Chapter Fifteen

1–10. Parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. – 11–32. Parable of the prodigal son.

Luke 15:1. Now all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Him to hear Him. Luke 15:2. But the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying: “This man receives sinners and eats with them. To the Lord Jesus Christ strove to draw near (ἦσαν δὲ ἐγγίζοντες, in Russian – “were drawing near”) “all”, that is, very many (“all” – a hyperbole), “tax collectors” (see Matt 5:46) “and sinners”, that is, those whom the Pharisees so called because of their transgressions of various precepts of the law (Matt 9:10). The Pharisees were extremely displeased by this, because they, as is well known, still maintained fellowship with Christ, received Him at their homes. The situation was such that Christ, in permitting tax collectors and sinners to approach Him, thereby forced even the Pharisees to come inadvertently into fellowship with them, since “drawing near” by a sinner sometimes was completely unexpected, for example, during a dinner, when it was awkward for the Pharisee to leave the house because of such an unwanted guest.

Luke 15:3. But He said to them this parable: Luke 15:4. “Which of you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? Luke 15:5. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, Luke 15:6. and coming home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Luke 15:7. I tell you that thus there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance. Luke 15:8. “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? Luke 15:9. And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying: ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Luke 15:10. Thus, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. In response to these words the Lord spoke the parable of the lost sheep, in which He portrayed how dear to God is each lost human soul and how God seeks out lost souls in order to return them to Himself. The sinner here is depicted under the image of a sheep, which often from ignorance of the way strays from the path and falls behind the flock, and God under the image of a shepherd, who so pities the straying sheep that, leaving the rest of the flock, consisting of 99 sheep, goes out to seek the one straying sheep, and when he finds it, announces this with joy to all his neighbors. This same parable is also found in a briefer form in the evangelist Matthew (Matt 18:12-14). “In the wilderness” (verse 4). This marks the special care of the shepherd for the lost sheep. Even if one admits with Trench (p. 315) that the eastern wilderness does not represent a sandy and waterless region, that it has good pastures, in any case the presence of a flock in the wilderness without a shepherd, who guards it from wild beasts, is very dangerous for the flock. If, nevertheless, the shepherd abandons the flock to seek one lost sheep, it is clear that he very much pities this sheep. “He lays it on his shoulders” (verse 5). This is a symbol of the shepherd’s special care for the sheep. The sheep is tired, and therefore he carries it on himself. So the grace of Christ supports the repentant sinner who has returned to the path of salvation, when he lacks his own strength to traverse this difficult path. In the early Church this image of the shepherd with the sheep on his shoulders was repeatedly reproduced on the walls of the catacombs; thus they depicted Christ the Savior. “I tell you...” (verse 7). This is the application of the parable of the lost sheep to the case that gave occasion for Christ to speak His parable. By the righteous Christ means not only righteous in name, that is, those who outwardly kept the law, while their moral condition would not give them the right to be called righteous (it would be strange in that God abandoned such pretended righteous), but, undoubtedly, righteous in the proper sense of the word, truly righteous people, though, however, the parable leaves aside the question of whether such righteous people exist. The following parable – of a woman who, having a total capital of ten coins (a coin is about 20 kopecks 18), loses one coin, and then, after intensive searching, finds and rejoices – has the same purpose as the first parable, that is, the revelation of the greatness of God’s love and mercy toward sinners. Under the woman should be understood the Church, which unceasingly cares for the salvation of the perishing. The other details of the parable, not relating to its essence, do not require explanation. “Joy before the angels of God” (verse 10) – more correctly: “before the angels of God” (ἐνωπίον τῶν ἀγγέλων). Here God is depicted as rejoicing, communicating about His joy to the angels surrounding His throne (cf. Luke 12:8).

Luke 15:11. Again He said: “A certain man had two sons; In the beautiful parable of the prodigal son Christ also gives an answer to the objections of the Pharisees regarding Christ’s benevolent attitude toward tax collectors and sinners (verse 2). As the father embracing his disobedient son who has returned to him, God receives the repentant sinner with great joy. This joy is incomprehensible to ordinary people, and this is beautifully depicted through the murmuring of the son remaining in the father’s house, when he learned how affectionately the father received his returning brother. Thus, the purpose of the parable is clear: Christ wants to show that He, like God, loves sinners and wants to save them, while the Pharisees oppose this and act in this case completely mercilessly toward these sinners, who are their brothers. In vain therefore one searches for any other meaning in this parable, and all allegorical interpretations of it can have only a spiritual-moral application, but do not find direct grounds in the parable itself. And there are very many such attempts at explanation. For example, some commentators understand by the elder son – the Jews, and by the younger, prodigal son – the Gentiles (Jerome, and among recent scholars – Baur, Schwegler, Ritschl, and others) in their relationship to Christianity. In this allegorizing some commentators extended to separate points of the parable. Others – understand by both brothers the Pharisees and tax collectors (Godet, Gabel, Keil) or the righteous and sinners (Meyer).

Luke 15:12. And the younger of them said to his father: ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ So he divided his living between them. According to Hebrew inheritance law, the younger son after the death of the father received half of what went to the elder son (Deut 21:17). The father could choose not to give the son his share in advance, but in any case, in his judgment, found it necessary to satisfy the son’s request and in advance divided the property between both sons, with the father remaining the owner of the share assigned to the elder son, who continued to remain in submission to the father (verses 29–31).

Luke 15:13. And not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country and there he squandered his property with loose living. “After not many days.” Trench sees in this mark of the expression a sign of some delicacy in relation to the father on the part of the younger son (p. 329): he was embarrassed to leave his father’s house immediately. But one can also see in these words an indication that, upon receiving his property, in the younger son very soon there awoke a desire to live for his own pleasure far from his father. “Gathered all he had” – namely, what he received as his inheritance – both things and money. “With loose living” (ἀσώτως, from ἀ – negative particle, and σώζω – I save). Among the classics this expression means spendthrifts of their father’s inheritance. Therefore the younger son is sometimes called “the wasteful son”. It is more correct to take this expression as a designation of carefree, dissolute life in the broadest sense of the word.

