See if you would look chapter 15 verse 1, Jesus parable and His interaction with the question of with whom shall we associate does not get a response. I'm giving you techniques or ideas about interpretation tonight. Here is I believe another one, maybe the fourth, the concept of uptake, uptake, uptake occurs when somebody says something and somebody who's there responds to it in a way that shows that got the point or that they were troubled or that they had questions. If you look at Luke chapter 14, Jesus is teaching there that we should associate with all kinds of people, we should have friends among outcasts and so forth. At the end of 14 verse 35, Jesus says simply, he who has ears to hear, let him hear, period. We don't hear what anybody said, whether he agreed, whether anybody praised him, we just get an end and that end seems to be indicative of the fact that they didn't really get what he was driving at. The reason I say that is that in the very next place, chapter 15 verse 1, we read that Jesus was associating or was allowing tax collectors and sinners to gather around him and the Pharisees were muttering, this man welcomes with sinners and eats with them. Now he had just gotten done saying, we're supposed to associate without cast and who would be a better sinner than a better outcast than a sinner, but they didn't really hear it so they're criticizing him for doing this. The answer Jesus gives is going to come in three phases, the first phase. Jesus says, now explain to you why associate was sinners. Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and at the end of the day you came back and had 99. Wouldn't you look for the lost sheep? Wouldn't you? Yes. So I'm just looking for a lost sheep and in fact to make the point pretty clear he says there's rejoicing in heaven when one sinner who repents comes to faith much more than over 99 righteous persons who don't need to repent. I'm looking for sinners and he tells another parable, the second parable is very brief also parable of lost coins. Suppose Jesus says that you have ten coins. Now what we have to do is get rid of quarters in our mind here and think about drachmas and think about how much a drachma would do. And so as a rough and ready analogy I'm going to say suppose one of you leaves your house in the morning with your wallet or your purse full and you have in your wallet ten one hundred dollar bills. At the end of your day you come back and you say I didn't spend a cent but I only have nine one hundred dollar bills. How many of you would say, still got nine hundred bucks, that's pretty good. You would seek for that lost one hundred dollar bill until you found it. That's all I'm doing, Jesus. I'm just looking for lost things that are valuable, I'm looking for lost sinners and there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over every sin, her repentance, that's all I'm doing. A good shepherd would seek a lost sheep, a good housewife or householder would seek a lost one hundred dollar bill and certainly a good father would seek and welcome a lost son. That's all I'm doing. And so we get the story that we come to know as the parable, the prodigal son, I prefer to call it the parable the lost sons because there are two sons who get lost in this particular parable. Now we know the first son very well, we call him the prodigal, I'm going to call him the unrighteous son. The unrighteous son has a certain perspective on life. He is tired of life at home, he is tired of the farm, it's predictable course and so he says to his father, please give him my share of the inheritance. Now you understand what he's saying here, don't you? He's saying dad, it's too bad you're not dead yet. But let's pretend you are and give me the money now. And so he tells the story, we don't want to work on allegorizing that detail, it just gets the story going and off he goes as you know with his money and sinfully he abuses his inheritance. One thing that gives a little clue to that that you don't see in your English is in verse 12, the word that's used for his property is the Greek word, bit on, coming from the Oss, we might know the word biology, he divides his property, actually the word that's used is his life and like our word lively hood, that's the idea. This isn't just some money, this is what he has developed and earned and saved throughout his life and it's what he needs to live on in the future. He takes that. He squanders it in wild living and is swiftly without money, then comes a famine, then he is in physical need, so great is his need that the only occupation he can find as a Jew is swine herding, so low has he sunk that he looks at the food that the pigs are eating and the longs for that. Imagine yourself in a famine getting a job at a kennel and every day contemplating stealing the dog food or licking out the cans after the dogs are done with him, that's where he was. No one was giving him anything it says and then is what happens. He sees what's truly going on. He came to his senses the NIV says, the literal Greek translation would be, he came to himself and he sees himself as things really are. He sees two sides of the situation in verse 17. He says first, even the hired hands in my father's household have food to spare and I am starving to death but he realizes this problem