Second leg of the trek in the land of the lost son
The Prodigal’s Awakening (Lk 15:15-19)
Self-destructive behavior is a dead end street. Sometimes it takes reaching the bitter end for a change of heart to come about. I entitled this section the Prodigal’s Awakening. It could easily have been, and more accurate to say, a rude awakening, the self-realization or awareness – “I messed up!” Last week we left our prodigal bankrupt, financially and spiritually. He had squandered all of his money; he spent all (14) with riotous living. To make matters worse, in addition to being broke, there was a severe famine (v14) in party land. Our prodigal began to be in want (14).
He thought he had needs when he left home, but all it really turned out to be was nothing but lust. His sowing oats were expensive and hurtful to others, not to mention him. Lust ran off with the money and need became well defined in a way that he had never experienced before until now. Isn’t this the way of Satan’s marketing schemes, creating a need that doesn’t exist. He saw only one side of sin city’s bill boards. Then he discovered the downside no one advertises – party land is built on losers.
When Satan is allowed by the will to tap into the inner being like a derrick drilling for oil, he will find the spiritual black gold in the oilfield that he is after, the illicit cravings of the sin nature. Once the demonic drill penetrates the resistance layer, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life gusher forth (cf. 1 Jn 2:16).
The manifestation of the sin nature will always leave a life depleted and empty like an abandoned derrick, a well that has gone dry. This is our prodigal’s situation. But all is not lost as we shall soon see! I like what Warren Wiersbe said concerning the lost son. “The prodigal learned the hard way that you cannot enjoy the things money can buy if you ignore the things money cannot buy” (Wiersbe Bible Commentary on the New Testament in Lk 15:13).
Luk 15:15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
Plan A went awry; money is gone. Pride causes the lost son to resort to Plan B. This plan doesn’t face the music but the morgue. It excluded any confession that he was wrong. He doesn’t have to face his father or his resentful brother. He was free from all responsibility, accountability, and authority. He’ll just starve to death, that’s all.
Then he went. Pride prevented him from returning home in Israel.
Joined himself. The Greek word is kollao (G2853). It means to glue, to glue together, to cement, to adhere, to cleave, to affix. He forced himself upon the citizen. He was persistent until he was employed. The Amplified Bible amplifies it this way,
So he went and forced (glued) himself upon one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed hogs.
The prodigal had been reduced to begging; in desperation he “affixed himself to this one influential person whom he somehow knew from his days of extravagance, and he refused to go away. He stuck on him like epoxy” (JM, Master Work, Winter 2010-2011, LifeWay, p. 120).
To a citizen of that country. Citizen is the Greek word polites (G4177, pronounced pol-ee’tace) derived from polis (G4172, a city, found in a familiar word, metropolis). It merely means an inhabitant of a city or town. In the days of Rome you were either free (a citizen, Roman, Jewish, et cetera) or a slave (doulos, G1401). Slaves were considered property and denied citizenship rights. Being a citizen had its privileges compared to slaves. The prodigal is soon to discover the world doesn’t have an answer to his spiritual condition. It can only address the physical. And this citizen acted as if the lost son was a nuisance and bothersome. He is not interested in really helping someone in need.
And he sent him into his fields. He was sent not to tend or harvest crops like he may have done when living at home. No, this citizen, astute in international customs and sensitivities, sent this Jewish young man to perform something that was degrading to the Jews.
To feed swine. The citizen in response of being hassled by this prodigal probably amused himself by sending a Jew out to tend to the hogs with substandard pay to encourage him to leave or simply disappear.
This depicts the downward slide of the lost son, but his descent had yet to stop. To the Jews, swine were ceremonially unclean, spiritually defiling under the Mosaic Law (Lev 11:7; cf. Isa 66:17). After the Pharisees and the scribes heard that the lost son went to work for "Pigs R Us" (a local pork supplier according to Steve Houser, member extraordinaire of the connect group), they must have recoiled and blew a gasket. Just touching or feeding swine was an abomination to them.
