Over the next five weeks we will be plunging into the depths of this story. But the context of the story begins in Luke 15:1-10: Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
In this passage, Jesus was surrounded by two particular and distinct types of people. There are the Pharisees, a group of very religious men who were committed to studying the scriptures and living a holy and pure life. They were the rule-keepers. The Pharisees were very committed to understanding and applying God’s law in living their lives. To help them do this, drawing on tradition and their understating of the scriptures they developed their own rules as to how one should live to please God. There were rules for everything: how you ate, how and when you worshipped, sexual relationships, how and when you bathed, what clothes you wore, what you did on the Sabbath...everything. These rules and traditions were collected in an extensive written record called the Mishnah. The Pharisees took particular pride in applying their life to keeping and upholding these traditions. They were the rule-keepers. Religion is about keeping the rules. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were the rule-keepers.
Then there were the tax collectors and sinners. This was a motley group of outsiders, many of whom would have been shunned by Jewish culture because they had not kept the rules. If the Pharisees were the rule-keepers, sinners and tax- collectors were the rule-breakers. Tax-collectors broke the rules by not only associating with the Roman occupiers, but by working for them. People suffering from leprosy, or suffering long-term illness, or with a physical disability must have broken the rules to be suffering the way they did. Prostitutes broke the rules about sexual purity.
The problem for the Pharisees is that Jesus, himself a teacher of the law, spent time with the rule-breakers. Verse 2 says, “The Pharisees and teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
This was not an observation. It was an accusation. Sinners and tax collectors who were used to rejection and abuse, Jesus’ radical welcome and hospitality was Good News. For many of the Pharisees it was bad news. Jesus knew what the Pharisees were thinking, he could overhear their muttering. Rather than slinking away and avoiding their accusations of questionable behavior, he stares them down with three stories about lost things being found.
This story is usually told to remind us that God will rescue prodigals. But it is important to remember that the context of the story is the murmuring of the Pharisees about Jesus associating with the rule-breakers. The Pharisees, represented by the older brother, are going to discover that the sin of religious pride is just as rebellious as the sins of the Prodigal. Jesus redefined the term sinners to possibly include rule-keepers as well as rule-breakers.
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