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Widely known for his thorough, candid approach to teaching God's Word, John MacArthur is a popular author and conference speaker. He has served as pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, since 1969. John and his wife, Patricia, have four married children and fifteen grandchildren. John's pulpit ministry has been extended around the globe through his media ministry, Grace to You, and its satellite offices in seven countries. In addition to producing daily radio programs for nearly two thousand English and Spanish radio outlets worldwide, Grace to You distributes books, software, and digital recordings by John MacArthur. John is chancellor of The Master's University and Seminary and has written hundreds of books and study guides, each one biblical and practical. Bestselling titles include The Gospel According to Jesus, Twelve Ordinary Men, Twelve Extraordinary Women, Slave, and The MacArthur Study Bible, a 1998 ECPA Gold Medallion recipient.

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THE PRODIGAL SON

Thomas Nelson

Contents

Acknowledgments...................................................................ixIntroduction: An Unforgettable Tale...............................................xi1. Greatest Short Story. Ever.....................................................32. A Wide-Angle Preview...........................................................193. His Shameless Demand...........................................................414. His Shameful Misconduct........................................................555. His Turning Point..............................................................696. His Return.....................................................................857. His Forgiveness................................................................1058. His Generosity.................................................................1259. His Resentment.................................................................14710. His True Character............................................................16511. The Shocking Real-Life Ending.................................................189Appendix: Storied Truth: Learning to Find Meaning in Parables.....................199Notes.............................................................................213About the Author..................................................................215Topical Index.....................................................................217Scripture Index...................................................................219

Chapter One

A certain man had two sons ... -Luke 15:11

Charles Dickens (who could spin a fair yarn himself) famously called the parable of the prodigal son the greatest short story ever written. He joins a large chorus of literary geniuses, ranging from William Shakespeare to Garrison Keillor, who expressed admiration for the parable as literature.

Make no mistake: the prodigal son parable is indeed a model of great literature on multiple levels. It is without dispute one of the finest examples of storytelling ever-with its penetrating appeal to hearers' emotions and imaginations; its succinct, tightly crafted form; and its powerful and personally engaging message. It is a gem of concise character and plot development. It manages to leave a lasting impression on most hearers without resorting to maudlin or sensational gimmickry. The parable is focused, clear, colorful, and full of familiar real-life imagery. The message is so simple that even a child can follow the story line, yet it is profound enough to have been the subject of several classic book-length studies.

Of course, the purpose of the parable in the first place was not merely literary, and in its original form it was not even a written work at all. It was delivered orally to an audience that included (on the one hand) a mix of corrupt tax collectors and some of society's most down-and-out sinners who were eager to hear Jesus' good news-along with (on the other hand) a hostile group of hyperreligious Pharisees and scribes who were angry with Jesus and grumbled that He "receives sinners and eats with them" (Luke 15:1-2). Jesus' answer to their complaint was bound up in the lesson of the prodigal son. The parable therefore had a polemic purpose, delivering a sophisticated and well-aimed rebuke at the religious elite of Jesus' day.

So despite all that might be said to extol the literary form of this parable, Jesus' intention in telling the story was not to impress His hearers with dramatic artistry. Rather, if we understand the parable correctly, its spiritual lessons leave a far more indelible impression on our hearts and minds than any literary analysis of the parable could accomplish. It is therefore of paramount importance to grasp the story's meaning accurately-in its original context and with all the nuances and implications Jesus' original audience would have heard.

Culture and Context

Let's remind ourselves at the outset that the Bible is an ancient Middle Eastern book. Biblical narratives were set in old-style Semitic civilizations very distant from today's Western world. The complex customs of those cultures are not always obvious to the twenty-first-century reader living in an industrialized society rooted in European customs. In fact, despite the ready availability of mass communication today, the typical Christian in the West has little firsthand experience with life in the Middle East, either ancient or modern.

That ignorance often has a detrimental effect on the way Scripture is understood and applied in popular evangelicalism. It is all too easy to rip biblical stories out of their original contexts, force them into a postmodern frame of reference, and miss their full import. Besides that, one of the sad realities of our culture is that we tend to be in a hurry, even when we read the Bible. We want to find practical applications for ourselves hastily, without doing the careful work necessary to interpret Scripture correctly.

Even worse, in a relentless effort to make Scripture seem as contemporary as possible, Bible teachers sometimes deliberately twist, downplay, or ignore the historical context of Scripture. That kind of superficial treatment has been all too common in the popular handling of the prodigal son parable. It leads inevitably to misinterpretation and misapplication, utterly missing the central message Jesus intended to convey. And that is no small matter.

Surely this parable deserves more serious consideration. It is the longest of Jesus' parables precisely because it contains nuances, subtleties, cultural attitudes, and other features that illuminate its meaning more fully. Careful study here yields rich rewards.

Bear in mind, too, that the meaning of Scripture is not fluid. The truth of the Bible doesn't change with time or mean different things in different cultures. Whatever the text meant when it was originally written, it still means today. Whatever Jesus intended to communicate to His listeners when He told this parable, that meaning still constitutes its only true message. (See the appendix for a more thorough discussion of this point.)

So if we expect to draw out of this parable what God wants us to learn and what He intended to reveal for our edification, we need to try to hear it the way Jesus' original audience heard it.

When Jesus spoke, "the common people heard Him gladly" (Mark 12:37)-in large part because He spoke their language. He resonated with their culture. He lived and ministered among Middle Eastern peasant people, and the Gospel record reflects that context. Even the most educated people of Jesus' time would be familiar with the conventions of agrarian village life, because the mores and customs that governed society had been imbedded for generations in the common people's sensibilities. (Some of the features of that culture and its social structures still exist even today in Middle Eastern village life.) Such customs governed their way of life, determined their manner of thinking, and therefore shaped their emotional response to a story like the prodigal son.

In Jesus' telling of this parable, for example, He did not explicitly state that the father was a wealthy man, but (as we'll see in...