Luke 15:11-32 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to[a] one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’[b] 22 But the father said to his servants,[c] ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
This is perhaps Jesus’ most famous parable. If you grew up in the church, you’ve probably heard it since Sunday school. If you became a follower of Christ later in life it probably really struck a chord within you the first time you heard it. It is a beautiful story of redemption of the lost, and yet also a cautious warning to those who try to work our way to acceptance with God. If you’ve never read “The Prodigal God” by Timothy Keller, I highly recommend it. It forever changed the way that I viewed the parable. My intent is not to rehash his work, but to hopefully provide more insight or a slightly different perspective. For the lack of a better metaphor, the beauty of Jesus’ parables is that they are similar to an onion. The more you peel it the more layers you find.
Please bear with me. It’s going to take a moment to build up a base of foundational knowledge that can then be used to apply to this parable.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a famous theologian that grew up in Germany. He is known not just for his pastoral strengths or his theological views but also for the radical way he lived out his faith. Due to the role he played in trying to subvert the Third Reich, he was martyred several weeks before the conclusion of World War II in a Nazi concentration camp. He had been a willing participant in a plot to assassinate Hitler. One of his most famous works is “Nachfolge.” In English, Nachfolge means discipleship. The book has been translated into English and is frequently referred to as “The Cost of Discipleship.” It is in this work that he posits the concept of “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” With these concepts, I want to take another look at this famous parable. I can take no credit for the concepts, but hope that by seeing them applied we might garner a new appreciation to God’s free, yet costly, gift of grace.
Let’s start by looking at how we should define “cheap grace.” Bonhoeffer describes it this way, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” To put it another way, cheap grace is akin to saying, “God has forgiven all of my sin, therefore, I can go and live my life how I want.” God’s forgiveness has become, for lack of a better phrase, a get out of jail free card. We only concern ourselves with it when it comes to matters of life and death.
What then is costly grace? It is the polar opposite of cheap grace. Bonhoeffer puts it this way,
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.
Consider the words Jesus uses in Matthew 16:24-26, “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Or his words in Luke 14:26-33:
26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Talk of denying oneself, taking up a cross, hating your own life, and renouncing all that one possesses appears to be a far cry from the “believe in me and go about your own business” that is the readily accepted gospel of our times. It’s comfortable to accept because it costs us nothing.
It’s easy to be taken aback and say, “But God’s forgiveness and eternal life is a free gift. If we attach any strings to it, by definition it is no longer free.” What about Romans 6:23 where Paul says, “…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”? Paul doesn’t mention a cost to God’s grace.
We have become accustomed to evangelizing with half of the equation while leaving out the rest. Said another way, we hold out the reward while hiding the fine print. A 2019 poll by Pew Research found that 65% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. Another poll found that only 23% of Americans attend church weekly. There appears to be a substantial disconnect, especially considering that attending church on a weekly basis does not make someone a Christian. So, let’s back up a little in Paul’s teaching and examine how he comes to the “free gift of God is eternal life”, maybe there is a cost involved.
Starting in Romans chapter 5 verse 8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is God’s free gift of grace to mankind. He owed his creation nothing, but he chose to have Christ die for us while we were still sinners. Following human logic, since it’s a free gift shouldn’t we be able to live our life as we please? Free gifts have no strings attached. Simply put, no. Throughout Romans chapter 6 Paul is trying to refute the idea that we can continue life as usual when we choose to accept Christ’s forgiveness. The first argument in 6:1-2 addresses this very scenario, “…Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” We cannot justify sinful behavior by reasoning that it will make God’s gift greater. In other words, you can’t purposefully sin big to get a bigger gift. There is no way around it, you cannot accept the gift of forgiveness of sins by then turning around and continuing in sin. He summarizes this stance in 5:10-12, “For the death he (Christ) died he (Christ) died to sin, once for all, but the life he (Christ) lives he (Christ) lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” To put his argument another way, Christ died to sin-for all-so that-all-can live for God.
