THE GOSPELS
In this section:
LUKE 15:11-32
LUKE 15:11-32
This passage in Luke 15:11-32, is a parable from a lengthy teaching session that Jesus starts into in a direct confrontation with the Pharisees. We start our reading from Luke 15:11,
"And He said, 'A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.' So he divided his wealth between them. 13 And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose [reckless, prodigal] living. 14 Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. 17 But when he came to his senses, [because the Holy Spirit convicted him of his sin] he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; 23 and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. 27 And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.' 28 "But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. 29 But he answered and said to his father, 'Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; 30 but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.' 31 And he said to him, 'Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 'But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.'" Luke 15:11-32
According to the typical NEST interpretation of this parable concerning Israelites who repent from their lawlessness under the Old Covenant, Jesus is said to be teaching concerning all who are later saved under the New Covenant. It is with this confusion of categories, that the NEST suggests that the son in the parable represents someone who was saved once, (which according to the NEST interpretation, means the son was going to heaven), but then, the wayward son lost his salvation, (which according to the NEST interpretation, means that the son was not going to heaven), but then, the son later repented and gained back his salvation, (which according to the NEST interpretation, means that he really is going to heaven after all). The NEST interpretation is wrong, and it is easy to see why when we simply go to the whole text, and then choose to recognize the context, thus recognizing why, what, and who Jesus is talking about. Let us do that now, starting in verse one of Luke 15.
"1 Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him [Jesus their Messiah] to listen to Him. 2 Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them.'" (Luke 15:1-2)
This is the setup, and subsequently the three illustrations that Jesus is about to give all have to do with this situation, and comment from the scribe and Pharisees. The parable of the prodigal son, with his happy forgiving father, and his angry jealous brother, is only one of the three parables.
/1/
Now, as a first consideration, we notice that a bunch of Israelites were coming to Jesus to listen to Him. Some of the Israelites are called "tax collectors," and "sinners." Tax collectors were despised by most Jews, particularly the Jerusalem leadership of the scribes, Pharisees, and chief priests. Tax collectors were considered traitors. Such Israelites represented the worst of sinners in the mind of the typical Israelite. The hypocritical Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of Israel, were grumbling about the fact that Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners of Israel. What they failed to see, because of their presuppositions, was that Jesus was on a mission. This grumbling, (which was motivated from hardened hearts), was a sinful manifestation of the malady of the Pharisees that marked them out during Messiah's pre-cross ministry to Israel as Jewish leaders who were hindrances to the work of Jehovah that they claimed to represent and serve. They were religious Jewish leaders of Israel, yet they were enemies of the Messiah of God, and so, as such, they were not leading the lost sheep of the house of Israel to follow their Messianic king. This is why Jesus said of them in Matthew 23,
"13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." (Matthew 23:13)
Jesus, on the other hand, was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, as He declared of Himself at this pre-cross time,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24)
Accordingly, Jesus, in His pre-cross ministry, had His students go around the region to announce His arrival, giving essentially the same commission, saying to them,
"... but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew, 10:6)
/2/
This brings us to the second consideration, and that is that the tax collectors and sinners that Jesus is ministering to, (of which is the ministry that the scribes and Pharisees are blinded to), were Israelites who were lost sheep that Messiah was sent to, and so what has happened is that the Messiah of these lost sheep has arrived and He is giving the general call to the lost sheep of Israel to receive Him as their promised Messiah King of the promised Kingdom. Jesus is not fraternizing with these people. These are sick sinners, and Jesus, the great physician, is concerned with them, as we see explained in more detail in Matthew 9:10,
"Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His students. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His students, 'Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?' 12 But when Jesus heard this, He said, 'It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" (Matthew 9:10)
Notice what the task is that Jesus is concerned with. Jesus is about His task of calling "sinners." This is the same point of what is going on in our text under study in Luke; Israelites who were lost sinners of the Old Covenant period (before Messiah's New Covenant cross that was coming in a matter of a short period of time), were coming to Him. Jesus, as God manifest in flesh, loved this. Self righteous Pharisees, (who were, in fact also sinners) were manifesting their bondage to their sinful flesh natures, and so they hated this.
