Luke 15

Lu 15:1-32.

PUBLICANS AND

SINNERS

WELCOMED BY

CHRIST--THREE

PARABLES TO

EXPLAIN

THIS.

1. drew near . . . all the publicans and sinners, &c.--drawn around

Him by the extraordinary adaptation of His teaching to their case, who,

till He appeared--at least His forerunner--might well say, "No man

careth for my soul."

2. murmured, saying, &c.--took it ill, were scandalized at Him, and

insinuated (on the principle that a man is known by the company he

keeps) that He must have some secret sympathy with their character.

But oh, what a truth of unspeakable preciousness do their lips, as on

other occasions, unconsciously utter., Now follow three parables

representing the sinner: (1) in his stupidity; (2) as

all-unconscious of his lost condition; (3)

knowingly and willingly estranged from God

[BENGEL]. The first two

set forth the seeking love of God; the last, His receiving love

[TRENCH].

Lu 15:3-7.

I.

THE

LOST

SHEEP.

3-7. Occurring again

(Mt 18:12-14);

but there to show how precious one of His sheep is to the Good

Shepherd; here, to show that the shepherd, though the sheep stray never

so widely, will seek it out, and when he hath found, will rejoice over

it.

4. leave the ninety and nine--bend all His attention and care, as it

were, to the one object of recovering the lost sheep; not saying. "It is

but one; let it go; enough remain."

go after . . . until, &c.--pointing to all the diversified means

which God sets in operation for recovering sinners.

6. Rejoice with me, &c.--The principle here is, that one feels

exuberant joy to be almost too much for himself to bear alone,

and is positively relieved by having others to share it with

him. (See on

Lu 15:10).

7. ninety-nine just . . . needing no repentance--not

angels, whose place in these parables is very different from

this; but those represented by the prodigal's well-behaved

brother, who have "served their Father" many years and not at any

time transgressed His commandment (in the outrageous sense of the

prodigal). (See on

Lu 15:29;

Lu 15:31).

In other words, such as have grown up from childhood in the fear

of God and as the sheep of His pasture. Our Lord does not say

"the Pharisees and scribes" were such; but as there was undoubtedly

such a class, while "the publicans and sinners" were confessedly the

strayed sheep and the prodigal children, He leaves them to fill up the

place of the other class, if they could.

Lu 15:8-10.

II.

THE

LOST

COIN.

8. sweep the house--"not done without dust on man's part"

[BENGEL].

10. Likewise--on the same principle.

joy, &c.--Note carefully the language here--not "joy on the

part," but "joy in the presence of the angels of God." True

to the idea of the parables. The Great Shepherd. The Great Owner

Himself, is He whose the joy properly is over His own recovered

property; but so vast and exuberant is it

(Zec 8:17),

that as if He could not keep it to Himself, He "calleth His friends and

neighbors together"--His whole celestial family--saying, "Rejoice WITH ME, for I have found My

sheep-My-piece," &c. In this sublime sense it is "joy," before

"or in the presence of the angels"; they only "catch the flying

joy," sharing it with Him! The application of this to the

reception of those publicans and sinners that stood around our Lord is

grand in the extreme: "Ye turn from these lost ones with disdain, and

because I do not the same, ye murmur at it: but a very different

feeling is cherished in heaven. There, the recovery of even one such

outcast is watched with interest and hailed with joy; nor are they left

to come home of themselves or perish; for lo! even now the great

Shepherd is going after His lost sheep, and the Owner is making

diligent search for the lost property; and He is finding it, too, and

bringing it back with joy, and all heaven is full of it." (Let the

reader mark what sublime claims Himself our Lord covertly puts in

here--as if in Him they beheld, all unknown to themselves, nothing less

than heaven in the habiliments of earth, the Great Shepherd above,

clothed in a garment of flesh, come "to seek and to save that which was

lost")!

Lu 15:11-32.

III.

THE

PRODIGAL

SON.

