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Page 1 of 7 The Greatest Story Ever Told
Modern Day Parables 5.0
Luke 15:1-32
by Eric Stillman
July 22nd, 2007
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When I was in college, I went with my college fellowship group on a trip to Daytona Beach called the Florida Evangelism Project. Our purpose was to find ways to connect with the spring break revelers, by developing relationships, offering them free food and parties, and by walking around on the beach asking people if they would be interested in talking with us about God. I remember one particular time that I got into a conversation with two young men, and asked them “What do you think God would think if he were down here at Daytona Beach?” One of the young men answered, “He’d probably kill us.” In response, I asked him, “Can I tell you a story that Jesus told that I think is a good picture of what Jesus would think about Spring Break?” And I told them the story of the Prodigal Son, which we are going to look at today. If there was only one story that I was allowed to save out of the whole Bible, this would likely be the one I would save because of how powerful a picture of God it is to me. If you have your Bible, please open up to Luke 15. We are going to read two short parables before getting into the story of the Prodigal Son.
Luke 15:1-32 Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
In Luke 15, we find Jesus enjoying his typical audience, a mix of religious types and marginal types – sinners as the Pharisees call them, people whose lives don’t show faithfulness to God. First of all, I continue to be amazed by how much people outside the mainstream of Judaism were attracted to Jesus. Here he is, again surrounded by all the outsiders in town, and the religious establishment is ticked off at this. They mutter, “this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Don’t you half expect Jesus to turn to them and say, “what is your problem?” Why do the Pharisees and the teachers of the law have such an issue with Jesus? Remember the Pharisees’ agenda – like all of the Jews in that day, their biggest concern was the fact that they were living under Roman oppression, and as God’s chosen people, they could not understand why that would be the case. There were four prominent religious groups in Jesus’ day, and each group – the Essenes, Zealots, Sadducees, and Pharisees – had their own beliefs on how to deal with this oppression. The Pharisees’ belief was that if the people would be pure enough and faithful to God, than the Messiah would come and deliver them from Roman oppression. For this reason, they were like a self-appointed watchdog group, putting pressure on any Jew who was living in impure ways – sexually immoral women, tax collectors, etc. Because of their self-appointed role in the Jewish culture, they were suspicious of any other religious leaders who attracted a following, because they wanted to be sure the other leader endorsed their agenda. And since Jesus did not condemn those on the margins but welcomed them, shared meals with them, etc., the Pharisees began to despise him.
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