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September 17, 2025 |
| Three Views of the Prodigal Son | ||
I watched a video about the parable of the Prodigal Son by a pastor I had never heard of before. As I watched it, I came to realize he was a liberal. Later that day, I blocked his videos.
I had to give him credit though, for being able to see more in the text of the parable than most others are able to see. But some of what he could see, he ignored because it was of no value to his view. In the end, he completely misunderstood the messages in the parable.
Liberals like him are a danger to the Christian community. They hear him explain many details of the parable that they have never heard mentioned by their pastors. Being underfed, they naturally think, "I'm only getting part of it from my pastor. I need to listen to this guy." But this guy leads them astray.
In this study, we are going to compare this liberal view of the parable with the view that is traditionally taught in the churches, and with the complete view of the parable.
These are summaries of the three views.
The traditional pastor does understand that there is a spiritual message behind the parable. The message is not about the son. It is about the nature or character of God. Therefore the message is something like "God allows people to turn away from him but will meet a returning son halfway and quickly forgive him; all of Heaven will rejoice".
The traditional pastor's exposition of the parable fails to recognize most of the symbolic elements in the text. There are certainly variations among these pastors, with some grasping more than others. The focus here is on the median or typical pastor. Typically, this pastor does not see or, at least, does not understand:
The traditional pastor teaches this way because he grew up hearing it taught this way, and then he went to a seminary, which taught him to teach it that way because all the people there had heard it taught that way from the time they were children. Therefore the traditional pastor is not teaching the Bible; he is teaching church orthodoxy.
The liberal pastor is not a spiritual person and cannot be such. Spiritual things have no value to him. As a liberal, his focus is on people. This isn't to say that he has greater concern for people than a traditional pastor. He has a reduced concern for other things, such as following laws, the Bible being God's words to man, and having absolute truth.
The liberal pastor is too busy making his church better, making his Bible better, and making his god better, to be conformed or transformed himself.
Because of that viewpoint, he understands the parable to be a message to the people of Jesus' time and to the people of all times who are like them. He says, "Every parable is a call to people to see themselves in the characters of the parable." That is verifiably a false statement. Jesus specifically says that some parables are about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Again, Yeshua said, "To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast […]". (Luke 13:20-21)
He continues on with a parable from there.
To his credit, the liberal pastor understands that context is important. In this case, he uses it to bend the parable into his view.
But Tax Collectors and sinners were approaching to hear him. 2 And the Scribes and Pharisees were complaining and they were saying, "This one receives sinners, and he eats with them." (Luke 15:1-2)
The liberal pastor says the Scribes and Pharisees were criticizing Jesus, so the parable must be aimed at them, and therefore they must be one of the sons in the parable.
The unknown pastor understands that there are spiritual messages behind the parable. Every noun in the text of the parable is there for a reason and has a meaning. These messages are about the Kingdom of Heaven and the nature or character of God. There are so many messages in the parable that they can't be summarized into a single sentence. Generally it is about the consequences of turning away from God, how God tries to bring people back, what happens to the reward they had coming, and how that is fair to people who have been loyal.
The parable is long and full of nouns. I've analyzed it elsewhere (2022-12-31 Understanding Parables), so I won't do that here. Because most people already know the parable. I'll only focus on the parts of it that are never explained.
In my comments, I will use "God" to refer to God, who is the spiritual meaning of "father" in the parable. I'll use "father" to refer to the father in the parable.
What man among you has a hundred sheep, and if one of them should be lost (Luke 15:4)
And who is the woman who has ten quarter shekels and will lose one of them (Luke 15:8)
And Yeshua said to them again, "One man had two sons." (Luke 15:11)
Why are there 3 parables that seem to be about the same spiritual message - how Heaven celebrates their return? Each parable is about a different case. The lost sheep is about God's people who have wandered away from God. The lost coin is about people who were never God's people but are living away from God. The "Two Sons" parable is about one of God's people who intentionally turns away from God. A mortal sin has been committed. It's also about how it is just that this person should be restored.
The message behind all three is that God desires all people to be returned to him and does whatever can be done to achieve that.
And his younger son said to him, "My father, give me the portion that befalls me from your estate." (Luke 15:12)
What is this part of the estate that the younger son is taking with him, this wealth that he wastes in sin until it is gone? It is all the spiritual progress that the person has made while with God. It is the discernment of right and wrong, the understanding of justice, love, etc. When a person turns away from God, he doesn't lose those things instantly. His quest for holiness has reshaped him into something different from the world. As he declines he will lose these.
Then he divided to them his wealth. (Luke 15:12)
Some of the people who notice that this sentence is saying something think that it means the divided inheritance was given to each son. That isn't really the point. The point is that both sons have the spiritual wealth of holiness that has come with their growth. The older son will continue to grow; the younger son will begin to decline.
And after a few days his younger son gathered everything that was coming to him and he went (Luke 15:12)
The son has a short time to think about this sin and to repent and decide not to leave. We also have a short time afterward to think and determine if we intended to knowingly, willfully reject God. Sometimes we do things rashly and need time. If we repent and turn back, no harm, no foul. If we determine that rejection of God's will is what we want, then our reward is lost. The father will mention that reward again, symbolically, later.
And he went to a distant country (Luke 15:13)
This "distant country" is spiritually distant from God
and there he squandered his wealth while living wastefully . (Luke 15:13)
Spiritually, he undid the holiness that he had learned and learned to practice as he lived among people who were not holy.
there was a great famine in that country and he began to be wanting. (Luke 15:14)
The famine is a spiritual famine, a shortage of the word of God. The son starts to realize how far he has fallen.
