Upside-Down Christmas: Luke 15

Luke 15

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The parable of the prodigal son is a pretty famous one. Now, that word prodigal, it’s not what you might think. It really means someone who spends recklessly, or profligately. That’s why the younger son is called that, and he is usually the focus of our attention when we think of this parable. But it might better be titled the parable of the two sons.

Welcome back to our Upside-Down Christmas podcast where we’re walking through the gospel of Luke looking at how Jesus turns things on their heads. And today, we’re in Luke 15.

Now if you didn’t know, the story goes that there was a father whose youngest son asked him for his share of the inheritance early so that he could spend it in whatever way he wanted. So the father obliges. But when the son blows all his money and finds himself in a difficult and unmanageable set of circumstances, he returns to his father’s house. Imagining his father will never receive him back as a son (and knowing he doesn’t really deserve to be a son anymore), he plans to ask to be made a slave. At least that way he’ll have food to eat and a warm place to stay. Of course, the father receives him back as a son with grace and joy—even before the boy can get his apology out.

But then, the third scene is with the older brother. You see, he’d never left. He didn’t ask for any money. He stayed and worked diligently for his father. And when the younger son comes back, he refuses to celebrate, disgruntled over his younger brother’s reception by the father. So the father goes out to confront him, to invite him to come in and celebrate.

“Look,” he says, “these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this sone of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” (Luke 15:29-30)

Of course the whole thing is symbolic for our relationship with God. In the story, the father represents God, and the younger son represents the children of God who have wandered away from God, who have squandered their lives and lived recklessly and all of that. It’s about the way that God receives those who repent and turn back to him, about how God desires to receive them and celebrate them and all of that. That’s the message we usually take from this parable.

But the second son, the older son—he represents the ones who have always done the right thing; the ones who never left God, the really religious types who are always focused on doing the right thing, on doing their duty. Only, as we see, it’s not because of love for the father that they’re doing it. It turns out the ones we imagine to be closest to God—whose lives look all put together and whose actions look really good and whose finances are great and they have good jobs and they serve in the church and all of that good stuff—they’re the ones we imagine are really close to the heart of God. But Jesus is saying that a lot of those folks who look so good on the outside are just as lost as the ones who have wandered away. And in fact, the ones who repent from their wild, prodigal ways and come back to God—they’re a lot closer to the heart of God than the ones who have “always done it right.”

You would imagine that the “really good people” are closer to God than the “really bad people.” But it turns out they’re often the ones who are farthest away.

Let’s pray. Lord, some of us need to repent and to turn back from wandering away from your paths, your ways, from a relationship with you. But others of us who have never left the farm, so to speak, we need to repent, too. Because our hearts are hard toward those “younger-brother” types. We imagine ourselves to be earning something from you with our obedience, with our faithfulness. We imagine ourselves to be right with you. But we are just as lost. Please, Lord, do not cast us off as we might deserve, but have mercy on us, too. Soften our hearts. We want to come in. Amen.

Family Devotion:

Read Luke 15:11-32

How did the older brother feel? Why?

How did the father feel?

What did the father say to his older son?

Often times when we read this parable we pay the most attention to the younger son and the father. It’s an awesome thing to have the ability to always come back to the God when we wander away. We call this grace. But let’s learn a little from the older son and the father’s relationship. God's grace is a big, welcoming love, that is worthy of celebrating! When the lost are found, we should feel happy, not jealous, when others come back to Jesus.

How can we be like the father and celebrate when someone comes to Jesus?