Old Men Don't Run (Luke 15; Is. 6; Deut. 21; Rom. 2:4)

The will to get up came after the ruin (Luke 15:14). 

He knew he was in troubled when he wished to eat what he was feeding the pigs and couldn’t. The work, this hunger for even the swill to fill his empty stomach . . . the sudden clarity of realizing where he was and whose he was, of realizing the scope of his sin—not just against his father, his older brother, himself, but most of all his sin against heaven itself, against God the Father.

Like Isaiah, whose vision of God was seen in the temple (Is. 6:1-5), he too saw a vision, but his came looking up from the bottom of the swine pit. Instead of an absolutely terrifying vision of God in all His glory, this young man looked around and saw his own ruin because of choices made, his lack of worthiness to be called a son after his rebellion against the loving father who had reared him. He literally was a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips. He, too, saw the horror of his sin.

However, his sin was no bigger than Isaiah’s, as all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). This man was no prophet, yet his call to come home found him and accomplished the same purpose: to harden the unrepentant one in his sin and prepare him for his own ruin, this brother who couldn’t see his own need, but could only judge his younger brother’s weakness and his father’s foolishness to receive the lost one back.

Like the men of Judah, who had rebelled against a loving Father, the young man had revolted against his father’s rule and found himself “weighed down with iniquity” (Is. 1:2-4).  Unlike the men of Judah, unlike his older brother, he saw his trespass against heaven and did not despise the Holy One. Where the others turned away, he turned toward. They continued in their rebellion, and he had exhausted and humbled himself in his sin. Not even seeing the potential for restoration, he went home, knowing the possible consequences, knowing that if his father rejected his plea, he might be stoned at the gates of the village (Deut. 21:18-21). Had he “been dealt with according to the law, there would’ve been a funeral instead of a feast” (Warren W. Wiersbe).

What the men of Judah refused to do at the LORD’s call, this younger brother did: he reasoned, and though his sin was as scarlet, he hoped to be accepted even as a hired man who would eat in luxury when compared to the pigs he had been feeding. He had no understanding of the grace of restoration that awaited him. 

The men of Judah rejected the call of the Lord, “If you consent and obey you will eat the best of the land,” instead choosing death by sword over repentance (Is. 1:18-20). Where Isaiah’s prophecies were directed at men who had yet to experience exile because of their lack of knowledge, this young man had fully experienced the horrors of self-exile, having seen himself as wiser than his father and clever for gaining his inheritance early to do with as he pleased. 

Isaiah in his vision saw Jesus, high and lifted up, the holy One, the Lord of hosts, and he was undone.

The younger brother lifted his eyes and saw his old father, moved by compassion, running to him while he was still a long way off. He felt the encompassing arms of his father wrapped around him, his lips kissing him. HIs father’s joy at seeing him only made him further realize his own folly, and he confessed his sin against heaven first and his father second saying, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:20-21). He was overwhelmed. 

But his father released him from his embrace only to clothe him in the best robe and place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet before preparing a feast of the fatted calf in celebration of his return. The fact that there was a fatted calf waiting . . . there was no denying this son’s place in his father’s heart, his full acceptance upon his return; the forgiveness was full, undeniable. The one who was dead had finally begun to live. The one who was lost had been found, and there was great rejoicing.

Just as the younger brother had been restored by his earthly father, Isaiah was forgiven by the heavenly Father, his iniquity carried away that he might live in the light of his Father’s will, serving the Holy One. 

But the brother, the hardworking, obedient, upright, reputable, friendly son . . . he became angry, jealous (there’s that robe thing), unconcerned, prideful, rebellious . . . 

Like the Pharisees Jesus spoke to and about in this parable, the brother saw one forgiving someone he thought undeserving of forgiveness. Like the Pharisees, the brother in the parable missed seeing his own need of forgiveness because of his pride and anger; he missed seeing that “the same father who ran to meet the prodigal came out of the house of feasting to plead with the older son” (Wiersbe). In spite of Jesus’ pleading, the Pharisees would not come in but opposed Him at every turn, eventually bringing about His arrest and death (although voluntarily given). The men of Judah eventually went into exile, refusing to listen to God’s pleas to them through Isaiah. 

The brother “thought lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads to repentance” (Rom. 2:4). Instead, he held on to his unrepentant, stubborn heart, storing up wrath for himself. The Pharisees wouldn’t have missed the message of the parable. They would’ve seen themselves and ironically grown as angry and hardened as the older brother in the very parable they were hearing. They would’ve been old men who refused to run.