And he said, A certain man had two sons;
Luke 15 opens with religious leaders complaining that Jesus welcomes tax collectors and sinners. He answers with three pictures of something lost and found, and the third begins here — with a man, two sons, and a home one of them will leave.
The first two stories used a straying sheep and a lost coin. Neither could show what happens inside a person.
The Saviour adds a third parable to complete and confirm the truth of God's grace in saving the lost who repent. The first showed the sinner carelessly straying by his own act. The second showed him dead and unfeeling until the Spirit works through the living word. The third uses the figure, not of a sheep or a coin, but of a man. It points to a work done inside the conscience, and to the welcome the returning soul finds in the Father's love and in the privileges of grace.
The Lord tells the three as one story, and each part shows a different Person at work.
But in blessed contrast with man's awful condition, we get the activity of God — the Son, the Spirit, and the Father. The Son seeks the lost sheep. The Spirit frees the wanderer from the death that lies upon him. The Father receives the lost one when he comes back. We have there not three parables, but one. "He told them this parable," it says. Why? Because He was bringing out the activity of the love of God to man, the lost sinner.
A sheep and a coin have no mind of their own. A man does.
Now in the third parable we have the effect produced. The work is not only conversion or pardon. Nothing done in this way would be enough without the full bringing of the soul to God, and into fellowship with Him too — the new and close relationship of a son by grace. This is what the third parable sets forth. And so it is no longer a sheep or a coin, but a man. It is there that we find intelligence and conscience, and so much the more guilt.
This is not one man's story only.
So the parable of the lost son takes man from the very start. It traces the beginning of his leaving, then the course and character of a sinner's misery on the earth, then his repentance, then his final peace and joy in the presence of God — who Himself rejoices as truly as man objects. In practice this is true of every sinner. It begins with a little yielding to sin, or a wish to be independent of God, and in every person's history the evil goes deeper and deeper.
The word "sons" here does not mean these two are believers. It rests on a wider tie — that every human being comes from God.
In verse 11 the two sons of a certain man do not picture true believers as sons of God. They picture those who by creation are God's offspring (Acts 17:28). In the younger son we see the tax collectors and sinners of verse 1. In the elder son we see the self-righteous Pharisees... The elder son's nearness to his father was only outward, just as was that of the Pharisees in relation to God.
Another writer names the two classes these sons stand for, and traces the wandering back to the first man.
The Saviour now pictures two sons — one wasteful, the other self-righteous (Luke 15:11-32). These represent the lawless and the religious classes... In the same way most men live with no regard at all for Him whose offspring they are. They squander His rich gifts — health, money, and abilities — on their own desires. The first man aimed at independence of God, and the love of this has marked all his descendants since.
Both sons want their own way, and that exposes the objectors as much as the wanderer.
This is man, all men, without exception. Every man desires to have his own way. In this the self-righteous Pharisee is quite as determined as the sinner. The elder son disputes his father's right to receive the repentant prodigal. God's ways, whether in grace or in judgment, never please the natural man.
- One parable. The sheep, the coin and the son are not three lessons but one — the Son seeking, the Spirit working, the Father receiving.
- A man, not a coin. The third picture swaps the sheep and the coin for a person. Only a person has a conscience, and only there can the work go inward.
- Two sons. Both are God's offspring by creation. One wastes everything openly. The other stays near, but only on the outside.
- One root. The wish to be independent of God is what makes both of them alike, and it is where every sinner's history starts.
- One end. The story runs the whole distance. It goes from the first step away, through the misery, to full fellowship with God as a son by grace.
and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give to me the share of the property that falls [to me]. And he divided to them what he was possessed of.
This chapter tells three stories: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a son who leaves home on purpose. The third one opens before any wild living, with what the son asks his father. Everything that follows — the far country, the pigs — traces back to that one sentence.
The first two parables tell of a straying sheep and a lifeless coin. Commentators say a third one is needed, because man's departure from God has a story of its own.
A third parable is necessary. We need not only a strayed sheep and a lost, lifeless piece of money, but also the moral history of man away from the presence of God, and coming to Him again. So the parable of the lost son takes man from the very first. It traces the beginning of his departure. It follows the course and character of a sinner's misery on the earth, his repentance, and his final peace and joy in the presence of God... In other words, there is a little yielding to sin, or a desire to be independent of God. Then comes a further and further depth of evil in every person's history.
Nothing scandalous has happened yet. Yet one writer finds the whole essence of sin in these words, before the son spends a penny.
It is the principle of distrust in God, and it results in every form of self-will. I like my own way and not God's. I am determined to have my own will and my own way, whether God wills it or not... This is the very essence of sin, and the root of all other sins. It comes from the unbelieving thought that we can do better for ourselves than God is willing to do for us. So we do not count on Him, we do not wait for Him, but take things into our own hands and follow our own way. "Give me the share of property that is coming to me" is the language of self-will — the worst sin of the prodigal son.
Notice what he asks for: the property, handed over now. He does not ask his father for anything else.
He is not content that his father should keep his portion, but will have it to enjoy himself, independent of the hand from which it comes. It is no surprise that in a little while he would be freer still. The far country is for him an escape from his father's eye, just as the independent portion had been an escape from his father's hand.
The father agrees without a word of argument. Commentators read that silence as God's way with a responsible creature.