12. the younger--as the more thoughtless.

said, &c.--weary of restraint, panting for independence, unable longer

to abide the check of a father's eye. This is man impatient of

divine control, desiring to be independent of God, seeking to be his own

master; that "sin of sins, in which all subsequent sins are included as

in their germ, for they are but the unfolding of this one" [TRENCH].

he divided, &c.--Thus "God, when His service no longer appears a

perfect freedom, and man promises himself something far better

elsewhere, allows him to make the trial; and he shall discover, if need

be by saddest proof, that to depart from Him is not to throw off the

yoke, but to exchange a light yoke for a heavy one, and one gracious

Master for a thousand imperious tyrants and lords" [TRENCH].

13. not many days--intoxicated with his new--found resources, and

eager for the luxury of using them at Will.

a far country--beyond all danger of interference from home.

wasted, &c.--So long as it lasted, the inward monitor

(Isa 55:2)

would be silenced

(Isa 9:10; 57:10;

Am 4:6-10).

riotous living--

(Lu 15:30),

"with harlots." Ah! but this reaches farther than the sensualist; for

"in the deep symbolical language of Scripture fornication is the

standing image of idolatry; they are in fact ever spoken of as one and

the same sin, considered now in its fleshly, now in its spiritual

aspect"

(Jer 3:1-15;

Eze 16:1-17:24)

[TRENCH].

14. when he had spent all . . . a mighty famine--a mysterious

providence holding back the famine till he was in circumstances to feel

it in all its rigor. Thus, like Jonah, whom the storm did not overtake

till on the mighty deep at the mercy of the waves, does the sinner feel

as if "the stars in their courses were fighting against" him

(Jud 5:20).

in want--the first stage of his bitter experience, and preparation

for a change.

15. joined himself, &c.--his pride not yet humbled, unable to brook

the shame of a return.

to feed swine--glad to keep life anyhow, behold the son sank into a

swineherd--among the Jews, on account of the prohibition of swine's

flesh, emphatically vile! "He who begins by using the world as a

servant, to minister to his pleasure, ends by reversing the

relationship" [TRENCH].

16. would fain have filled--rather, "was fain to fill," ate greedily

of the only food he could get.

the husks--"the hulls of a leguminous plant which in the East is the

food of cattle and swine, and often the nourishment of the poorest in

times of distress" [STIER].

no man gave . . . him--not this food, for that he had, but

anything better

(Jer 30:14).

This was his lowest depth--perishing unpitied, alone in the

world, and ready to disappear from it unmissed! But this is

just the blessed turning-point; midnight before dawn of day

(2Ch 12:8; 33:11-13;

Jer 2:19).

17. came to himself--Before, he had been "beside himself"

(Ec 9:3),

in what sense will presently appear.

How many hired, &c.--What a testimony to the nature of the home

he had left! But did he not know all this ere he departed and every day

of his voluntary exile? He did, and he did not. His heart being wholly

estranged from home and steeped in selfish gratification, his father's

house never came within the range of his vision, or but as another name

for bondage and gloom. Now empty, desolate, withered, perishing,

home, with all its peace, plenty, freedom, dignity, starts into

view, fills all his visions as a warm and living reality, and breaks his

heart.

18. I will arise and go to my FATHER--The change has come at last,

and what a change!--couched in terms of such exquisite simplicity and

power as if expressly framed for all heart-broken penitents.

Father, &c.--Mark the term. Though "no more worthy to be called

his son," the prodigal sinner is taught to claim the defiled, but

still existing relationship, asking not to be made a servant, but

remaining a son to be made "as a servant," willing to take the

lowest place and do the meanest work. Ah! and is it come to this? Once

it was, "Any place rather than home." Now, "Oh, that home! Could I but

dare to hope that the door of it would not be closed against me, how

gladly would I take any place and do any worK, happy only to be there at

all." Well, that is conversion--nothing absolutely new, yet all new;

old familiar things seen in a new light and for the first time as

realities of overwhelming magnitude and power.

How this is brought about the parable says not. (We have that

abundantly elsewhere,

Php 2:13,

&c.). Its one object is to paint

the welcome home of the greatest sinners, when (no matter for the

present how) they "arise and go to their Father."

