Our passage for study is the fifth episode of a section which deals with the subject "who enters the kingdom?", 13:22-16:13. In the first two verses of chapter 15, Luke sets the theme for the three teaching parables recorded in the chapter. In these verses we read of Jesus welcoming sinners while the religious crew mutter against him. The first two parables teach the rather unexpected truth that repentance is the prompt for God's joyous acceptance of broken humanity. In the third parable, the parable of the Lost Son (the Prodigal Son), better titled the parable of the Righteous Brother, or the Reluctant Brother, or even better, the Lost Brothers, Luke makes the same point as the first two parables, but from a human point of view. Two sons, lost to a father's love, one in body and one in mind, are confronted anew by their father's unlimited love and acceptance, but only one chooses to repent and experience it.

v1-2. Religious outcasts gather to hear Jesus and he welcomes their attention, rejoicing when they repent. "Tax collectors" were seen as collaborators with the Romans. The term "sinners" was commonly used for those who do not keep the Levitical law.

v11-13. In the parable, the younger son takes his share of the property (about one third) and off he goes.

v14-16. The wayward son, now starving, has to undertake an "accursed" job as a pig handler.

v17-21. He soon recognizes his sin, both against "heaven" (ie. God) and against his father.

v22-24. The father welcomes his wayward son back into the family. The parable is not saying the father is, or represents, God, but the situation does illustrate the way God treats a repentant sinner. The father now rejoices because the "dead" son is "alive". The Jews called the ungodly "dead", but in the New Testament it applies to those who have not responded to the kingdom message (the gospel) and who therefore cannot share in the resurrection-life of Christ.

v25-29. The elder brother's reaction is very bitter. He claims his father hasn't even given him a "young goat", a fairly worthless animal. Like the wayward son, the stay-at-home son is also lost, lost in himself.

v30. In describing his wayward brother, the elder son calls him "this son of yours." His father describes him as "this brother of yours" - an interesting twist.

v31. Irrespective of the elder brother's tantrum, the father does not withdraw his love from either son.

v32. Repentance and forgiveness bring fellowship and joy.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of those stories which has a locked-in interpretation. The parable is often used to teach the truth that God welcomes the repentant sinner. The story of a loving, forgiving, accepting father, illustrates the way God treats those who turn to him for mercy. Indeed, this idea has a central place in the parable, but there is more.

As verses 1 and 2 show, the parable addresses the muttering of the Pharisees who cannot accept the way Jesus "welcomes sinners and eats with them." In the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, Jesus makes the point that God joyously accepts those who come to him in repentance. Actually, he actively seeks after them and rejoices "over one sinner who repents." Jesus then goes on to tell the parable of the Lost Sons so as to illustrate the way people respond to God's grace, they way they respond to his unlimited loving kindness. The wayward son repents and enters in to his father's joyous acceptance, but the righteous son stays aloof and so fails to experience his father's love.

Clearly, the emphasis of the parable is upon the elder brother (the Pharisee, the self-righteous, the "humbug" church attender), but what is its point? Many see the parable teaching believers to accept the lost brother, the new convert, but rarely does a congregation not welcome a new convert. In liberal circles it's all about welcoming the outcast, the poor, the oppressed within society and in the third world. God does it, we should do it (a rather fuzzy idea, given that the "poor" are the "poor in spirit" and are not necessarily physically poor). For some it means forgiving and accepting a brother who has gone astray and may have hurt us in the process. "Those who want God's forgiveness also must forgive and commune on that basis", E. Ellis.

In truth, this parable serves to remind those who have faithfully laboured in the Father's service, godly churchies, that their standing in the sight of God is on the same basis as the more notorious members of Christ's fellowship. Repentance (turning to God for mercy) is the only basis for forgiveness and acceptance in the sight of God. Once we understand that our own acceptance is wholly on the basis of God's freely given mercy, we are then able to be "glad" with the Lord, "because this brother of ours was dead and is alive again; was lost and is found."

Consider the different interpretations of the parable of the Prodigal Son.