"And he divided his property between them." Man is tested — he is responsible; but in fact he is not stopped from having his way, God only keeping the upper hand for the carrying out of His own gracious purposes. Still, as far as appearances go, God allows a man to do what he pleases. This alone will tell what sin means, what the heart seeks, and what man is with all his pretensions — and the worse the more he pretends.
What he received was no small allowance:
His father richly endowed him with goods. He gave him enough to enable him to make a great and honourable success in life. But he had other plans, and as soon as he got possession he turned his back on his father.
The father divides his property between two sons. Commentators link the pair to the two groups listening to Jesus in verse 1.
In the younger son we see the tax collectors and sinners of verse 1, and in the elder son the self-righteous Pharisees. The younger son demanded what he could get, and went far from the father to enjoy it. Yet notice that the father divided his property between the two sons. The elder received his full share, but stayed close to his father, where that share would not be wasted. Yet he had no real heart for his father, let alone for his brother. His nearness to his father was only outward.
If the demand is the sin, then the far country only exposes what was already true at the door.
This is simply our history, as men. Whether living in vice or not, we have all turned our backs on God. The son here was far happier, as a man, going from home than returning; he was doing his own will. This is the secret of all sin. The prodigal was just as completely a sinner when he stepped, rich, across his father's doorway. He was no more a sinner later, feeding with the pigs in the far country.
- Root. The portion, not the pigsty, is where sin starts — distrust of God working itself out as self-will.
- Portion. He asks for what his father owns, but refuses the hand that holds it. Independence from the hand soon becomes distance from the eye.
- Granted. The father divides his property without argument. God likewise lets a man have his way, keeping the upper hand for His own gracious purposes.
- Both. The elder son received his share too, and he never left. Yet his nearness was only outward. The story divides the crowd into open sinners and respectable ones.
- Exposed. The far country adds nothing to his guilt. It only shows the heart that spoke at the door. The parable then traces that heart all the way home again.
And after not many days the younger son gathering all together went away into a country a long way off, and there dissipated his property, living in debauchery.
The younger son does not wait once he has his share in hand. Within days he is gone, the money with him — and Luke's few words show why a heart wants distance from God, what it does with His gifts, and what that "freedom" costs.
The short delay before he leaves shows what he really wanted. The money mattered, but getting away from his father mattered more.
There was eagerness to get away from his father. As far as his will was concerned, it was a complete abandoning of his father to do his own pleasure. He wished to be so far away that he could act according to his own heart without restraint. There, in a far country, he squanders his property in reckless living. It is the picture of a man left to himself, doing his own will in this world, with ruinous results for the next world as well as this one.
The asking in verse 12 and the journey in verse 13 are two steps of one desire. Each one puts more distance between the son and his father.
He is not content to let his father keep his portion. He will have it for himself, to enjoy independently of the hand it comes from. You do not wonder to learn that in a little while he would be freer still. The far country is his escape from his father's eye, just as the portion in his own hands was an escape from his father's hand.
The property he squanders is not just money in a story. It stands for everything a person receives from God.
The "property" that he gets and squanders is his portion in natural things. God has in fact divided it among people. They may use it as answerable to Him who gave it, or perhaps abuse it in complete forgetfulness of Him. The far-off country he seeks puts him at once among the many who habitually turn their backs on God.
Distance from his father felt like liberty. But someone owns the ground he now stands on.
"And there," having reached the far country, he went on cheerfully in his own will as long as he could. He "squandered his property in reckless living." Anyone who lives beyond his means looks rich for a time. In the same way the sinner, wasting his soul, seems happy. But if he thinks himself happy, it is because he has got to a distance from God, where nothing restrains his will. Yet after all he is in the devil's country, and enslaved to him. Liberty of will is just slavery to the devil.
Money is only the visible part of what a person spends.
So it is with a sinner. You will see one wasting health, talents and energies chasing some bubble that long escapes his grasp. When he reaches it at last, it vanishes from his sight and gives no satisfaction to his craving heart.
It is easy to read this verse as being about the disreputable. Several writers press the opposite point — the wild spending was the symptom.
It was not the "reckless living" that made this younger son a prodigal, but the heart that was in him, and God looks at the heart. He asked his father for his share of the property, and his father gave him goods in plenty. He gave him enough to make a great and honourable success of life. But he had other plans. As soon as he had possession, he turned his back on his father. He broke loose from all restraint, travelled far from home, and lived for his own pleasure without any reference to his father's will.
If that is true, then the journey did not make him worse in kind, only more visible.
When the prodigal left his father's house, he was as wicked as he was later. He was glad to get away from his father and do his own will... When he crossed his father's doorstep he was as guilty as when he was eating husks in the far country — only not as degraded.
- Distance wanted. The gap between verse 12 and verse 13 is short because the will was already set. First he escapes his father's hand, then his father's eye.
- Distance funded. What he carries away is a trust. God divides natural gifts among people. Each person answers to the Giver for them, or forgets Him and wastes them.
- Distance enjoyed. Away from restraint the sinner looks rich and feels free. But the far country has an owner, and liberty of will is slavery to the devil.
- Distance emptied. He pours out health, talents and energy chasing a bubble. It vanishes when he catches it, and his heart still craves.
- Distance exposed. The wild living did not create the prodigal. The heart did. He was as guilty stepping over his father's doorstep as he was later, eating husks in the far country.