at all that he’s done wrong. You should punish him and not forgive him.’

But the Lord Jesus Christ does not accuse us before the Father. Instead he prays for us and for our forgiveness. And instead of demanding that God punish us for what we’ve done wrong, he took the blame for what we have done wrong. In effect he said to God the Father: ‘Punish me instead of them. Punish me and forgive them.’ And because he took the punishment in our place, then — when we turn to God in repentance and confess our sins and ask for forgiveness — God forgives us. He welcomes us as one of his children and he regards us as if we’ve done everything right. He does that for us because of Christ. And in the life to come, he’ll gather us together around his table and we’ll enjoy the heavenly banquet which he has prepared for us and we’ll celebrate Christ’s victory over sin and death for us.