Wednesday 7 August
Dr Peter J. Williams is the Principal and CEO of Tyndale House, Cambridge. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he received his MA, MPhil, and PhD in the study of ancient languages related to the Bible. He has been leading Tyndale House since 2007 and is also an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, Chair of the International Greek New Testament Project and a member of the Translation Oversight Committee of the English Standard Version of the Bible.
Reading from Luke 15 (ESV)
If I’m allowed a favourite story of Jesus it would be Luke 15 and the story of the two sons. We are going to start to read with the final words of chapter 14. Tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear him.. but the Pharisees grumbled.
This is the most brilliant three minute story that has ever been told. Every word counts. I want us to look at this as a masterpiece. The first 60% is about the younger son and the second 38% is about the older son. It is phenomenal in terms of storytelling.
It is told to tax collectors and sinners. The tax collectors are Jews who are collaborating with the Romans to tax your money – they don’t care about the Bible. And sinners are not into the Bible either.
A Pharisee is the polar opposite of sinners (they consider themselves separate, set apart for God) – they spend their time studying the Bible. The scribes spend their time copying out the Bible by hand. They get to know their Bible thoroughly.
Jesus told the story to groups of people who are not interested into the Bible and groups of people who are super interested in the Bible and Jesus can teach them simultaneously. The sinners and tax collectors are drawing neat to hear Jesus. The pious ones are grumbling. And so He told them this parable. Three parables but it is a triune parable because it is a story of lost and found three times.
Firstly you have a sheep that is lost away from home and found and a coin that is lost at home. Then finally there is the story of two sons. The end of the final story is not finished. It is deliberate.
We know that there was rejoicing when the sheep going away from home is found. We know that there is rejoicing when the coin lost at home is found. We know that when the son came home, there was rejoicing. But the second son’s story is unfinished but we know that if he does reunite with his father, there will be rejoicing.
All three times, when the youngest son addresses his dad, he says, “Father…” The youngest son asks for his inheritance and the father gives the inheritance to BOTH of them. Under Jewish law, the oldest son gets double the inheritance.
By the end of the story we know that this is a farm. What do traditional families do when they have a farm? They don’t split the farm. The oldest one gets the whole farm. He has won the jackpot. The youngest one gets the “moveable” inheritance.
The youngest son goes to a far country. The older son draws near. And yet the space is the opposite of the emotional distance.
When we re-tell the story, we like to make a big thing about how the younger son wasted his property. Sin is totally boring. Therefore Jesus doesn’t emphasise the sin. If you tell a story about sin, you glamourise the sin. Jesus covers all this man’s sins with one phrase “reckless living”. He was wasting his inheritance. How do you feel about somebody who wastes money? When it is gone, it is gone. Most people feel angry.
But the prodigal was ‘unlucky’ enough to have chosen to go to a land where there was a famine (not luck theologically but the way things we are – a lot of us have been dealt a very good hand in terms of the place we’ve been born). A lot of people think that the only reason the youngest son is in difficulty is because of his choices but it was also because of the famine.
So he goes and hires himself out to feed pigs (the lowest of the low). Jesus is showing how low this guy has gone. He was starving. The Pharisees think that he is getting what he deserves.
There is an alignment between the younger son and the sinners and the tax collectors who seem so far away from God and between the Pharisees and the Scribes and the older son.
The younger son comes to his senses and we are allowed right inside his head. He realises that his father’s hired servants are paid well. There he is starving. He recognises his sin. Amazingly in just half a verse, we are carried back home.
While he was still a long way off, his father saw him. There must have been lots of people around. (A fatted calf would feed 400-500 people.) There are loads of people who could have seen him come back but it was the Father who saw him. Jesus implied to us that the Father was looking out all the time and he was the one who saw his son.
His response should have been anger because the son had wasted his money. Instead he is full of compassion and he runs to embrace him. There are no questions to be asked. He has already communicated his love with everything he has done.
The very first word is “quick” – now his son is back, there is no time to waste. “Bring the best robe” – everyone is going to see that he son is not doing probation. He is fully and publicly accepted and forgiven. Put a ring on his finger (that is dangerously close to a credit card because it is a sign of authority).
Surely this father is mad to be so gracious. Who could be like that? God!