is not simply that of a lack of food. He says, I am going to sit out to my father and say, father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, let me be like one of the hired men. He understands that he is sinned against God and against man and so with this picture of true repentance that comes to himself, sees things as they are, resolves the change, actually does change, sees it not simply as something that is burdensome to him, not just the something he is suffering but as an objectiveness deed, he goes. And the father sees him coming from a distance and welcomes him. The welcome is extravagant. You wouldn't realize this, extravagant details, you know what the extravagant detail is here? The extravagant detail is the runs because in that society a dignified household or the leader of a home did not run. You want to know why? Because you had to tuck up your robes and if you tucked up your robes, you know what was showing your underwear, your running in your underwear. Now if you think it would be silly for me to lecture in a class like this and I am sure you would, to demonstrate the point and to keep this like this for the rest of the class just to make a silly point, you would all think I was a ridiculous professor and you might be right. I would do this the whole time but I guarantee you, maybe if I took my tie out into something silly with that too. I guarantee you that the silliness and the shame, the embarrassment that I would experience by standing here the rest of the time would be minimal compared to the shame, the titters, the laughs that I heard from you about me, would be minuscule compared to the laughs that the kids would give over watching the old man run around in his underwear. He doesn't care. He sees his son and the scene that sounds like it comes from a football game of victory in the 4th quarter, it says he kissed him hard, actually the Greek word could be translated, he kissed him up, he can just kiss him and there was saliva going in there and furthermore he fell on his neck it says, just rolling in the ground, hugging and kissing, just so happiness to each other and the sun starts to give his words. The words are, father I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, I've sinned against heaven against you and that's what he's going to say but he only gets halfway through. He says, father I have sinned against heaven and against you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son but the father doesn't even let him go on to the next phrase, that is, make me like one of your hired men or if he says that he overrules it because what happens in the next scene is that he is reestablished as son, bring the best role, give him decent clothes, put sandals on his feet because slaves and the poorest of the poor went about barefoot, get sandals on his feet so his status is clear, give him the ring which would be the signant ring and bring the fat and calf almost as if he's saying, you know the one I mean, the best, the one that's really ready for a feast and we will celebrate because this son of mine was dead and his alive again, he was lost and is found. Now when people teach this parable, you know, when they preach it, they usually call it the parable, the product will son and they very often stop right here and there's a good reason for that, the good reason for that is that Jesus has really answered the Pharisees three times. Why are you associating with sinners? Answer number one, wouldn't a shepherd seek a lost sheep? Answer number two, wouldn't a woman seek a lost coin? Answer number three, wouldn't a father welcome a lost son? Yes, yes, yes. And so the Pharisees are wrong, wrong, wrong, and Jesus is right, right, right, so there. But Jesus is not only interested in seeking lost people like the lost sinners and he's certainly not only interested in seeking to prove the Pharisees wrong, he actually wants to win the Pharisees too if he can. And so he tells the story, phase two. In phase two, we now have a self-righteous son. And this son overhears the party, and he wonders, he pulls some poor servant over and says, what's going on? And the answer is your brother is back healthy, safe, and sound, and they've slaughtered the fat and calf for him. And the older brother pocks himself about four feet outside the door, I'm being a little bit dramatic here, but pocks himself about four feet outside the door and says, I'm not going to win it. And the customer of the day would certainly require them to go in out of love, but also as the older brother, he would be responsible to participate and perhaps even lead in the festivities, but he won't go. So the father goes out and pleads with him. Notice the language that the father and the son use with each other. Verse 28, the father went out and pleaded or was pleading with him, and then he gives his father an answer. The answer is, look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friend. And when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you killed the fat and calf for him. It's not fair. What do you think? Can you resonate with this guy? Is this pretty understandable? How do you say I'm with him? The comment was, I'm not with him, but I understand. The tendency in our culture today is to identify too much with the older son. We have this scenario