“Lost & Found: Sheep, Coins, Brothers” (Luke 15:1-32)

Stories of the Kingdom: Part 5

This is the fifth of a nine-part series of mini-sermons designed to help students reflect upon Jesus’ parables, the kingdom of God, and living as kingdom people.

A couple months ago we looked at the first part of Luke 15 and talked about lost sheep and lost coins. We concluded that the proper response to finding what is lost, to the restoration of lost sinners, is joy. The passage makes this abundantly clear. There is no confusion about the joy that results from finding what is lost in either parable. I suggested then that we sometimes have a problem in the modern American church; we have somehow responded to the restoration of the lost with something less than, or other than, joy. I’ve heard Christians respond to the salvation of the lost with skepticism, jealousy, or indifference. And this danger stands at the heart of our passage today, what is often called the parable of the prodigal son. I want to reframe our expectations here, though, and speak not of the prodigal son alone, or even of the two sons, but rather of the two brothers.

The context of the parables in Luke 15 suggests to us that Jesus is going to tell parables about the proper way to respond to sinners, since the Pharisees have just ridiculed Jesus for eating with them. The celebration in both the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin at finding that which is lost, that is, in the restoration of a sinner, suggests that the parables follow the context. Since the parable of the prodigal son, as we usually call it, is clearly linked with the previous two, we ought to expect this parable to be about how we respond to sinners. Emphasizing the love of the father at the return of his wayward son is certainly along these lines. But I want us to take a different approach this morning, highlighted by focusing on two brothers rather than sons.

The plot is well-known, and we just read it together, so I won’t repeat much here. The younger brother asks for his inheritance, squanders it with reckless, sinful living, and returns to the father when he realizes that being a servant in his father’s house is better than living the life he currently has. The father sees his son while he is a long way off, suggesting that the father was still expecting the return of his son. The father embraces his son, forgives him, and tells his servants to slaughter the fattened calf for a celebration. Like the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, we have here something lost being found and an invitation to share in celebrating that which is found—i.e., a lost sinner who has repented.

Somewhat unique to this story among the three is that the father is not out actively seeking for his son as we see with the lost sheep or the lost coin. However, the clarification in the story that the father sees his son while a long way off suggests that the father is indeed searching for his son, but he must do so differently because of the nature of human agency and its difference from that of a sheep or a coin. There is certainly much we could say about human agency and God’s work in bringing lost sinners to repentance. Many debates arise over how much agency a person has in his or her salvation. But a debate on that topic, although helpful in other contexts, would seem to divert from the greater focus on the father’s reaction to not only the first son, but also to the second.

It is the second brother that I want to focus on today. All three parables in Luke 15 show celebration and joy as the proper responses to finding what is lost, yet sometimes those in the church respond with skepticism, indifference, or jealousy. Here in the parable of the prodigal son we see exactly this type of behavior. The elder brother is not celebrating the return of his brother; in fact, he is reminding his father of how he has been obedient and his brother has been sinful. He is seeking to justify himself, telling the father that his obedience is the reason that he, not the sinful younger brother, deserves the fattened calf. In the context, Jesus’ words ought to cut right to the heart of the Pharisees. Rather than celebrating a sinner coming to Jesus, they are complaining that they deserve the better portion. They are full of self-righteousness, jealousy, greed, and many other deeply dangerous sins while on the surface doing all the right things.

What has the elder brother forgotten? What is he missing? The father tells us in verses 31-32: “Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” We’ve already mentioned celebrating when that which is lost is found. But the reason why the elder brother seems to have missed this point is that he lacks gratitude at what he already has—the presence of and relationship with his father. The father says, “You are always with me.” You are always with me…that is what the younger son was truly missing. Not money, not security, not food—those are all good in the right context. What the younger son was missing was the presence of his father and a relationship with him, and that is precisely what the elder brother had. The blessing is the F/father’s presence, not a fattened calf.

One other interesting point of biblical theology stands out to me in this passage. Because we have been adopted into God’s family, we can call God our Father. In fact, Jesus teaches us to pray this way. Paul, in Galatians 4, makes the same point. And if God is our Father by adoption, but Jesus’ Father by Trinitarian relation, then Jesus is our Elder Brother. Jesus is the example of the True Elder Brother. Jesus sat and ate with tax collectors and sinners who came to him open to hearing the truth. Jesus taught that sinners who repent are cause for celebration, like we do upon finding that which is lost. The parable of the prodigal son turns out to be first about the father, second about the elder son, and only last of all about the prodigal himself. We may have been the prodigal in the past, we may have a season of life to come in which we act as the prodigal, too. But more often than not, we are cast in the role of the elder brother. Will we act out of jealousy, indifference, anger, or skepticism? Or will we act like Jesus, our Elder Brother, who knows that the presence of the Father is all we need?

The parable of the prodigal son is a wonderfully rich story that cannot be exhausted in two or three short messages, but I do hope we can see what perhaps we have missed in this story before—the deep, meaningful message that presence with the Father is the true gift. That receiving back a sinner who was lost but is now found is a cause for celebration, a reminder to be grateful for what we have always had—God’s presence—and this former sinner now has, too. We have the example of two (elder) brothers—choose to follow Jesus. This is what kingdom living is truly about–resting in the presence of the King. Amen.