/3/
This leads us to a third consideration. The third consideration is the very important recognition of the other two parables that Jesus tells as He goes right into this parable of the father receiving his lost prodigal son, and the jealous brother despising his father's compassion. There is a context, and we must recognize it to understand what Jesus is talking about. Immediately after the Israelite tax collectors, and sinners come to Jesus, then the Pharisees and the scribes begin to grumble, saying,
"This man receives sinners and eats with them," (Luke 15:2)
Jesus answers the scribes and Pharisees with three parables, and not just one about a prodigal son. We need to read those first two parables that Jesus intended to be part of His comprehensive point. They are so important. As we read from the next verse, we see the necessity of reading all the parables together in Christ's intended contextual presentation,
"3 So He told them this parable, saying, 4 'What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' 7 I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 8 Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!' 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.'" (Luke 15:1-10)
These are the two illustrations that Jesus gives directly before going into an illustrative story about a son leaving his father, thus being lost by his family, then repenting and coming back, then being found again--the story that has a jealous brother despising the will of the father. The point is that Jesus has been talking, all along, to Israelites about Israelites who are turning back to Jehovah from their wicked ways. There should be respect concerning Messiah's mission to save lost sheep of the house of Israel, and further, there should be joy (not grumbling) when lost sheep are found. Additionally, there should be respect concerning the mission to find the lost precious coin. There should be joy (not grumbling) when the lost precious coin is found. The Pharisees are not getting Jesus' point. They are not getting it because they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and further, they do not believe that they are on equal ground with the others in terms of being sinful, wretched, and in desperate need of Messiah's ministry. Therefore, they do not equate eating with Jesus to be eating with God's anointed redeemer-king of the Davidic promise. Instead of joy over God's amazing visitation, there is grumbling. Each one of these three illustrations contain examples of that which was lost and then found, in representing the state of the lost sheep of the house of Israel at the time. In the prodigal son parable, (which sums up Christ's trilogy), we see the demonstration of a lost sheep of the house of Israel coming back to Jehovah, and at the same time, the self righteous, graceless, angry brother, (who represents wicked scribes and Pharisees) who had seen himself as serving his father spotlessly according to the Law in self righteousness, refused to rejoice at the return of his brother. He refused to celebrate the father's graceful embracing of the lost son who had now been found. Instead of rejoicing, the hard hearted, jealous, brother chose rather to condemn. This is why the father in Christ's story of repentance that reflects tax collectors and sinners of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, says this to the grumbling, angry brother,
"32 'But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.'" (Luke 15:32)
The Pharisees, in like manner as this grumbling brother, were also grumbling. In their failure to see the beauty of what was taking place, they dared to accuse Jehovah's Messiah. In that respect, Jesus told this parable to them because He wanted them to see the connection. These tax collectors and sinners are children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who is Israel. Though they are tax collectors and sinners, they are children according to the promise. They had strayed, and they had been considered dead, lost, and discarded. But, they, (in ironic contradiction to their own religious leaders who were of their father the devil, cf. John 8:44) were coming back to Jehovah, and are doing it through Jehovah's Messiah Who is right there in their midst. Jesus describes these lost Israelite sheep, according to the parable, as coming to their senses, in Luke 15:17. Jesus describes them as confessing their sins against heaven, in their Father's sight, and humbly admitting that they are no longer worthy to be called sons of Israel, (cf. Luke 15:18-19, 21). This beautiful fruit of Messiah's ministry was spit upon by the scribes and Pharisees. Those who came to Messiah were rejected, just as Messiah was rejected.
At this point, it needs to be mentioned that the Old Covenant Jews are not saved in a different way than everyone else. There was no separate type of dispensational way of spiritual salvation for Israelites who were under the Old Covenant. There is no separate way of salvation for anyone who has a genetic link to Israel according to the flesh. (In the chapter dealing with Hebrews 11:39-40 the fact that all, whether dead or alive, had to, and must be, redeemed through the cross and resurrection of Messiah, is explained in easy to understand terms). The New Covenant is the only covenant that saves anyone. The New Covenant is the only covenant in existence now. It is the covenant that came through the cross and resurrection of the Messiah who was rejected by Israel under that Old Covenant age.
With all of the above in mind, then, we recognize that this passage does not remotely teach that one can lose one's eternal spiritual salvation, gain it through some type of self generated effort, or keep it secure by meritorious works of any kind.