By now they were thoroughly convinced this man was irredeemable and deserved going to hell. They were in a picking-up-a-stone mode. Their feelings toward the outcasts of society are well known. Jesus in His unmatched wisdom is taking them to a place where they are very familiar and comfortable with – the condemnation of tax collectors and sinners (cf. Lk 18:9) in order to expose the absence of any joy in their heart over the recovery of the lost.Their rigid system of religion did not accommodate for a repentant sinner; there was zero tolerance for the outcasts.
Jesus gives us a window to see inside the heart of a truly repentant sinner. Repentance toward God made all the difference in the world; to the Pharisees and scribes it made no difference whatsoever. Since the son broke all the rules, the only Pharisaic options were to break all ties with him or stone him to death. Forgiveness was not part of the vocabulary of the self-righteous, the Pharisees and the scribes, who claimed to speak for God.
This depicts the downward slide of the lost son, but his descent had yet to stop. To the Jews, swine were ceremonially unclean, spiritually defiling under the Mosaic Law (Lev 11:7; cf. Isa 66:17). After the Pharisees and the scribes heard that the lost son went to work for "Pigs R Us" (a local pork supplier according to Steve Houser, member extraordinaire of the connect group), they must have recoiled and blew a gasket. Just touching or feeding swine was an abomination to them.
By now they were thoroughly convinced this man was irredeemable and deserved going to hell. They were in a picking-up-a-stone mode. Their feelings toward the outcasts of society are well known. Jesus in His unmatched wisdom is taking them to a place where they are very familiar and comfortable with – the condemnation of tax collectors and sinners (cf. Lk 18:9) in order to expose the absence of any joy in their heart over the recovery of the lost.Their rigid system of religion did not accommodate for a repentant sinner; there was zero tolerance for the outcasts.
Jesus gives us a window to see inside the heart of a truly repentant sinner. Repentance toward God made all the difference in the world; to the Pharisees and scribes it made no difference whatsoever. Since the son broke all the rules, the only Pharisaic options were to break all ties with him or stone him to death. Forgiveness was not part of the vocabulary of the self-righteous, the Pharisees and the scribes, who claimed to speak for God.
The Pharisees and scribes are disgusted with this young Jewish man’s behavior. With God there is redemption from condemnation with repentance. With the Pharisees and scribes, there was only condemnation. To them there is only indifference to the repentant behavior of the lost son, revulsion of the father’s behavior, and applauding the older brother’s response to all of this. Their spirit dovetailed nicely with that of the older brother.
“The scribes and Pharisees thought people could become righteous through lifelong devotion to a complex system of religious works. They had no category to their theological system to account for how someone like the prodigal could ever be saved from the wrath of God and brought into divine favor” (JM, Ibid., p. 124). It was quite an affair of twisted theology.
To be fair to the unreciprocating unfair people involved in the world of Phariseeism, they were flesh and bone like anyone else and had a modicum of mercy, compassion, and love for their own kind. But they drew a very tight line around the expectations of a standard of living of what they earnestly believed was acceptable to God. Those who violated that standard or were found outside that standard were treated equally with contempt where there is no room or flexibility for forgiveness, only execution of the letter of the law. The prodigal Jewish son crossed that line in their way of thinking. Perpetual conformity to a rigid set of rules was the only way to becoming righteous and accepted before God. The spirit of Phariseeism is alive and thrives today.
Lk 15:16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
And he would gladly have filled his stomach. He was longing or desiring to be filled. All he wanted was to fill his belly to silence the hunger pangs, but no one gave him anything.
With the pods that the swine ate. The Greek word for pods (keration, G2769, derived from keras, G2768, a little horn, from the shape of the pod) is only found here. The HCSB translates carob pods (KJV, husks). This is the fruit of the carob tree. According to Spiros Zodhiates,
“This tree is common in Syria and the southern parts of Europe. It produces long slender pods shaped like a horn or sickle containing a sweet pulp and several brown shining seeds like beans. These pods are sometimes used as food by the poorer classes in the East, and swine are commonly fed with them” (The Complete Word Study Dictionary).
