Go to your Bible and read Luke Chapter 15 and follow the study guide below. 15:1. Luke makes much of Jesus contact with sinners (the class of persons written off by many if the religious people of the day). (See also 5:30, 32; 7:34.) Publicans were tax gatherers, who were regarded (often with good reason!) with special contempt. See 5:27, 29, 30; 7:29, 34; 18:10, 11, 13. 15:2. The Pharisees traditions forbade them to share a meal with any they considered sinful. 15:3-32. These verses compromise parables that show Jesus message to be the Gospel for the outcast (I. H. Marshall). 15:4-7. This is not only a poignant picture of Gods searching love, but also a rebuke of the selfish murmuring of verse 2. 15:8-10. If a woman and her neighbors delight in recovering a solitary coin, and if a shepherd takes joy in rescuing a single sheep, how much more praiseworthy is the salvation of a sinner? While some portray God as impersonal or aloof from human affairs, Jesus here teaches of His concern for every individual. 15:12. According to Deuteronomy 21:17, the older of two sons was entitled to a double portion of a fathers estate. Here the younger son would have received one-third. He was probably under a moral obligation to use the inheritance in a way pleasing to the father, but he ignores this. 15:13. Gathered all together means that he turned his assets into hard cash. Not many days is Lukes understatement. The lad wasted no time getting ready to waste money. 15:15. A Jew would have been unbearably degraded by feeding swine. Also, the owner would have had to be a Gentile, since both keeping and feeding swine were forbidden to Jews. 15:17. Came to himself may well be a Semitic idiom for repentance. See the following verse. 15:19. Having claimed his birthright (v. 12), the son had no further claim on his fathers estate. He at least had the integrity not to resort to begging; he knew his offense and was willing to abide by the implications of it- a mark of genuine repentance. 15:20. The father had not yet heard his sons confession (v. 21), but like the seekers of the previous two parables, his desire is to see the restoration of that which was lost. 15:21-24. The son rehearses his speech. But the fathers graciousness presents an entirely different result from the one the son had envisioned. 15:25-28. The older son valued his own higher privilege, and despised his brother who had squandered his portion. He thus felt superior and self-righteous, and was now understandably annoyed that his brother was being lavished with mercy and kindness. Jesus is clearly painting a portrait of the attitude behind the murmuring of verse 2. Again the father takes the initiative. 15:29-30. The son is articulate in airing his grievance: his brother enjoys a fatted calf, while he has never had even a kid, which was much cheaper fare. He speaks not of my brother but of this thy son. 15:31. Son is an affectionate address, quite unlike the sons complaint to the father. He reaffirms his regard for the older son. 15:32. By the words this thy brother the father reminds him of what he implicitly rejected in verse 30. The whole story is a moving portrayal of a loving Gods persistence in seeking out the lost- and of human perversity is resenting such grace, which exceeds our natural understanding. Yours in Jesus Christ,
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:00:15 +0000
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