Luke 15:32

Luke 15:32. It was meet to make merry, etc. The form is general, giving justification for the joy, and yet leaving it to the choice of the elder son whether he will share in it.

The elder son represents the Pharisees, and puts forward their claims. These are not directly contradicted in the parable for good reasons. (1.) The Lord would represent the forbearance of God toward the Pharisee as well as His pardoning love toward the prodigal; hence severe rebuke is excluded. (2.) The claim rested upon a correct principle: ‘the doers of the law shall be justified' (Romans 2:13), but the character of the elder son is so portrayed as to indicate that he failed to stand on that principle. The law was not yet abolished, and the words of the wise Teacher were adapted to the circumstances of His auditors. It is not said that the son went in. This also opposes the view that He represents the Jewish people. The New Testament loses no opportunity for prophesying the ultimate salvation of Israel, and such a prediction would least of all fail in a parable where love and forbearance alone are depicted. The parable was itself the Father's entreaty to the elder son, and with each of those whom He represented the responsibility of answering was left. All of us, in whom sin remains, are represented by one or the other of those two sons. Both were offenders, ye the Father calls both sons, and would save both lasses of sinners here depicted.

Luke 16