20. a great way off--Oh yes, when but the face is turned homeward,

though as yet far, far away, our Father recognizes His own child in us,

and bounds to meet us--not saying, Let him come to Me and sue for pardon

first, but Himself taking the first step.

fell on his neck and kissed him--What! In all his filth? Yes. In

all his rags? Yes. In all his haggard, shattered wretchedness? Yes.

"Our Father who art in heaven," is this Thy portraiture? It is even so

(Jer 31:20).

And because it is so, I wonder not that such incomparable teaching hath

made the world new.

21. Father, I have sinned, &c.--"This confession is uttered

after the kiss of reconciliation"

(Eze 16:63)

[TRENCH].

22. But the Father said, &c.--The son has not said all he

purposed, not so much, because the father's demonstrations had

rekindled the filial, and swallowed up all servile feeling [TRENCH] (on the word "Father," see on

Lu 15:18),

but because the father's heart is made to appear too full to listen, at

that moment, to more in this strain.

the best robe--Compare

Zec 3:4, 5,

"Take away the filthy garments from him; behold I have clothed thee

with change of raiment; and they clothed him with garments"

(Isa 61:10;

Re 3:18).

a ring--(Compare

Ge 41:42;

Jas 2:2).

shoes--Slaves went barefoot. Thus, we have here a threefold symbol of

freedom and honor, restored, as the fruit of

perfect reconciliation.

23. the fatted calf--kept for festive occasions.

24. my son--now twice his son.

dead . . . lost--to me; to himself--to my service, my

satisfaction; to his own dignity, peace, profit.

alive again . . . found--to all these.

merry--(See on

Lu 15:10).

25. in the field--engaged in his father's business: compare

Lu 15:29,

"These many years do I serve thee."

28. came his father out, and entreated him--"Like as a father pitieth

his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him"

(Ps 103:13).

As it is the elder brother who now errs, so it is the same paternal

compassion which had fallen on the neck of the younger that comes

forth and pleads with the elder.

29. these many years . . . neither transgressed I at any time thy

commandment--The words are not to be pressed too far. He is merely

contrasting his constancy of love and service with the conduct of

his brother; just as Job, resenting the charge of hypocrisy by his

friends, speaks as if nothing could be laid to his charge

(Job 23:10-12),

and David too

(Ps 18:20-24).

The father attests the truth of all he says.

never . . . a kid--I say not a calf, but not even a kid.

that I might make merry with my friends--Here lay his misapprehension.

It was no entertainment for the gratification of the prodigal: it was a

father's expression of the joy he felt at his recovery.

thy son . . . thy living--How unworthy a reflection on the common

father of both, for the one not only to disown the other, but fling him

over upon his father, as if he should say, Take him, and have joy of

him!

31. Son, &c.--The father resents not the insult--how could he,

after the largeness of heart which had kissed the returning prodigal? He

calmly expostulates with him, "Son, listen to reason. What need for

special, exuberant joy over thee? Didst thou say, 'Lo, these many years

do I serve thee?' In that saidst thou truly; but just for that reason

do I not set the whole household a-rejoicing over thee. For thee is

reserved what is higher still--a tranquil lifelong satisfaction in

thee, as a true-hearted faithful son in thy father's house, nor of the

inheritance reserved for thee is aught alienated by this festive and

fitting joy over the once foolish but now wise and newly recovered

one."

32. It was meet--Was it possible he should simply take his long vacant

place in the family without one special sign of wonder and delight at

the change? Would that have been nature? But this being the

meaning of the festivity, it would for that very reason be temporary.

In time, the dutifulness of even the younger son would become the

law and not the exception; he too at length might venture to

say, "Lo, these many years do I serve thee"; and of him the father would

say, "Son, thou art ever with me." In that case, therefore, it would

not be "meet that they should make merry and be glad." The lessons

are obvious, but how beautiful! (1) The deeper sunk and the longer

estranged any sinner is, the more exuberant is the joy which his

recovery occasions. (2) Such joy is not the portion of those whose

whole lives have been spent in the service of their Father in heaven.

(3) Instead of grudging the want of this, they should deem it the

highest testimony to their lifelong fidelity, that something better is

reserved for them--the deep, abiding complacency of their Father in

heaven.