For some reason these carob pods were unfit for human consumption due to the famine. This would explain why he would have gladly had his fill of it otherwise. Vincent quotes Edersheim of a Jewish saying, “When Israel is reduced to the carob-tree, they become repentant” (Vincent’s Word Studies on Lk 15:16). This is the iPOD we really need in the church today and our country!
And no one gave him anything. He finally had reached the bitter end. The lost son was at rock bottom. He descent could go no further except for dying. Hunger grips a man in the gut and will not release its hold without food. With each passing moment that grip tightens. Even begging wasn’t getting it. He was in a hopeless situation and in serious trouble. The only diet was despair.
In verses 17-19 we get a rare view into the heart of a truly repentant sinner.
Lk 15:17 "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
But. This is the turning point in the story.
When he came to himself. Here the long awaited awakening; he came to his senses! “So for the first time in his life he was determined to walk away from sin, plead for his father’s forgiveness, and submit to his father’s authority” (JM, Ibid., p. 123). He was hungry, homesick, and lonely. Should we say we he came to his right mind? All sin is insanity. He trashed everything for cheap gratification, and it cost him nearly his life. Amazing clarity comes when we are at the end of our rope. All the trappings of distraction have been stripped away. Empty pockets and an empty belly drove him to his senses. The only person on earth who could help him was his father, so much for Plan B and the “caring” citizen.
Before all of this, the answer for his life was getting out from under his father’s authority, breaking free, and doing what he wanted to do, calling the shots, not answering to anybody. Now he is realizing that unless his father is in the picture he won’t have a future. This is a fantastic illumination, a thing of grace, really, a complete reversal of his attitude! Are you seeing the spiritual picture being painted here?
This sounds like us before salvation! Whether or not we had hit rock bottom, we recognized our need of the Father, to receive Him in Christ and repent of sin and from sin and live for Him. When we got the world by the tail we see no need for God. We are blinded by our own desire on what is really important in life.
There must be an acute awareness of our abject spiritual poverty without the Father and the ramifications of a Christ-less life. Abject spiritual poverty means the Holy Spirit does not live within the heart; we are spiritually lifeless. It means that we are in darkness, blinded from the light of the glorious gospel of Christ. It means that we are bound to the appetites of the flesh; we crave the things of the world. It means we are unpleasing to the Lord and do not have the peace of God that passes all understanding. It means we will die in our sins if we reject his offer of salvation. It means we will be separated from God for all eternity in the lake of fire. For an unbeliever, death is only a breezeway between this present suffering and something far worst, apart from the intervention of divine grace. Putting off a decision to receive Christ is tantamount to rejection.
Paul stated that godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation (2 Cor 7:10a). This repentance means doing an about face or making a 180 degree turn in mind and action according to God’s will. Repentance is more than a coming to the senses, but includes acting on those senses – I am unworthy … I will go. His feelings and intellect are joined in the decision-making process; his will will take him to Israel and back to his father. Think of it like a donkey pulling a cart; the cart represents his emotion and intellect, and the will is the donkey that gets him there.
Repentance demands the involvement of the whole heart: the feeler (emotion), the thinker (the intellect [cognition]), and the chooser (the will [volition]). The beauty of coming to his senses is that for the first time in his life he is heading in the right direction! He discovers an unrealized love and does so without conditions or strings attached, not a – “I’ll come back but here are the conditions or stipulations – you do this, this, and this, and I’ll come home.” You know anyone like that? They will come back with stipulations. We have to be stripped of those things that are preventing us from being in conformity to God's will. We must turn our backs on it.
He said. Full of self-talk (cf. Lk 12:17). He thought to himself or thought out loud or both. A lot was running through his mind, rehearsing what he would say to his father.
How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare. It took bottoming out to appreciate what he had before he left. His father’s hired servants lived in royalty compared to him.
Father. This is the first time we see a shift in attitude toward his father. His father is seen as gracious and kind (bread enough and to spare) even to the lowest of people in the economic strata rather than an authoritarian figure. He never realized until now how his father went beyond the law and cultural expectations with the poor. He was a fair and generous man.