in our culture that says something like this. The oldest child is the one who works, works, works, works, and the younger one is the one especially 3rd, 4th, 5th, last child gets away with murder. So you know, the older sister has to beg and scrub floors for years and then finally at the age of 14 you're allowed to wear stockings on Sundays for three hours. And then the last daughter, a second or a third daughter comes along and they're given a dozen for their 10th birthday or the first son, the first son can have the car from 8 to 10 on alternating Thursdays when he turns 17. And then the younger son says, hey dad can have the car when he turns 16 in one day and the answer is sure just have it back by 7 o'clock in the morning on Monday because I'll need it for work. That's the way we think but in fact in the biblical world that tendency that we have is exactly the reverse of the way it was viewed back then. In the biblical world if they thought of anything they did not think of stockings and cars. What they thought of was a minor theme in the Old Testament and that is the theme of the jealous older brother. And there are several of them in Bible, you know some of them are, okay, Jacob and he saw, he saw the Jacob, David's older brothers, the David, Joseph and his older brothers can enable. There you have it, they're four of them. And there was sort of a tradition throughout the ancient world that this was something that happened that the older siblings were envious or jealous of the younger siblings and I suppose that's still exists some extent today too. If you look more carefully at the words of that older son you can see that that's the way, I mean I read it kind of to make it smooth on purpose, I tried to deceive you to be honest. Look again at what he says, look at the way he speaks to his father. He says, first of all, notice the first word that he uses, look, now I don't know how many you have kids here, but if you're a parents. But you know, if my kids address me as look, we're off to a bad start. And then notice what he says, he says, all these years I've been slaving, now there's a lot of words you can use, you can call it serving, working, he chooses the word slaving, what does that make the father? Slave driver, all these years I've been slaving, it's not work, it's not cooperation, it's not family building, it's slavery. And never once that I did transgress one of your commands, now that's self righteous and you know the problem is, he just broke one of the commands ten seconds earlier when he addressed his father and look, he pities himself, he never made, gave me a goat, he also exaggerates. When this son of yours who devoured your life with prostitutes came home, now how did he know that he's spending on prostitutes, he hasn't even gone in yet. So far as they knew that boy was dead, he's making it up as he goes along, he doesn't know what he did, we know that he spent it wildly, but how would he know? He disowns his brother, he just, yeah, we don't even know what he's spending on, I mean, he might have spent it on prostitutes, but we don't know and how would the brother know. Then notice this, he is heartless in the way he disowns his brother, notice he doesn't call him my brother, he says, he says, your son, not my brother, he's your son. The father is as gentle as the boy is rude. The boy says, it do, look, behold, I've got something to tell you. The father responds by saying, my son, he returns dignity for indignity, my son, literally my child, maybe because he's being a little bit childish, my son, my child, you are always with me, you're not my slave, you've been slave, we've been together all these years, that's what we've had, all that I have is yours. If you want a goat, if you want five goats, take them, it's all yours. But it was necessary for us to rejoice. This isn't an option, we had to do this because this, your brother, and he is your brother, he's not just my son, this your brother was dead and has come to life again, was lost and has been found. What happens at the end of the story, we don't know, why not, say it out loud, you decide. You see, if we heard, and then he went in, we would say, oh, isn't that nice what happy in me? And if it said he didn't go in and say, oh, what a nasty guy, but it doesn't say. And so you have to finish the story. You can't point the finger at the other guy, you have to ask the question, is this the question? Will you agree with me? What would I do? Is that the question? Let's do our thing. There's a reason why we started with Bloomberg, who stands for what? Who does the father stand for? What is the father doing? Who does things like the father? God and also Jesus, because Jesus seeks lost people and welcomes lost people to himself, he is the divine figure, all right? Who is the younger brother, the prodigal son, the unrighteous brother, who is he? He's the pagan, they're the sinners, the people Jesus has been eating with. This is still a story about the answers, the question, why do you associate with these people? All right, who is the older brother? The answer is the Pharisees, now I ask you another question, I think that's right. Would the Pharisees agree with that? Now here's the trick. When you read a story, when you watch a movie, if it's a good one, not a bad one, but