God trusts us even after we sin every day. He trusts us with the credit card. What an incredible way of portraying the grace of God. This son was dead but now he is alive. He was lost but now he is found. They began to celebrate… shows the length of the celebration.
The oldest son was in the field. He was working late. He drew near to the house and heard the music and dancing and called one of the servant. He is angry and refuses to go in. Notice how Jesus is able to tell a story by missing a word. What is the first word out of the oldest son’s voice? It is not “Father”… it is “Look”. It seems to be the first time he has ever complained but it is not the first time he has thought about complaining.
He says he was slaving for his father but actually he owns everything – so in fact he has been working for himself. Accusations – “you never gave me a goat…” but he gave you every goat on the farm. Why is he saying this…?Could it be that he wants goats and he wants his friends but he doesn’t want his Father? The older son feels like he cannot enjoy the inheritance until his father is dead.
He accuses the brother of squandering his inheritance on prostitutes. How did he know what his brother has been up to? Could it be that he was projecting his own desires onto the younger sons? Could it be that he was revealing what he would like to be doing?
The father answers, “Son you are always with me and all that is mine is yours but this brother of yours was lost and now is found.
The father re-affirms the relationship he has with the youngest son. What you see with this story is a story that will work in any culture. It has basic family dynamics. You could transport this anywhere. It is simple and it works. It is weighted towards that first half so the picture you come away with is fundamentally about the Father running to embrace his son. It is focused on the father’s heart of welcome to those who are lost but are found.
But there are hidden messages (like in a Disney film for adults). Jesus is doing mixed ability teaching and He is able to speak in a way that will talk to the Scribes as well as to the tax collectors and sinners.
There was a man who had two sons. Who does that make us think of in the Biblical narrative?
Isaac is the most famous man who had two sons – Esau and Jacob. The only person who says “I’m dying of hunger” in the Bible is Esau and he sells his inheritance (his birth right) for a bowl of soup. He is angry and drives Jacob off to a far country.
In the only other meal where someone eats young goat, Jacob goes to his father posing as Esau and gets his father’s blessing. So Jacob goes off to a far country and he comes back.
In Genesis 33:4 we read that Esau ran to meet him, embraced him and kissed him. The only time in the Bible you get a true story about someone running, embracing and kissing is this story and it is one of the biggest narrative surprises because Jacob expects to be in trouble.
This particular verse was one of the key verses on the Scribes’ curriculum at the time of Jesus. If bad old Esau can forgive then surely the older brother can too?
The younger son was expecting to work when he got home but the older brother thinks he will lose out because the younger son is back on the scene. The thought that he is going to get cheap grace and get close to the Father is threatening. We don’t want to welcome the sinners too quickly because they might upset things. It is a real challenge towards the insiders. This parable tells us to orient ourselves towards the outsiders.
A man had two sons also reminds us of Adam: The Bible’s first anger is from Cain because Abel was accepted and he was rejected. Cain worked the fields but Abel looked after animals.
A man had two sons reminds of Abraham – the archetypal Father. The first time a man runs in the Bible is in Genesis 18:6 – here is an old man running, saying “quick” and killing the fatted calf. The genius of Jesus is referencing all these stories that would be so familiar to the Scribes and the Pharisees.
Genesis 25:5 Abraham gave all he had Isaac but gives gifts to his older son Ishmael. And there are many more references.
Jesus has taken all the greatest hits of Genesis and woven them into this story.
- “All these years I have been slaving for you…” (Jacob and Laban)
- Who gets a ring and a robe? And a famine. (Joseph)
- The son who is dead and alive. (Jacob and Joseph)
- A goat and a prostitute (the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38)
- Joseph forgave his brothers
- Esau lost everything but forgave Jacob
- Ishmael despised the younger son and lost his inheritance.
If you don’t know the bible, this story works but if you do know the Bible you will recognise the connections.
I could go on but I want us just to contemplate on how amazing Jesus is. I’d like you to go away with a renewed enthusiasm for studying scripture. There is more there than meets the eye. God wants us to meditate on His law day and night. He wants us to encounter Him through studying scripture.
Maybe some here are feeling very far from God and there is a welcome waiting. Christ’s righteousness is thrown around us like a robe, we are accepted in God’s sight. For many of us we may be physically close to God but our hearts are far away (like the older brother). This story is a challenge to us to rededicate ourselves to God.