Hired servants. The Greek word for servants is misthios (G1437). They are temporary labor for hire, day workers. These hired servants referred to “the lowest of all workers on the economic scale. In the first-century culture, that kind of hired servant held a much lower status than a slave…society’s most desperately poor…many of them were homeless and unskilled. They would therefore be given the most menial or undesirable work…paid a meager wage” (JM, Ibid., p. 127).
And I perish with hunger. He finally envisions a different future. After leaving home the future was titillating; now it was terrifying, bleak and hopeless. This clause reveals he was at the bitter end. Reality had finally set in.
Lk 15:18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
I will arise. He had finally come to his senses; plans A&B backfired. Plan C would be executed. This was more than good intentions – And he arose and came to his father (Lk 15:20).
And go to my father. The place for the prodigal is to return to the place of departure and face the music, taking full responsibility for his sin. He was willing to pay the cost of his repentance. This is rich in and of itself. True repentance will cost us. Salvation is free; repentance is costly – if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me (Lk 9:23).
And will say to him. The son rehearses in his mind the words of asking forgiveness. Note there is nothing in his thinking of restoration. He was coming back and throwing himself at the mercy of his father and asking for a job.
Father, I have sinned against heaven. This is an interesting observation. The repentant sinner realizes that he had first and foremost sinned against heaven which is another way of saying he had sinned against God, and secondly his father on earth and before you. This is the correct theological orientation. Sinning against others is second to sinning against God. All sin is against God, not all sin is against others. Note David’s response to the charges brought before him by the prophet Nathan (2 Sam 12:13, I have sinned against the LORD; cf. Psa 51:4). Prov 28:13,
He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Sinning against God hurts other people, usually the ones we love and care for the most. Without nitpicking all his sins with citations from the Mosaic Law, suffice to say he violated the greatest commandment, the prime directive of Scripture that transcends all economies – Deut 6:5,
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Every ounce of our being is to be in love with Yahweh. It is quite obvious this didn’t happen. Without love we have no relationship with God. The only way we can show our love to God this side of eternity is by obedience to His Word. Evidence that we love Jesus is that we obey Him (Jn 14:15). We keep His Word because we are in love with Him; it’s being in love that yields the doing in love. Doing without love is Pharisaic, ouch! I told you the examples are endless.
Disobedience reveals there is a love problem. Half-hearted love toward God is disobedience. Straightly, it is sin. God is interested in the sum of us not the some of us. The other command the prodigal or lost son violated was the fifth commandment of the Decalogue, Exodus 20:12, Honor your father and your mother…. He so dishonored both of them with his foolishness. He dishonored God the Father; he dishonored his parents.
Luk 15:19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."
And I am no longer worthy. He recognizes his unworthiness. Worthy (axios, G514, of equal value) This word carries the idea of balance scales. Being worthy was the idea of equal weight or value when placed on the pans. He no longer viewed himself of equal worth to his father. If he was to be placed upon the scales with his father, the scales would tip heavily in favor of the father; he considered himself of inferior value to his father's worth. Quite a contrast, isn't it, from that once high opinion of himself! Falling off that high peak and landing into the pig slop did the trick.
To be called your son. His inherent value as a son has been reduced to a hired servant in his eyes, unworthy to be the son of such a man as his father. When we look at our own sinfulness we question our own calling. But the son is going to be in for a surprise! The words of John resound in my soul,
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God (1 Jn 3:1a).
This lost puppy is about to experience the love of the father and the power of forgiveness and the joy his return brings to the heart of the father. Isn’t this Romans 8:28 or what! His brother isn’t going to like it; remember, Pharisees claim no joy over the recovery of the lost. Their system of thoughtless theology is not designed to deal with this kind of situation. Belief in Phariseeism reveals just how out of touch this system of thought is with the realities of God.
