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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Luke 15 Setup And Purpose

The Younger Son Hits Bottom

The Father Runs And Restores

The Elder Brother Reveals The Target

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This is the Daily Blade. Again, I'm Jay Reisner, lead pastor at Faith Bible Church, filling in for Kyle and Joby this week. And we're working our way through Luke chapter 15. And at this point in the week, I've introduced three parables. And today I want to drill down on the three characters in the last story, the story of the lost son. Because understanding each of these characters gets us to the heart of why Jesus came up with and delivered this story. So three people in Luke 15, verses 11 through 32. First, the younger son. This character in Jesus' parable obviously represents the tax collectors and sinners. What Jesus does here is knowing the self-righteous sensibilities of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus generates for them an image of the supreme sinner. Jesus is in effect saying, You think these people drawn to me are sinners? Well, let me tell you a story about a sinner. Just look at some of the details that Jesus includes to amplify the shame of this younger son. Most obviously, he's a son that doesn't honor his father. By asking for his inheritance early, he is essentially saying he would rather his father be dead. Just a blatant violation of the fifth commandment, immensely shameful. He liquidated his share of the estate quickly, the son did, meaning he probably got pennies on the dollar for the goods and the livestock and the land that his father had gifted him, which that total lack of stewardshi would have been additionally shameful. After liquidating, he heads to this distant country, which means he went to live amongst the Gentiles. He's breaking away from the covenant community. He's leaving the land of promise. Shameful. Then he proceeds to squander his wealth, shameful. And he did so with the text says, loose living, doubly shameful. Verse 14 says, When he had spent everything. Everything? Yeah. Everything. That's shameful. So he hires himself out to a Gentile, shameful. And the Gentile farmer made him a day laborer feeding pigs. Do I even have to say shameful? And when the sun's at rock bottom and he's there with the pigs, and no one is giving him anything. Verse 17 says, He comes to his senses. Some versions say he came to himself, which is a way of saying he saw himself. In a pig sty, he saw how far he had fallen. He saw that he was totally responsible for this place that he was in. And in that moment of clarity, he decided to go home, to go to his father and own everything that he had done. That's the younger son. Next person we learn about is the father. The father, and this is this character in Jesus' parable, I think this represents God. And this father who has been sinned against, before he hurt hears a word from the returning son's mouth, before he even knows that the son's heart has turned back to his father, he showers the son with affection. The text says, when he was a long way off, the father ran to him. Which for a grown man to run in this culture at this time was a complete release of dignity and honor. Children would run, sometimes women, but not patriarchs like this man. The text then says the father embraces his son and kisses him. The Greek verb for kiss tells us he kissed him and he kissed him and he kept kissing him. And that's before he even hears the son's repentance. He doesn't even wait to see why the son has returned. His heart is one of affection for the son. And then as the boy confesses to the father, saying he's not worthy to be called his son, the father doesn't miss a beat. He quickly, the text says, quickly covers the boy's shame with his best robe, gives him a ring for his finger, which was like giving the boy the family credit card. And then he gives him shoes for his feet, because only slaves would go without shoes. And then he kills the fatted calf, throws a party for the whole village. Father then says, just to erase all doubt as to the son's place in the father's heart, he says, This son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found, and they all begin to celebrate. That's the second person, the father. The third person in the parable is the elder brother. And here we arrive at the point of the whole parable. Remember, Jesus is telling the story to the scribes and the Pharisees. They are the ones grumbling over Jesus accepting and receiving of sinners. So these parables are for them. The older brother is out in the fields, when the younger son comes home, when he approaches the house and he hears the party going on in full swing, he, the older brother, he summons someone to tell him what's up. And when he finds out what's going on, the text says he's angry. Clearly, this elder brother figure represents the scribes and the Pharisees. And tomorrow we're going to see the three properties that characterize the older brother, and therefore the Pharisees who hate that Jesus loves sinners.

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Stay sharp.