Luke 15:11-32

We’re kicking off a new series this week: Influencer.  We’ll start with one of Jesus’ best-known and –loved stories, the one we call The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).  It’s a story about how we get lost, how we get found (if we’re willing), and the costs of finding.

Luke opens this chapter by drawing our attention to three groups of people who find themselves under the influence of Jesus. There are tax collectors and sinners, who gather around Jesus and hear him gladly.  There are Pharisees and other religious leaders, unhappy that supposedly-holy Jesus is hanging around with the moral riff-raff.  And there are the disciples, who are learning both to be influenced by Jesus, and to be influencers for him.

A conflict is the occasion for the parable: “bad people” are gathering to Jesus, and religious people are displeased by this.  Tensions are starting to rise.

Jesus gives them a set of three intensifying stories.  First, a shepherd faces a one-sheep-out-of-a-hundred loss.  Next a woman confronts a one-coin-out-of-ten loss.  Finally and climactically, a father faces what appears to be the loss of both his sons, though each is lost to their father in very different ways.

Each story poses the question: what is to be done for what has been lost?  Do we blame and abandon the sheep for wandering away, the coin for rolling off the table, the child for his folly and rebellion?

If the lost are to be found, there will be costs.  Neither a lost sheep or a lost coin can pay the price of their recovery.  And, human presumption and pride to the contrary, neither can either of the two lost sons.

Both sons have “un-sonned” themselves.  The younger son essentially wishes his father dead, cashes in his inheritance, and sets off to make a life for himself on his own terms.  And though he has never left home, the older son has never gotten to know his father’s heart towards him or towards others.  Both sons live “far” from their father.

As he often does, Jesus leaves this story unfinished.  The father has “re-sonned” the younger brother – it is the father’s actions that make this boy a son again.  The father then throws a lavish party, demonstrating to the whole community that he has effected reconciliation with his “lost” son. 

What is left unresolved is what the older brother, who sees himself as moral, obedient and “good,” will do.  He has publicly dishonored and shamed his father by refusing to come into the party   His behavior forces his father to leave his guests, a major social transgression, and he then proceeds to attack and accuse his father.

As we listen to this story, what might indicate that we are coming under the influence of Jesus?

First, I think we have to find who we are in the story.  It may be different each time we listen.  Truth is, we all sometimes find ourselves to be younger brothers, sometimes older; sometimes we may even find ourselves in the father’s sandals.

Second, once I’ve found myself in the story, I must find my response.  Do I need to “return” to the father’s home in some way?  Do I need to turn away from my resentments and self-righteousness and turn towards those the father is welcoming home?

Are there lost ones I need to seek in some way?

Finally, what does God need to do in me to get me moving in the right way in the right direction?  Before I try to “do something,” how might I pray?  For myself?  And for those to whom the father may be sending me?

Who has been a model or source of “Jesus influence” in your life?  Give thanks for them.  If they’re still alive, pray for God’s continued blessing on them … and maybe send them a note of appreciation!

What has shaped or formed the prodigal son in you?  The older brother in you?  Take some time to ask God to keep undoing the power of these influencers in your life.

Where are you finding yourself in the story this time?  How is that inviting you to pray?