BiblicalMastery Buddy's bible blog

Lesson 44

The Long Way Home?

Luke 15:11-20a

One of the recurring dreams I have had over the years is going back to the house in which my grandparents lived outside of Wilmington, NC.  I do not know why I find myself there.  Looking at Google Maps the only house that is still standing in that whole block that would recognize is their house.  All of the other homes have been torn down and replaced with what looks like apartment buildings.  Although I picture it as it was back when I lived there, there is no way that the time or place can truly be recreated.  As Snoopy once said, “They have built a parking lot all over my memories.” 

Even if I could return to that period in my life, I am not sure I would even seize the opportunity.  Although there were good memories it was also time of dramatic change in my family. My father left my mother during those years which impacted us economically and socially. Other than my mother the one foundation that was available to me was the church.  As I look back I realize how much the minister and the people of that church impacted my life.  A number of years ago I went back because of funeral of an uncle. The church in which I spent so many memorable times was not there.  Oh the building was there but everything was different. It had become almost Catholic like in its services. What was once a church where everyone would have felt welcomed seemed to have taken on the culture of a high church. 

What I discovered was that nothing ever remains the same except in our minds. The very thing that seemed so permanent had disappeared to be replace by something unfamiliar. To me this means that I cannot hold onto the past.  Thankfully, I have a future that is guaranteed not to change.  I do not have to attempt to go back home to the what was once familiar, but am able to look forward to what God has prepared for all followers of His Son.

Sometimes in the church we have a tendency to try to hold onto the past as if there is something sacred about the place from which we have come.  We forget that although it is important to remember those who have been the foundation of the church that has gone on before us that God has greater things for us if we just look to Him. What we try to be quite often collides with what God expects the church to be.  In all of our activities we will discover that we want everything that we can get from God but approach it from two different perspectives.  We either just want God to leave us alone and let us do church our way or we try to work very hard at pleasing Him so He will see how good we are and bless us accordingly.  The problem is that neither one works.  Operating this way will not joy no matter how successful we might be.  Both forget that church is all about grace that is neither to be squandered nor used for our own glory. 

Our narrative today is about two young men, not one, who needed to learn some important life lessons.  May we each see our place in this passage and what God wants us to become.

Luke 15:11

Jesus finishes the trilogy of parables directed toward the Scribes and Pharisees with the story which has been improperly titled the Prodigal Son. The beginning words of Jesus denotes that there was a man who “had two sons.” This fact is not extraordinary in itself but does give the framework for the story. It lays out the main characters who will play a major part in what is to follow.

1. Why were all three of the parables directed to the religious leaders? (They were the ones who lacked the qualities described in the each of the stories.)
2. What picture has been painted for us up to this point in the first two parables that contrasted the shepherd and the woman with the Scribes and Pharisees?
3. Why would Luke mention two sons if the story was about only one son? (It truly is a family story with all three of those mentioned playing a major role.)
4. Why would whoever put the title for this section of Scripture call it the Prodigal Son? (He was the most obvious sinner of the three.)

Luke 15:12

The actions of the younger son would have been unheard of in that culture.  There was tremendous respect for the patriarchs of the family, in this case the father of the two sons.  What the younger son was implying by his approach to his father was he wished that his father was already dead.  Usually the inheritance was distributed at the time of death.  The younger son showed a total lack of regard for his father and certainly violated the mores of the culture of that time. 

Rather than disown the son or berate him in any way he actually did what the son demanded.  The father actually went one step further by and divided his wealth, which would have consisted of primarily land and livestock, with both of his sons.  The older brother would have received two thirds of all of his father’s possessions according to the custom of the time.  This precedent was established by God at the time of Moses. (See Deut. 21:17)

1. What do you think of the younger son’s demand?
2. What did it show about his relationship with his father?
3. How would you have reacted under the circumstances?
4. In what ways have you made the same kind of demands of God?
5. What characteristics did the father show in contrast to his son?
6. What did the father do that was unprecendented? (He distributed his property while he was still alive and evidently still capable of managing his affairs.)
7. Why did the oldest son get twice as much?
8. Why was the law found in Deuteronomy 21:17 put into place?