We naturally revolt at this concept because we’ve always been taught that we cannot “work” towards our forgiveness. Our thoughts flow something like this, “We’re not under the Old Testament law, grace is free, I shouldn’t have to worry about my sin because it is forgiven.” Paul resists this argument in 6:15-16. “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Paul is all too familiar with the human condition. We were created to have a relationship and to serve God as his image bearer in creation. With the fall of man, we tried to become autonomous, but the reality is that sin has become our master. Jesus himself said something very similar in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” In this particular instance, Jesus is specifically dealing with the sin of loving money, but the premise stands for all sin, we cannot serve two masters.
Paul continues in 6:22, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” Being a slave sounds horrible. The imagery it paints in our minds is not pretty. Paul apologized for using this slavery imagery several verses before, but insists on using human terms “because of your natural limitations.” The Greek word used for slave here is “doulos.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines it as “one who gives himself up wholly to another’s will.” We are not God’s slaves to do hard labor and be mistreated, rather we are giving up our autonomy and recognizing our rightful place as image bearer to the Creator.
Paul has slowly built up his argument leading to one of his most well know writings, Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Make sure you see this, when sin is our master it will pay us wages for our “work.” Our wage for continuing to serve sin is death. If we change our master to God, he will give us the free gift of God, eternal life. John Piper puts it very elegantly,
What's the difference between a wage and a gift? A wage is something you earn. A gift is something you don't earn, and can't earn. A wage is a matter of debt and justice. A free gift is a matter of beneficence and grace. You can take somebody to court for not paying you your wages; but you can't take anyone to court for not giving you a free gift. You deserve your wages. You don't deserve a free gift. Otherwise it wouldn't be free. (https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-free-gift-of-god-is-eternal-life)
To quickly summarize, God’s gift of grace leading to eternal life is free, without strings, to those that have chosen to serve him. It does not come from simply believing that Jesus died for our sins and then moving on with your life. There must be an element of discipleship, of giving oneself wholly to God’s will. It first came at a cost to God, the life of his Son, but it also comes at a cost to us. The cost to us is that we can no longer serve our master of self, but must serve God. It must be reemphasized, because it is easy to veer off course, but our service to God does not mean we must complete good works to be saved. Our service to God is our submission to following his will. Through this submission we will find ourselves completing good works, but the good works were prepared by God. Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-10,
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Grace and eternal life are free gifts, but you must take those gifts. You take those gifts by becoming a disciple of Jesus.
Think about it this way, Jesus did not command his disciples to go and make believers out of the world, but to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20). If we choose to leave this concept out, we cheapen the gift. The result is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer has tried to warn us about, cheap grace.
So, what now? How does this apply to the prodigal son? Let’s dig in.
The parable of the prodigal son is told by Jesus while tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to him. It is spoken and pointed towards the Pharisees and the scribes who were grumbling about him receiving and befriending “sinners.” Immediately before this parable, he speaks two other parables with similar meanings before driving the point home with the third. The first is the highly recognized parable of the lost sheep. A shepherd has one hundred sheep. One wanders away. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find the one and then holds a party to rejoice. The second is very similar to the first, a woman has ten coins but loses one. She seeks diligently until finding it and then rejoices with friends and neighbors upon finding it. The common theme between both is something was lost, which had great value, and then found. The owner that goes through great pains to seek that something, and then much rejoicing upon finding that which was lost. They seem straight forward, easy to understand. Jesus obviously cares for the “lost”. From this point he jumps into the story that we know of as the prodigal son.
Let’s begin by examining the “who” of the story. There are three main characters, a father and his two sons. The father we can equate to God. To identify the two sons we should examine Jesus’ audience for a clue. He had two types of people gathered around him, sinners and religious leaders. The sinners were “new” to religious teachings and should be considered the younger “reckless” son, while the religious leaders were well established in the trenches of religion and can be considered as the older “faithful” brother.
