Bible Commentaries
Luke 15

Introduction

Luke 9:51 to Luke 18:14 .— Lk. now more than atones for his great omission (of Mark 6:45 to Mark 8:26) by a great insertion. This section is mainly peculiar to Lk. It describes incidents of the last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.

Verses 1-32

Luke 25. Three Parables Showing God’ s Love for the Lost, and His Joy at their Restoration.— The three parables in this chapter have no definite note of time or place. An introduction is supplied from Luke 5:29 f. ( Mark 2:15 f.). Both the introduction (sinners crowding to hear Jesus) and the parables strike the new noto that Jesus came to sound— the direct interest in and appeal to the outcast ( cf. p. 622). “ This parable” ( Luke 15:3) must mean the parabolic discourse, embracing the three illustrations. The Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin form a pair, and represent the bewildered sinner and the unconscious sinner, while the story of the Prodigal Son forms an exquisite picture of the sinner who deliberately chooses his own path, and deliberately turns back to ask his Father’ s forgive ness. In the first parable one out of a hundred is lost and restored, in the second one out of ten, in the third one out of two” (Burnside).

Luke 15:4-7 ( Matthew 18:12-14 *). There are some changes; in particular Lk. makes the neighbours rejoice with the shepherd, and inserts the moral which Mt. omits. We are not to suppose that Jesus is scorning the good Law-keeping Jew in the reference to the ninety-nine.

Luke 15:4 . wilderness: not desert, but the usual moorland or mountain pasture.

Luke 15:8-10 (Lk. only). A domestic parable follows an out-of-doors one as with the Leaven and Mustard Seed ( Luke 13:19-21). The piece of silver (a Greek drachma) probably formed part of a circlet worn on the forehead.

Luke 15:11-32 . Parable of the Prodigal Son.— No passage in the Gospels needs less comment than this matchless illustration of God’ s forgiving love towards the repentant sinner ( Luke 15:11-20). Nor is there any real difficulty in Luke 15:25-32, which deals with the elder brother. The lesson is that those who have not fallen are wrong if they blame this forgiving love. The Father’ s goodness towards the penitent does not injure them; they should rejoice at the restoration of the lost brother and the mending of the broken circle. The parable had special point for the hard Pharisaic pietists who were offended because Jesus associated and even ate with the outcast but repentant “ publicans and sinners.” The injured air of the complacent hide-bound moralist is drawn to the fife. The cold and unsympathetic attitude of the elder brother sets off the enthusiasm and warmth of the Father. The parable is a unity, its theme being the reception given to the lost and found son.

Luke 15:16 . husks: pods of the carob tree, hard and un palatable.

Luke 15:17 . he came to himself: mentally and morally.

Luke 15:21 . Note how he fails to complete his rehearsed statement; probably the father breaks into the middle of it.

Luke 15:22 . ring: as necessary as the shoes (slaves alone went bare-footed) to show his recovered sonship.