Luke 15:13

Almost immediately he broke away from the restraints he must have felt in his father’s household and went as far away as he could possibly get from the situation.  It is obvious that he wanted to be on his own to make his own decisions in regard to his new found wealth.  The description of what he did with his money is the background for the idea of the prodigal son.  According to Merriam-Webster dictionary a prodigal is one who carelessly and foolishly spends money, time etc. It further describes him as:

• Characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure: lavish
• Recklessly spendthrift

Luke said of him that “he squandered his estate with loose living.”  In other words he spent all of his money living a completely immoral life. This kind of living can only have a tragic ending.

1. For what was the young man searching is shown by his actions? (He wanted complete freedom from all the restraints he felt living in his father’s house.)
2. For the young people. Why do you look for the day that you can get out from under the authority of your parents?
3. How well equipped was the young man to handle the new world in which he found himself?
4. What are you doing to equip yourselves for facing the dangerous and evil world that awaits you?
5. What does it mean to be a prodigal son?
6. In what ways may it be possible for others to describe us in this manner?
7. What was the end result for the young man so ill prepared to live out in a culture totally unlike the one from which he had to come?
8. What does complete freedom sometimes bring to a person’s life?

Luke 15:14

There came a time when all of his possessions were gone.  Along with his wealth the fair weather friends that he would have made disappeared also.  To make matters worse there was a complete economic collapse brought on by a famine which meant there was no one to help or any way to earn support for himself. Those like the young man find that when the evitable challenges and dark days come into one’s life that they are ill prepared to deal with them. The prodigal son had lost everything including his way.

1. What happens to those who are your friends only during the good times?
2. Why was it inevitable that this would happen? (There are those in this world who are takers and only care about you as long as you have something to give.)
3. Since Jesus was telling this parable why did He include the famine? (To show how desolate the situation was for the young man.)
4. How have you prepared for the challenges and difficult times that each person with surely face?
5. From whom do you seek direction for your life? Why?

Luke 15:15-16

For the Jew this man had reached the bottom.  A Jew was not to have anything to do with swine. They were one of the animals declared unclean in the Mosaic Law.  The son who once had all that he needed from his father now had to go to work for a hog farmer.  The only job the man had to offer was the lowly position of feeding pigs.  What made it even worse, in the mind of the prodigal son the hogs were being fed better than he was.  He was at the point of eating what the pigs left over.  Oh how sad how far the young man had fallen.  There is one other point that Jesus made.  All of those who had benefited from the lavish spending were not around to offer him any assistance. They either were in the same condition in which he found himself or they just chose to ignore him since he was now poor.

1. How do we know that the man had reached the very bottom in his life?
2. What was Jesus trying to show about the man’s condition?
3. How do we know when a person is a true friend?
4. How would the Pharisees now view that man? (As the lowest of sinners.)

Luke 15:17-19

Luke wrote that there reached a point when the young man understood what he had done and the predicament in which he now found himself.  He realized that things at home had not been as bad as he thought.  He concluded that the servants that worked for his father were better off than he was at that point.  Not believing that his father would forgive him for his actions he decided the best plan was to see if his father would be willing to hire him.  Before he even left for home he thought out what he would say when he arrived there. 

He would confess the horrible mess he had made of things.  At best he hoped that his father would forgive him enough to give him a job. He did not even feel worthy of being called a son or having the rights of son-ship.  Although his confession was to start with sinning against God it had to begin with the way he had treated the one who loved him, his father.  As John said in 1 John that unless you love the person who you can see, there is no place in your heart to love for the heavenly Father.

1. What does it mean to come to one’s senses?
2. What did the prodigal son understand about his situation?
3. Why did he not think that his father would not restore him to the relationship as son?
4. Has there ever been a time in your life that you did not know whether someone would be willing to forgive you? What were the circumstances?
5. Why was it important for him to come to the decision that he needed to confess his sins to his father? (There can be no restoration without confession and forgiveness.
6. What was the best result he could hope would come out of his confession? (To be forgiven enough to be hired.)

