Luke 15
MCGARLuke 15:1-2
(Probably in Peræa.)
L 1, 2. [For publicans see , . In answer to their [499] murmuring, Jesus spoke three parables, in which he set forth the yearnings of redemptive love. Having thus replied to the Pharisees, Jesus continued his discourse, adding two other parables, concerning the right employment of worldly goods, and ending with some teaching concerning offenses, etc. We defer comparing the parables until we have discussed them.] [FFG 499-500]
Luke 15:3-7
(Probably in Peræa.)
L 3-7. [Jesus had spoken this parable before. See ] [The call implies that the loss was known to the neighbors, and that they felt concerned about it. Had the Pharisees been neighbors to the spirit of Christ, they would have sympathized with him in his joy; but they were false undershepherds– .] [How little Jesus thought of external morality may be seen by his words at [500] , but he here quoted the Pharisees at their own valuation to show that even when so doing, God’s love for the sinner was the paramount love.] [FFG 500-501]
Luke 15:8-10
(Probably in Peræa.)
L 8-10. [because oriental houses are commonly without windows, and therefore dark] [The or piece of silver, corresponded to the Latin and was worth about seventeen cents. The woman, having only ten of them, was evidently poor. Such small coin have been for centuries worn by oriental women as a sort of ornamental fringe around the forehead. The phrase “until she find it,” which is practically repeated in both parables, is a sweet source of hope; but it is not to be pressed so as to contradict other Scripture.] [ ] [By thus reaffirming the heavenly joy, Jesus sought to shame the Pharisees out of their cold-blooded murmuring.] [FFG 501]
Luke 15:11-32
(Probably in Peræa.)
L 11-32. [These two sons represent the professedly religious (the elder) and the openly irreligious (the younger). They have special reference to the two parties found in the , –the Pharisees, the publicans and sinners] [501] [the more childish and easily deceived] [Since the elder brother received a double portion, the younger brother’s part would be only one-third of the property– .] [Abraham so divided his estate in his lifetime ; but the custom does not appear to have been general among the Jews. God, however, gives gifts and talents to us all, so the parable fits the facts of life– , , .] [with all haste] [He yearned for the spurious liberty of a land where he would be wholly independent of his father. Thus the sinful soul seeks to escape from the authority of God] [Sin now indulges itself with unbridled license, and the parable depicts the sinner’s course: his season of indulgences ; his misery ; his repentance ; his forgiveness .] [Sooner or later sinful practices fail to satisfy, and the sense of famine and want mark the crises in our lives as they did in the life of the prodigal. The direst famine is that of the word of God– , .] [literally, glued] [literally, to pasture or tend] [This was, to the Jew, the bottom of degradation’s pit. They so abhorred swine that they refused to name them.
They spoke of a pig as “the other thing.”] [The master upon whom he had forced himself did not deem his services worthy of enough food to sustain life; so that he would gladly have eaten the husks or pods of the carob bean, which are very similar to our [502] honey-locust pods, if they would have satisfied his hunger.] [his previous state had been one of delusion and semi-madness ; in it his chief desire had been to get away from home, but returning reason begets a longing to return thither] [The humility of his confession indicates that the term “riotous living” means more than merely a reckless expenditure of money. But vile as he was he trusted that his father’s love was sufficient to do something for him.] [Repentance is here pictured as a journey.
It is more than a mere emotion or impulse.] [being evidently on the lookout for him] [seeing his ragged, pitiable condition] [Giving him as warm a welcome as if he had been a model son.] [The son shows a manly spirit in adhering to his purpose to make a confession, notwithstanding the warmth of his father’s welcome; in grieving for what he had done, and not for what he had lost; and in blaming no one but himself.] [interrupting the son in his confession] [none but servants went barefooted] [which, according to Eastern custom, was held in readiness for some great occasion , and which some custom still exists] [the robe, [503] ring, etc., are merely part of the parabolic drapery, and are so many sweet assurances of full restoration and forgiveness, and are not to be pressed beyond this] [The condition of the impenitent sinner is frequently expressed in the Bible under the metaphor of death– , , , .] [Having thus finished his account of the openly irreligious, Jesus now turns to portray that of the professedly religious; he turns from the publican to the Pharisee. He paints both parties as alike children of God, as both faulty and sinful in his sight, and each as being loved despite his faultiness. But while the story of the elder son had a present and local application to the Pharisees, it is to be taken comprehensively as describing all the self-righteous who murmur at and refuse to take part in the conversion of sinners.] [at work] [He heard evidences of joy, a joy answering to that mentioned at , ; the joy of angels in seeing the publicans and sinners repenting and being received by Jesus–the joy at which the Pharisees had murmured.] [he refused to be a party to such a proceeding] [In the entreating father Jesus pictures the desire and effort of God then and long afterwards put forth to win the proud, exclusive, self-righteous spirits which filled the Pharisees and other Jews– , , .] [literally, I am thy slave] [He speaks with the true Pharisaic spirit [504] . His justification was as proud as the prodigal’s confession was humble] [much less a calf] [he reckons as a slave, so much pay for so much work, and his complaint suggests that he might have been as self-indulgent as his brother had he not been restrained by prudence] [he thus openly disclaims him as a brother] [and not decent friends such as mine] [a privilege which the elder brother had counted as naught, or rather as slavery] [See , . The younger brother had the shoes, etc., but the elder still had the inheritance.] [ ] [Here the story ends. We are not told how the elder brother acted, but we may read his history in that of the Jews who refused to rejoice with Jesus in the salvation of sinners.
At the next Passover they carried their resentment against him to the point of murder, and some forty years later the inheritance was taken from them. Thus we see that the elder brother was not pacified by the father.
He continued to rebel against the father’s will till he himself became the lost son. A comparison of the three preceding parables brings out many suggestive points, thus: The first parable illustrates Christ’s compassion. A sentient, suffering creature is lost, and it was bad for that it should be so. Hence it must be sought, though its value is only one out of a hundred. Man’s lost condition makes him wretched. The second parable shows us how God values a soul. A lifeless piece of metal is lost, and while it could not be pitied, it could be valued, and since its value was one out ten, it was bad for the that it should be lost. God looks upon man’s loss as his impoverishment.
The first two parables depict the efforts of Christ in the salvation of man, or that [505] side of conversion more apparent, so to speak, to God; while the third sets forth the responsive efforts put forth by man to avail himself of God’s salvation–the side of conversion more apparent to us. Moreover, as the parabolic figures become more nearly literal, as we pass from sheep and coin to son, the values also rise, and instead of one from a hundred, or one from ten, we have one out of two!] [FFG 501-506]