Ep. 17 - The One About Two Lost Sons and A Party [Luke 15:11-32]

Two lost sons, one running father, and a party you might be missing.

What if the parable of the Prodigal Son isn't really about one lost son — but two? In this episode of The Leader Lounge, Chris and Emily Storms dig into Luke 15:11-32 and unpack the story Jesus told the Pharisees about a reckless younger brother, a self-righteous older brother, and a father who ran to them both. They walk through the "came to himself" moment in the pig field, the scandal of a Middle Eastern father hiking up his robe to sprint, and the part of the story where Jesus abruptly stops. Perfect for youth ministry leaders, parents, and anyone wrestling with grace, religion, and what it really means to come home.

"One brother left in rebellion, but the other stayed in religion. Both were lost. Both were pursued."

SCRIPTURE REFERENCED

• Luke 15:11-32 (Parable of the Prodigal Son)
• Luke 15:1-2 (the audience: tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, scribes)
• Luke 15:1-10 (context: Lost Sheep and Lost Coin)

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• Emily's simple definition of a parable and why Jesus used them.
• Who Jesus was really talking to in Luke 15 — and why it matters.
• What the younger son was really saying when he asked for his inheritance early.
• A working definition of sin — using the Father's gifts while rejecting the Father.
• Why a Jewish audience would have heard "feeding pigs" as rock bottom.
• "When he came to himself" — the realization moment before repentance.
• The father watching the horizon: a picture of a God who pays attention.
• In that culture, men didn't run — the scandal of the sprinting father.
• The robe and the ring: full restoration, heir status, back in the family.
• Part 2: the older brother standing outside the party, refusing to come in.
• Why Jesus stops the story mid-scene and leaves it unfinished.
• A warning for lifelong church kids: don't miss the party by keeping score.

RESOURCES/LINKS MENTIONED

"When God Ran" by Benny Hester (1985) – The song Chris mentions about the father running to the prodigal son

FOR YOUTH LEADERS

• Great club talk hook: end the story with the question, "Are you in the party?"
• Use this parable alongside the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin (Luke 15:1-10) to show the escalating stakes of what's "lost."
• When teaching kids, clarify up front that a parable is a story Jesus told to illustrate a point — there was no actual father or son.
• Name the two ways people get lost: rebellion (younger son) and religion (older son). Both need grace.

NEXT WEEK ON THE LOUNGE

Join us next Tuesday as we continue through the stories of Jesus — and look for some youth-ministry-focused conversations mixed in alongside our Bible stories.

Note: We provide links to specific resources; this is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc. Their views may not represent our's.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Leader Lounge Podcast, a place where we have conversations about scripture and ministry in hopes of helping us all put God's word in our hearts and in our minds so that we can share it with others. There is an amazing party happening on the other side of the door, and the older son is so self-centered and believed and so prideful, really. He's like, he's like, I did this. I worked for you. I, I, I, I. And he, if he would just turn around and be grateful that his brother is back.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Leader Lounge Podcast. I am your co-host, Emily.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

And I'm her dad, Chris. And we come to you every week with a new Bible story. Or um actually, we're gonna be doing some topics on, we're gonna start doing some podcasts that are not Bible stories, but more like youth ministry type type stuff. And so be looking for those. Um, we're excited about that. But today we're gonna jump right back into the Bible, and we are in Luke, just like we were last week, and it's a story that is only found in Luke, and it's actually a parable. Um, what's a parable?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Parable is like a story that Jesus would tell to illustrate a point, but like in almost easier to understand terms or like in relatable terms. He talked a lot about farming, a lot about sheep, because that was just very relatable back then.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Good. Good definition. Thanks. And so we're gonna be in Luke 15. It's the story of the prodigal son, or also sometimes called the lost son, which is interesting because I don't know that that title actually explains the intent of this story as I read it, because who is he talking to?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

The beginning of verse 15 says that the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear him, and the Pharisees and scribes were also there.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Right. So I think that these parables are for the Pharisees and scribes. So those were the religious leaders at the time. So keep that in mind as we read the story of the prodigal son. And in I think you're right, he is talking to there's all of these people present: tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, and um and the um scribes. But in right before this parable, there's two other parables that he tells. One is about a lost sheep, and one is about a lost coin. And now we get to the parable of the lost son. All right, so I'm gonna read, I'll read eleven through twenty-four. And he said, There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. And when he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave Oh I'm sorry, and he was longing to be fed by the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. And when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, for this my son was dead, and is alive again. He he was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

I think the first thing to notice is that the father in the story is representing God or the Lord, and then the brothers, we talked about the first one, and we'll talk about the second one in a second, but are us representative of his followers, or I guess just people in the world. Um there's kind of two different types that we'll talk about.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yeah. So the the younger son basically is just asked for his inheritance. Um when do you get an inheritance?