And he joined himself to one of the citizens of that country (Luke 15:15)
This probably means he married an unbeliever. Although the parable uses a son, the spiritual meaning is of a bride of God, and gender doesn't matter. So, the parable sounds like he joined himself to a man, but spiritually he has become a bride to the man. That can be difficult to get your head around.
and he sent him to a field to herd pigs. (Luke 15:15)
This new spiritual husband has him do even more unclean things, things that he never would have done as a son to the father.
And he longed to fill his belly […], and no man was giving anything to him. (Luke 15:16)
He is hungry for spiritual food. Nothing that he gets from the world ("no man") satisfies that hunger.
And when he came to himself, he said, "Now, how many hired servants are in my father's house who have plenteous bread" (Luke 15:17)
He is finally figuring out what is important and regretting what he has done.
Hired servants were lower than the slaves because the hired servants were temporary and not part of the household. The Bible talks about hired men not being willing to fight off predators that attack the sheep because the hired men have no commitment to the future of the household.
The hired servants do not represent anything in particular. They represent the least in the household of God, the newest believers. Even they are sons, though. We'll see that later.
The point is that the least in the kingdom are better off than he is.
"I shall arise and go to my father and say to him, 'My father, I have sinned toward Heaven, and before you.'" (Luke 15:18)
This is repentance.
"Now I am not worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants." (Luke 15:19)
Part of repentance is recognizing that you are not worthy of anything.
But his father said to his servants, "Bring the best robe and clothe him and put a ring on his hand and put shoes on him." (Luke 15:22)
There is a spiritual meaning to each of these three items that are given to the son. The bible has many mentions of being clothed in purity, clothed in white, and others. The spiritual meaning of "being clothed in the best robe" is the same here. The one who returns is made pure.
The ring is a family ring. It indicates that he has become a son of God. The Bible has many references to believers becoming the sons of God.
The shoes make it possible to do work that wouldn't be possible in bare feet. The shoes refer to being given work to do, perhaps a mission to take the word to others, but there are many other possibilities.
But he said to his father, "Behold, I have served you for many years of servitude, and I have never transgressed your command" (Luke 15:29)
The liberal pastor sees the second son as being Jesus' jab at the Pharisees, but their complaints are not the same. The Pharisees were complaining that Jesus was hanging around with unclean people, which they understood to be part of the law. The second son is complaining that he has worked consistently and gotten nothing for it. Those are very different.
The second son symbolizes the people who have been in the faith for a long time. From an earthly perspective, they see a sinner becoming just like them, as though his sins meant nothing.
This is the Hitler problem. After all the evil that he had done during the war, if Hitler had "come to himself" and repented, he would have been forgiven for all of that and become a son of God, like the others. From a human perspective, it seems like he should have to suffer for what he did, pay back for all the lives he had taken.
They forget that they, too, were once sinners, and they were made sons of God without any cost to them. They may think that their sins were not as bad as Hitler's - that's the thinking of humans. Yet, their sins had destined them to eternal torment just as Hitler's did to him. The same savior was able to pay for both.
"and you never gave a goat to me that I may celebrate with my friends." (Luke 15:29)
Still, given that the Godly life is difficult at this time, it seems like those who have been faithful for a long time should get something in this life. The second son sees this apparent inequity - those who work for a long time seem to get the same reward as those who have worked only a short time. Jesus gave a different parable that was directly focused on that point.
There will be a future reward, but it will be based on what we have done, not how long we have been faithful. But this is human thinking again. Do you want your reward in this life that does not last, or the next life? What are a few handfuls of years in this life compared to eternal life?
It's important to understand this clearly, so I'll say it a different way. There are two kinds of rewards. There is the reward of eternal life, which all believers receive, which might not seem fair. There is also the reward for having done the things that God wanted you to do. Both of these are future rewards.
His father said to him, "My son, you are always with me and everything that I have is yours." (Luke 15:31)
The father says, "You are always with me," which means that just being with me is its own reward. Living a godly life is itself a reward. When you look back on it and see the wonderful things you've done, you should be pleased with the progress you have made. Now of course, the world doesn't see it that way. They think they have lived lives full of wonderful things, but that is because they measure things differently. When they learn the true measure, they will see it our way.
Living a Godly life can have rewards in this life simply because living righteously is the optimum path through life and that path naturally attracts benefits. Those are not necessarily wealth or power, but there are many other things that bring joy to life.
The father also says, "Everything that I have is yours," which means the second son has a future reward, the reward for the things he has done. The first son has only the reward of eternal life at this time. He has done no work, so he has no reward for his work, but his father will begin assigning him things to do with the shoes he was given, and he will earn a reward.
"But it is right for us to celebrate and to rejoice. (Luke 15:32)
All believers should celebrate the return of a fallen son. God says that the things he did before are not accounted to him, and we should have the same attitude, though that may be a struggle against our nature.
We've seen that this parable is teaching us about spiritual or Heavenly truths. It does this through a man's two sons, but it isn't about the two sons or the people they represent.
The first son, the youngest, tells us about what happens when a person willfully and knowingly rejects God.
The first son also tells us about how God works to bring him back.
The first son also tells about what happens when such a person turns back to God.
The second son tells us about the reaction of steadfast believers to the return of the wayward believer.
The father tells us about God's point of view.
We've also seen that viewpoint matters. If your viewpoint is not the same as God's, you will misunderstand or miss part of God's word.
Some of Jesus' parables were short and simple. Others, like this one, are much larger, which means they are rich in content. We should mine every word to obtain all of its value.