As the story unfolds, the younger son approaches his father and demands his cut of the inheritance (“Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me”). As a brief aside, inheritances were not split equally amongst children in those days. The oldest, whom we haven’t met yet, would receive a double portion of what the younger would receive. By demanding his portion of the inheritance, it was as if the youngest was going to the father saying, “I wish you were dead. Give me what is mine so I can go live my life as I choose.” He knew the answer he sought (his portion of the inheritance, which would rightfully be his someday) but had computed it wrong (I deserve everything from you and you deserve nothing from me). Where did he make his mistake? He left his father out of the calculation. He was looking for cheap grace. Get out the way, give me my get out of jail free card, so I can live my life the way that I want. I don’t want to serve you.
The father could have thrown the youngest son out of the family and removed any portion of the inheritance from him, but instead the father agreed to divide the inheritance between them. It is interesting to note that the Greek word used for the property that the father divided between his sons was “bios.” Bios means life. The father divided up quite literally “that which sustained his life.” The father gave up his livelihood to his sons who at this point deserved nothing.
The youngest took his portion into a far country and squandered it. This is where the story receives its recognizable title “prodigal son.” Prodigal means “spending money or resources freely and recklessly” (Oxford dictionary). He spent everything. This is very similar to the idea that Paul presented in Romans. If I am covered under God’s grace, why shouldn’t I be able to do with it as I wish so that “grace may abound?” The youngest got it wrong. It was never truly his to use in the first place. He misused his father’s grace filled gift. He had become a slave to the gift versus a son to his father. He sought cheap grace that cost him nothing, but it ended up costing him everything. Soon he was “longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.” The master he ended up serving was paying him his wages, death.
In his despair he thought back on his father’s house and realized, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” His practiced speech consisted of three parts. First, he will ask for repentance, “Father, I have sinned...” Secondly, he realizes that his sin has broken their rightful relationship, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Lastly, he doesn’t seek reinstatement of their relationship, but rather the lowest place within his household, “Treat me as one of your hired servants.” He wants to live a life of service to his father.
Fortunately for the son, he realized he could no longer go on in life without his father’s intervention before he faced certain death. He had reached the end of himself and decided to go back to his father and ask for forgiveness in his depleted state. Ironically, his outward and physical appearance at this point mirrored his spiritual and emotional appearance at the beginning of the story. He made no attempt to hide his condition. He went back to his father as he was.
Quite famously, the father sees him while he is still a long way off and “ran and embraced him and kissed him.” The son begins his rehearsed apology and the father, without second thought, cut him off and has the best robe (that would have been the father’s robe) placed on him and clothed him as his son. He spared no expense and threw a celebration for his lost son who had returned. The son, who deserved disgrace and to be put out forever from his family, was restored to his place. He would recognize that the grace had become costly. The father was not seeking the cost he was owed, but instead he forgave his son’s insurmountable debt. The forgiveness and restoration were a free gift, but the son also had to bear a cost. He gave up the life he thought he wanted, and had to return to live under his father. In exchange, his father gave him the gift of a restored relationship.
That’s just part of the story. We still have another character to introduce, the older brother. The older brother was supposedly faithful to his father throughout all of his brother’s indiscretions. He stayed behind and diligently worked. Upon hearing music and dancing, he inquired of a servant what the occasion was, only to be taken aback to hear that his younger brother had returned. Why was his father celebrating the son who wished of his death and had wasted his father’s “bios” on prostitutes? He was not only celebrating that son, but welcoming him back as one who had never left; one who again had full rights of a son. He was furious. Not just at his brother, but also at his father. He wouldn’t dare celebrate. He wouldn’t dare be in the same location as the celebration. He saw costly grace and was appalled. By restoring the youngest son, the father was effectively lessoning the older son’s portion of the inheritance.
