While He Was Still Far Off
11 He said, “A certain man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them. 13 Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. 14 When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. 17 But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; 24 for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
A son asks for his inheritance early, spends it, and rehearses a speech he never gets to finish.
"A certain man had two sons" Luke 15:11.
The third parable is the longest in the Gospels and it is this book's alone. It has no shepherd and no housewife; the searching in the first two is replaced by a father who waits, and by an ending that does not resolve.
The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them.
The request is worse than impatience. A younger son's third would come to him at his father's death, so asking for it now is a way of saying the death cannot come soon enough. And it means liquidating a working estate — land sold, the family's standing reduced — in a village where everyone would know.
The father does it. He divided his livelihood between them, and the word is bios, his living, the thing he lived on. He is not obliged and the account gives no reason. The whole parable turns on a man who does not use the power he has.
"He wasted his property with riotous living" Luke 15:13. The account spends four words on the ruin and does not linger over the details, which the elder brother will supply later with more confidence than evidence.
15 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.
For a Jewish hearer the pigs are the bottom of the descent, and the last clause is lower still. He is not merely feeding unclean animals; he is envying them, and nobody gives him even that. He has reached a place where he is worth less than livestock to the people around him.
"But when he came to himself" Luke 15:17.
The turn is one of the great phrases in Scripture. It does not say he repented, or was sorry, or resolved to be better. It says he came to — the way a man comes round after a blow — and the implication is that everything up to that point had been a kind of absence.
And the first thing he thinks about is bread. "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger!" The motive is hunger, and the parable is not embarrassed by that. Nothing here is a noble return.
18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’
He writes a speech. The first two sentences are true; the third is a proposal — hired servants were day laborers, paid and free, which would let him work off what he had spent. It is a plan to restore himself by installments.
“He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Saw him while he was still a long way away, which means the father had been looking down that road for a long time. Nothing in the parable says so directly, and nothing needs to.
And was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. An elderly landowner in that culture did not run; it required gathering up the robe and showing the legs, and it was undignified. He does it in front of the village — and the village had its own opinion about this returning son. The father reaches him first.
The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
He gets two sentences out. The third — the offer to work as a servant — is never spoken, because the father is already giving orders across him.
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
Three items, and each one is a status. The best robe in the house would be the father's own. A ring carried the seal that committed the family's credit. Sandals were what a son wore and a slave did not.
Every one of them refuses the proposal he never managed to make.
for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
And the party begins — the third celebration in three parables, and the answer to men who were murmuring about a meal.
settled What this mark means