Luke 15:20a

The son put his thoughts into action.  He started the trip home.  Of course he did not know what he might face but he knew that nothing good was going to come out of the situation in which he found himself.  If nothing else he knew in his heart that he no longer wanted to be separated from his father even if it meant that he would be there as a hired servant.

1. Why was it important to start out on the trip back to where his father lived?
2. How often have you made a statement or promise and not followed through with any actions?
3. What were the consequences in your life?
4. What did the young man now understand about his father?
5. When may been a time in your life that you were unwilling to start the journey back to God because you did not believe He could truly love someone like you?

Luke 15:20b

While the son was probably full of anxiety, his father had been waiting with anticipation of the time his son would return.  Because he continued to look down the road on which his son departed it would appear that he had no doubt that one day that he would return the same way.  On the particular day about which Jesus spoke, the father’s faith became reality as he saw, in the distance his lost son approaching.  The man then did some that would have been out of character for the patriarch of the family.  He pulled up the garment, as Peter and others did, so that it would not impede his progress and he ran to his son and embraced him out of compassion.

There are those who have written that the son appeared before his father with the smell of the pig pen on him.  The father would have totally ignored the filth and odor because of his great love for his son.

Another possibility might be that along the way the son had cleaned himself up to appear before his father clean.  He would not want his father to be distracted by his appearance.  In that condition he would have been more acceptable to him.

Both are possible pictures of the human condition.  Man may approach God with the full awareness of his sinfulness and be surprised that God forgives him and accepts him into His family.

To view it another way is to see man’s attempt to pretend that he has in his own power cleaned himself up to the extent that he believes that God will accept him based on his own merit.  This will not work because no one can ever cleanse himself own his own from his sinful ways.

At this point in the parable the Scribes and Pharisees would have congratulated themselves on not being like the younger son.  They saw that the tax collectors and sinners matched their idea of those outside the will of God.

Continuing next week a different story will emerge as Jesus continues the parable.  He will deal with both the younger and older brother in light of their relationship with the father.

1. Why would the son be anxious about the impending reunion with his father?
2. Why would the father continue to look for the errant son? (He believed that one day he would return home.)
3. What did the son plan to do when he returned to the father?
4. What did the words he planned to use say about his spiritual condition?
5. In what way was it an acknowledgement of his sinful nature?
6. What were the two ways he may have prepared for the moment he met his father? (See what was written about either remaining like he was at the time he fed the pigs or cleaning himself to be more presentable.)
7. Of the two which are the ways you have approached God?
8. How would put your approach in modern terms?
9. Did either address the issue of sin? Why or why not?

    

• Take time to consider whether there are material possessions that get in the way of loving God.
• Think about your relationships with your family and ask if there is any thing standing between you and them.  If so seek to be reconciled with them.  Life is too short for the things of this world to cause friction and division among you.
• Look at your life to see if your actions have caused hurt to anyone.
• Confess and repent of your part in any family division.
• Seek to be reconciled to those who have been injured by your words or deeds.
• Understand that it may take a long time to heal old wounds so do not expect that everything will be as it once was for a while.
• Confess your sins to the Father who ultimately the One who you have disappointed.  Seek His forgiveness and restoration.

One of the things that we need to continue address in our churches is how we can be unified in Christ.  As has been said before this not mean uniformity.  What it does mean that we are to look to Jesus as the Head of the Church and we are part of the body.  To injure someone or to want to have our own agenda succeed at the expense of others is to show the kind of disrespect the younger son had for his father.  He forgot that to waste his life as he did seeking his own way splintered the relationship of his family.  If we always look at our own actions in light of how Jesus would have us live we can overcome many obstacles that are put in our path.  Let us make sure that the fruit of the Spirit is evident in our fellowship.  By doing so we will put aside the fruits of the flesh and be the Church God has called us to be. 

Next week we will look at the father’s relationship with both of his sons. Will he accept the seemingly wayward son and what will it mean for the older brother who has not been mentioned much up to this point.