(photo:The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) by Pompeo Batoni)
Luke 15 holds one of my favorite parables of all time: The Prodigal Son. Tomorrow, I will have the blessed opportunity to teach this chapter, line-by-line to our adult Hebraic Roots of the Christian Faith class at Crowne Health Care of Montgomery. I am about to insert the teaching that God and I cooked up into this blog. I used my own notes and Stern's Complete Jewish Bible notes to create this teaching. May God put His words in my mouth tomorrow and open the hearts, ears and eyes of all who listen! Amayn!
Luke 15:1 The tax-collectors and sinners kept gathering around to hear Yeshua [Jesus], 2 and the P'rushim [Pharisees] and Torah-teachers [scribes] kept grumbling. "This fellow," they said, "welcomes sinners -- he even eats with them!"
Sinners: This term came to be used by Pharisees to refer to prostitutes, thieves and others of low reputation whose sins were blatant and obvious, not the kind the establishment winked at. Jesus taught that those who considered themselves righteous (Matt 9:13) were in fact worse, because they made themselves unteachable. (As in John 9 below)(Rom 6:22, 7:7, 12,25, 8:1-2)
The blindness of the proud: John 9:38 "Lord, I trust!" he said, and he kneeled down in front of Him. 39 Yeshua said, "It is to judge that I came into this world, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind." 40 Some of the P'rushim nearby heard this and said to Him, "So we're blind too, are we?" 41 Yeshua answered them, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But since you still say, `We see,' your guilt remains.
Students are teachable, the prideful are NOT: John 8:30 Many people who heard Him say these things trusted in Him. 31 So Yeshua said to the Judeans who had trusted Him, "If you obey what I say, then you are really My talmidim [students], 32 you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." …[the Pharisees and unbelieving Jews called out] "We're not illegitimate children!" they said to Him. "We have only one Father -- God!" 42 Yeshua replied to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me; because I came out from God; and now I have arrived here. I did not come on My own; he sent me. 43 Why don't you understand what I'm saying? Because you can't bear to listen to My message. 44 You belong to your father, Satan, and you want to carry out your father's desires. From the start he was a murderer, and he has never stood by the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is speaking in character; because he is a liar -- indeed, the inventor of the lie! 45 But as for Me, because I tell the truth you don't believe me.
Repentant Sinners Welcome: All three of this chapter’s parables deal with God’s love for the open sinner who repents. The Bible teaches that the one who is forgiven more, loves God more (Luke 7:41).
3 So He told them this parable: 4 "If one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, doesn't he leave the other ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he does find it, he joyfully hoists it onto his shoulders; 6 and when he gets home, he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Come, celebrate with me, because I have found my lost sheep!' 7 I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns to God from his sins than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.
Baa-Baa: A good sheep reference is in Ezekiel 34, which Jesus and His followers were well acquainted with.
Verse 7 Better to read as: “who are such as to have no reason to repent.” We know that all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God, and anyone who says he does not sin is a liar, but one can maintain a habit of acknowledging sin and repenting of it as a ‘condition of righteousness’. So when a habitual sinner is ‘shaken loose’ by the correction of God and repents, the angels rejoice. Also, maintaining a close, humble and penitent relationship with God also pleases the Father. (1 John 1:9, John 9:40-41)
8 "Another example: what woman, if she has ten drachmas and loses one of these valuable coins, won't light a lamp, sweep the house and search all over until she finds it? 9 And when she does find it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, `Come, celebrate with me, because I have found the drachma I lost.' 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy among God's angels when one sinner repents."
Drachmas—approximately equal to a Roman Denarius; a laborers daily wage.
11 Again Yeshua [Jesus] said, "A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, `Father, give me the share of the estate that will be mine.' So the father divided the property between them. 13 As soon as he could convert his share into cash, the younger son left home and went off to a distant country, where he squandered his money in reckless living. 14 But after he had spent it all, a severe famine arose throughout that country, and he began to feel the pinch. 15 "So he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him any. 17 "At last he came to his senses and said, `Any number of my father's hired workers have food to spare; and here I am, starving to death! 18 I'm going to get up and go back to my father and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers." ' 20 So he got up and started back to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran and threw his arms around him and kissed him warmly. 21 His son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son --' 22 but his father said to his slaves, `Quick, bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him; and put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet; 23 and bring the calf that has been fattened up, and kill it. Let's eat and have a celebration! 24 For this son of mine was dead, but now he's alive again! He was lost, but now he has been found!' And they began celebrating. 25 "Now his older son was in the field. As he came close to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked, `What's going on?' 27 The servant told him, `Your brother has come back, and your father has slaughtered the calf that was fattened up, because he has gotten him back safe and sound.' 28 But the older son became angry and refused to go inside. So his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 `Look,' the son answered, `I have worked for you all these years, and I have never disobeyed your orders. But you have never even given me a young goat, so that I could celebrate with my friends. 30 Yet this son of yours comes, who squandered your property with prostitutes, and for him you slaughter the fattened calf!' 31 `Son, you are always with me,' said the father, `and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead but has come back to life -- he was lost but has been found.'"
The Prodigal Son: this parable is so widely told even outside of religious circles that many people do not know it originates in the Gospels! The young son being welcomed by his father upon his return is easily understood as the sinner being welcomed back by God when he repents. But look at the older son…he represents the self-righteous, prideful people who suppose God owes them something. Opposite of the younger son who knows he sinned, repents, and throws himself on God’s mercy, accepting Jesus’ promise that salvation is only through Him. Note that the parable leaves open the possibility that the older son did not repent and humble himself. This can be a lesson to us all—will we remain self-righteous, or will we be the younger son.
Interesting note: the Jewish boy was feeding pigs, something a Jew would not do. But it is important to notice that he was no longer Jewish – consider what a Jew is: Hebrew ‘y’hudi’ which is from the word ‘y’hudah’ which means to give thanks, to praise, to confess openly and freely to God.’ The younger son stopped being a ‘Jew’ when he left his father’s house. The same is for any person who stops praising God, they stop being a Jew. A true Jew will give praise and thanks to God and remains in a close relationship with Him (Rom 2:28-29). Consider, this is what God YHVH meant when He said “I will take you to Me for a people and I will be to you for a God.” (Exodus 34:7). He selected a people to praise Him. If you praise God by His Son Jesus, then yes—according to God, you are a Jew. One of the Jews of God. (Eph 2:11-22, Romans 11:17 Grafted In, see also Romans 2:29, Galatians 6:16)