Simply put, they don’t know Him! They are lost without Christ. By this statement I am not suggesting any self-righteous attitude or behavior is indicative of a lost person, only that it reflects Pharisaic behavior. We all have a little self-righteousness about us, if we are willing to admit it! The truth of the matter is that very few Pharisees came to Christ. The only ones we know of for sure are Nicodemus (Jn 3:1ff) and Saul (Acts 9:3ff). Jesus spoke plainly of the Pharisees to his disciples in Mt 15:14,
Simply put, they don’t know Him! They are lost without Christ. By this statement I am not suggesting any self-righteous attitude or behavior is indicative of a lost person, only that it reflects Pharisaic behavior. We all have a little self-righteousness about us, if we are willing to admit it! The truth of the matter is that very few Pharisees came to Christ. The only ones we know of for sure are Nicodemus (Jn 3:1ff) and Saul (Acts 9:3ff). Jesus spoke plainly of the Pharisees to his disciples in Mt 15:14,
Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.
And you thought I was being too harsh on the Pharisees didn’t you? Maybe I was just a tad too direct? Notta! Consider the testimony of Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) before King Agrippa,
Act 26:9-11 “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. (10)This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. (11) And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
The pharisee boys could be mean and downright evil.
The pharisee boys could be mean and downright evil.
Make me like one of your hired servants. This is a dramatic shift in his opinion of himself from when he left his family for party land – give me (v12). His only thread of hope was to be accepted as a hired servant. In his mind there is no legal or filial reason for his father to treat him as or like a son after what he has done to the family. In some sense a slave was a member of the family but a hired servant had no connection to the family and could be dismissed at any time.
Window view of true repentance
Acknowledge sinful condition (When he came to himself, Lk 15:17, 19)
Confession of sin (I have sinned, Lk 15:18-19)
Repentance of sin (And he arose and came to his father, Lk 15:20, willing to pay the cost of repentance)
Show me you are an apple tree without your apples, and I will show you I am an apple tree by my apples. Show us the apples!
Well, we got through the second leg of our trek in the land of the lost son. If you hung with me through all of this, good for you! We will pick up where we left off next week, God willing. So let’s quickly review where we’ve been and where we are going.
The Land of the Lost Son, Luke15:11-32 | |||
1.23.11 | An Aerial View | Lk 15:1-3 | |
1.30.11 | 1st Leg | The Prodigal’s Blindness | Lk 15:11-14 |
2.6.11 | 2nd Leg | The Prodigal’s Awakening | Lk 15:15-19 |
2.13.11 | 3rd Leg | The Father’s Love | Lk 15:20-24 |
2.20.11 | 4th Leg | The Brother’s Anger | Lk 15:25-28 |
2.27.11 | 5th Leg | The Other Prodigal | Lk 15: 29-32 |
Postscript
Keep in mind the Pharisees and scribes are overhearing this parable being spoken to the tax collectors and sinners. The theme is the joy of the Father over the recovery of the lost son, but for the Pharisees there is no joy only spiritual pride and jealousy.
In every one of us is the potential to be a prodigal or a pharisee even as a believer. Let's state the obvious for obvious sake; both are unChrist-like. One is self-centered the other self-righteous. So as we trek through the land of the lost son we need to take a hard look at our spiritual image in the mirror of God's Word and ask God to reveal any prodigal or self-righteous tendencies and repent from it. One of the signs we may be suffering from either one is our attitude toward those outside Christ, indifference and no joy over their recovery. We all need a personal awakening! <><
Keep in mind the Pharisees and scribes are overhearing this parable being spoken to the tax collectors and sinners. The theme is the joy of the Father over the recovery of the lost son, but for the Pharisees there is no joy only spiritual pride and jealousy.
In every one of us is the potential to be a prodigal or a pharisee even as a believer. Let's state the obvious for obvious sake; both are unChrist-like. One is self-centered the other self-righteous. So as we trek through the land of the lost son we need to take a hard look at our spiritual image in the mirror of God's Word and ask God to reveal any prodigal or self-righteous tendencies and repent from it. One of the signs we may be suffering from either one is our attitude toward those outside Christ, indifference and no joy over their recovery. We all need a personal awakening! <><