if it's a good one, when we look at a story, we do two things, we identify, you might want to jot this down, you identify and you evaluate, this is method night, you identify, you evaluate. If you want a little bit of indication, just think about what happens if you're watching a movie, you really care about the hero or the hero in a reading a novel, and they're ready to do something really stupid. You put the book down, I can't stand this anymore, or if it's on your video, you turn it off, and this is dumb, nobody would do that. The fact that you get upset and turn it off, or put the book down, being upset proves that you have identified with the lead character, you care about them enough, then it upsets you, right? Now those are, again, not a bad one, but those are the two things we do, we identify, we evaluate. In a story, you're looking for somebody, and maybe not conscious, we were always looking for somebody to identify with. Now what we just said is, that the Pharisees should identify with the older brother, would they? No, they wouldn't want to do that, because they, who wants to be the jealous older brother, who wants to be like Jacob's older sons, the Joseph, and who wants to be like David's older brothers to David, and yet on the other hand, who else is there that's kind of like them. Now what I think Jesus does actually is tell the story in a way so that they can say, that's kind of like me, but it's not me. And of course that's exactly what they need, to say, that's me, that's not me, that's exactly what Jesus wants of them, to say, I'm like that, but I repudiate it, I want no part of it, that's just planned. So they have to decide, would they come in? Would they really want to be like, and you've got to, no, it wouldn't like to be like this. So come on in, well there's only one problem. To come in, you've got to come into the party, you've got to go into the place where the sinners are, and that's what they don't want to do, and so they're going to vacillate, so you decide. And here's what the parables about. The parables about fundamentally, above all, the love of God, the invitation, the willingness of God to fellowship with every kind of sinner. I have tried to say, the two sons are the unrighteous son and the self-righteous son. Both sons are sinners. They sin in different ways. Just like Jacob and Esau, Jacob's not better than Esau, he's just, he's bad in a different way in himself. So God will welcome every son who would come into his party. He will welcome prodigals, who know their sinners, who know their need of his grace. He will welcome them to himself. He will put his ring on their fingers and put his shoes on their feet and put his robe on their back. And he will do the same for reputable, proud, repulsive, self-righteous people, too. The good news is, you're all welcome to the party. There is a saying, I would not want to be a member of any club that accepted people like me as a member. Now, here's the deal. God has a club and he only accepts people who are unworthy of the club as members. I'll put it a different way. The one requirement to get into the party of God, the kingdom of God is, that you must be unworthy. I'll put it another way. The church is the only organization in which you have to demonstrate your lack of merit to join. It's the one place you have to say, in order to get in, you must admit yourself to be a sinner and unworthy. Do that and you're in. Again, that, of course, is the gospel of God. What we have here in Luke 14 and 15 actually is a series of reversals, don't we? In fact, we have a reversal upon reversal. We may think that ordinary, simple, humble people would be delighted with what Jesus has been doing so far. Maybe ordinary people would be delighted with what Jesus was saying in chapter 14, you know how the poor and the lame and the crippled and the blind and so on are welcome, and they'd be delighted that they get in. They might be even more delighted to see how Jesus welcomes the prodigal, but you know what? There's even a warning to the poor and the outcast that they not become proud that they're poor and outcasts because God rebukes the proud for being unwilling to let the poor and the sinners in. But the parable does end with God inviting one more time the rich and those who have status in. You're all welcome, everybody, everybody, the rich need to recognize it so do the poor. That's the invitation of God. Let's take questions or comments for a couple of minutes. If you haven't. Yes. The question is, it's basically agreeing with what I was saying that too much emphasis was put on the prodigal, and I was kind of saying this is not wise to call this parable, the parable, the prodigal, the son, there are other things going on here. And I said I called the parable of lost sons, it's in my notes, actually, that it could be titled, and I'd be happy to have it called, the parable, the gracious father. Because the parable, the scribes of father was unbelievably gracious to two sons. One son who squanders his life, and the other son who is disrespectful, proud, disobedient, and complaining, he's gracious to them both. And really in a way, I would say that in all the parables, the central figure is the God-like or Christ-like figure. We'll actually talk about that the next time we're together.