The father came out and entreated him, or asked him earnestly, to come. Instead of joining in on the celebration we get to see the state of his heart. He starts his reply with “Look” or “But” in some translations. What’s interesting about this word in Greek is that it is only used to start a sentence when it is opposed to the preceding statement. So, we know without a doubt, the oldest brother was fully opposed to his father’s earnest request to join in the celebration. Why was he opposed? “I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.” Timothy Keller best describes the heart of the older brother,
What did the older son most want? If we think about it we realize that he wanted the same thing as his brother. He was just as resentful of the father as was the younger son. He, too, wanted the father’s goods rather than the father himself. However, while the younger brother went far away, the elder brother stayed close and “never disobeyed.” That was his way to get control. His unspoken demand is, “I have never disobeyed you! Now you have to do things in my life the way I want them to be done.”
The older brother, just like his younger brother, was looking for cheap grace. They both wanted the same thing, but were on opposite sides of the spectrum. One sought joy through freedom from authority and the other sought joy in bondage to appearance and influence. He knew the answer he sought (his portion of the inheritance, which was double what his younger brother would receive, and would rightfully be his someday) but had computed it wrong (I deserve everything from you because I have worked hard for you). Where did he make his mistake? He left his father out of the calculation. He wanted his piece of the pie, and assumed he had earned that right because of his service and obedience. His younger brother sought life without the father, while he sought life above his father. He was willing to throw away their relationship because he felt he had not received his recognition and due. A life solely devoted to working for your salvation leads to the same place as a life solely devoted to seeking your own pleasure. When we make ourselves the master, we will always reap the wages of our sin, death.
Once again, the focus goes back to the father. Just as when the youngest son shockingly asked for his portion of the inheritance, the father has every right to lash out at the oldest brother’s self-righteous rant. What right does the oldest brother have in telling the father what to do with his possessions? Instead of a tongue lashing, he responds in grace filled love, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” Just as the father extended a gift to the youngest wayward son, the father extends a gift to the oldest wayward son, “all that is mine is yours.” The father is still extending his gift at great cost to himself. In a patriarchal society, where the father was ruler over his domain, he risked looking like a fool and bringing shame upon himself. He had every right to withhold, but bore that cost for the sake of his sons.
The curious thing about the climax to this story is that we don’t know the end. Jesus ended the story by saying, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” Did the older brother realize his own sin against his father and join in the celebration? Do you remember who the audience of the story was? We had the sinners whom Jesus had befriended and also the religious leaders. Jesus left the ending to the audience. The sinners had “returned home” with their relationship with Jesus, but the religious leaders were left to choose their own fate. He doesn’t condemn them to death, like he has the right, but offers a grace filled gift. They can choose their ending.
No matter how hard we try, we cannot separate the gift of grace from the giver of the grace. Try as we might we will end up in one of two camps. Dead from our slavery in trying to please ourselves, or dead from our slavery in trying to earn grace. Bonhoeffer sums this up best,
If grace is God’s answer, the gift of Christian life, then we cannot for a moment dispense with following Christ. But if grace is the data for my Christian life, it means that I set out to live the Christian life in the world with all my sins justified beforehand. I can go and sin as much as I like, and rely on this grace to forgive me, for after all the world is justified in principle by grace. I can therefore cling to my bourgeois secular existence, and remain as I was before, but with the added assurance that the grace of God will cover me. It is under the influence of this kind of “grace” that the world has been made “Christian,” but at the cost of secularizing the Christian religion as never before….The Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in being no different from the world for the sake of grace. The upshot of it all is that my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that my sins are all forgiven. I need no longer try to follow Christ, for cheap grace, the bitterest foe of discipleship, which true discipleship must loathe and detest, has freed me from that.
I pray that we may not stand in judgement of either the youngest or the eldest brother, but rather that we might heed the warning of both. God’s grace is not cheap. It comes at a cost. The weightier cost was paid by God, but we cannot receive his grace without first giving over our life to discipleship. The reality was shown to both brothers, we cannot have eternal joy apart from our Father.