Luke 15:14. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country, and he began to be in need; Luke 15:15. so he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs; Luke 15:16. and he longed to fill himself with the carob pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave them to him. The younger son quickly spent his wealth, and at that time a great famine set in throughout the country where he found himself. He had nothing to eat, and he had to hire himself out to one of the inhabitants of that country as a swinekeeper. This occupation was the lowest, from the point of view of a Jew, who, by the law, considered the pig an unclean animal. But the master, evidently, gave his herder little food, and he was compelled to tear the pods from what is called the “carob tree of John the Baptist.” The pods had the form of pods, which is why they are called here “carob pods” (τῶν κερατίων). Both the pigs and people ate them. “And no one gave them to him”, that is, no one paid attention to his hunger, and they did not give him real food.

Luke 15:17. But when he came to himself, he said: ‘How many hired servants of my father have more than enough bread, but I am dying here of hunger! Luke 15:18. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you Luke 15:19. and am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.’ “But when he came to himself.” Need forced the prodigal son to come to his senses and first of all to remember his father’s house, which he had completely forgotten and which now appeared to him in all its contrast with his present condition. There even the hired servants have plenty of bread, while he, the master’s son, is dying here of hunger! Therefore, he decides to go to his father and repent before him for having left him. “Against heaven.” Heaven is represented here as the dwelling place of God and pure spirits – it can be said that it is personified. The higher celestial world is represented as being offended by the sins of the prodigal son. “And before you.” Since we sin properly only against God (Ps 50:6), if the son here calls himself a sinner before his father (ἐνώπιόν σου), then he understands the father in this case as a representative of God. Or else this expression can be expanded so: “and behold, I stand as a sinner before you.”

Luke 15:20. So he got up and went to his father. And while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and threw his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15:21. 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.’ Luke 15:22. But the father said to his slaves: ‘Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet; Luke 15:23. and get the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate; Luke 15:24. for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. The prodigal son at once carried out his intention and went to his father. He saw him from afar and rushed toward him, embraced him and kissed him. At the sight of such love, the son could not pronounce the request that the father receive him as a servant. He only expressed repentance before his father. To this repentance the father responded by ordering the servants to bring “the best”, that is, the most precious dress that was in the house (στολή – a long and wide dress of distinguished people; Mark 12:38; Rev 6:11). “Ring” and “shoes” – signs of a free man (slaves went barefoot). This meant that the returning son became again a member of his father’s household. “Was dead and is alive.” Death is residence in sin, coming alive is repentance (Euthymius Zigabenus).

Luke 15:25. “Now his elder son was in the field; as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing; Luke 15:26. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. Luke 15:27. The servant said to him: ‘Your brother has come; and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ Luke 15:28. But he became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and began to plead with him. The elder son was offended at the father for such a reception of the unworthy, in his opinion, brother. This is not the Pharisees and not the scribes, who placed the whole essence of virtue in the observance of the letter of the law: can these words of the father in verse 31 apply to them? This is simply a good son, well-behaved, but not without some pride in his virtue (verse 29) and not without a feeling of envy toward the preference shown to him by his father over his brother. “Music and dancing” (συμφωνίας καὶ χορῶν) – singing and dancing, which were ordinarily performed by hired singers and dancers (see commentary on Matt 14:6) at feasts. “Because he has received him back safe and sound”, that is, joyfully, that he has returned in full health.

Luke 15:29. “But he answered his father: ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends; Luke 15:30. but when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ “Did not give me even a young goat” – it is more correct to translate: “but me – such a good and obedient one – you did not give a young goat”, which, of course, was much cheaper than the fatted calf. Here is expressed the painful feeling of self-esteem. “But when this son of yours” – more correctly: “but when your son (he does not want to say: my brother), behold, this one” (οὗτος) – an expression of contempt.

Luke 15:31. “And he said to him: ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours, Luke 15:32. but we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ The father tries to soften or wants to soften the offended son. “My son” – more correctly: “child” (τέκνον) – an expression of tenderness and gentle love. “You are always with me...” That is: why are you angry when you always were together with me, while your brother wandered somewhere far away, not enjoying his father’s tenderness, and when everything in the house is really already yours: you alone will receive everything after my death. Trench sees in the parable “a certain incompleteness” because the Lord does not declare to the end whether the elder son persisted and refused to enter the house (p. 354). Similarly I. Weiss finds it necessary that the parable should indicate the further fate of the repentant son... But, properly speaking, this was not necessary to state. After all, the main thought of the parable consists in the fact that God loves sinners and joyfully receives them to Himself, and this thought is fully completed by the words of the father to the elder son. Everything else – and the further behavior of the elder brother, and the fate of the younger – for the essence of the matter has no significance at all... I. Weiss tries to find in the parable of the prodigal son the thought that for human salvation the love of God alone is sufficient. In the parable, he says, there is not the slightest hint of the cross of Christ and the necessity of redemption. Let the sinner repent – and God will immediately forgive, without any redemptive sacrifice. This thought was seen in the parable even by Unitarians (Socinians), and German rationalists of the 19th century thought this way. But Trench justly says that one cannot demand from a parable that it contain the whole Christian doctrine of salvation (p. 339). And that Christ could not have had such a thought about the unnecessary redemption through His own death is clear from His words, spoken not long before the pronouncing of this parable: “with what baptism I must be baptized” (Luke 12:50). * * * Notes 4 grams of silver. – Editor’s note.