SPEAKER_01 4:38

When someone dies.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

So basically, what is the son saying about his father?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

It's kind of just saying, like, I wish you were dead now, almost. Like, I wish I could the only thing you're good for is to give me your stuff. Like, I don't want anything else from you. I don't want a relationship with you, is basically what he's saying.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah. And then it says, not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country. Now, before we go any further, always keep in mind this is a parable. This is not a true story. There wasn't a father, there wasn't a son, or younger son or older son. So when we're teaching this story, we can share it in the context like Jesus did right here with, you know, but we also just need to make sure we let people, kids in particular, know, like, hey, this is a parable that Jesus told to illustrate the relationship we have with our father and how we respond to God as our father. And so that right there, if you're talking about sin, that is sin. That's a great definition of sin, what you just described, right? The son tells the father, I wish you were dead. I want to take my stuff, I want to use what I want to use all the stuff that you have given to me, but I'm gonna go do it by myself. I'm gonna go to a faraway country. Um, and that's what we do with God. We he's given us so many blessings, that everything we have, right? And we say, you know what? I I don't want to have a relationship with you. I want to I want to live my life my way. And so that's what this son has done. So he goes into this country, right? Yeah. And he experiences basically death. I mean, he's he the the life he thought he was gonna create for himself turns out to be awful, right? And to the point that he is in a field. The only way he can make money, he's spent everything. He's wasted everything that his father gave him. And he's in a he's he's been got a job feeding pigs, which if you were Jewish, so the cr the um audience that Jesus is talking to, they would have recognized like nobody would be near a pig if you were Jewish because they were unclean. Yeah, and so he is so low that he longs to eat the slop that the pigs were eating, um, which is pretty pretty crazy. But then verse 17 it says when he came to himself, and I love that. Like it's like that's the point of I wouldn't say repentance necessarily, but maybe just more like realization.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Right now, like oh yeah light bulb moment, like I had everything, everything that was good that I had that I wasted came from my father. Like none of that came from me. I'm trying to fix my own problems now, it's not working. Like he's realizing all of it right now.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

He says I'm gonna arise and go to my father. I wonder. His father must have been so loving, like he must have been thinking back to his father. And if his father was a terrible father, I I don't think he would have said, I'll go back to my father. But he's because of his dad's character, I think, or in in the context of this parable, that's what made it feel safe for him to go back to the father, and that's who God is for us, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

I love it. He practices a speech, he's like, This is what I'm gonna say. And then when he gets to his father, that's exactly what he does say. Um but I don't think that the father in the story would have been listening at all because he I love in verse 20 it says he was still a long way off. Which really the only way that the father in the story would have been able to see him a long way off would be if he was like looking for him, like waiting for him, which is what the Lord does, and he doesn't wait for him to get to him, he actively runs after him. Um exactly last week we talked about Jesus sharing his mission, and he says that he came to seek and to save the lost. And so if he's using this story and talking about a lost son, he doesn't just wait and he's like standing there, like, okay, give me your speech, tell me you're sorry, like he runs to him and embraces him, which is so so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

I can't remember the exact quote, and it's sad because it was like two hours ago. But we I was together with some other I was together with some friends and we were talking. My friend Brad gave said this quote, something to the effect of um paying attention is like the the first act of love, or something like that. It's it you know, you can't people don't feel loved unless they're paid attention to, you know. And he used this story, he used these three stories, actually, these three three parables, to illustrate how God pays attention to us, that God was paying attention, even when the son probably I mean, the the the father would have had to look be looking at the horizon for days on end, you know, waiting, waiting, waiting. And finally he sees a little speck on the horizon, and as soon as he realizes it's his son, he runs. And that is a picture of God, right? That's that's a picture of Jesus, and that is that in that culture, men did not run. Like it was considered beneath them to run. So this father would have had to pull up his his robe and and sprint toward his son. You know, there's actually an old, it's probably an 80s, 1980s song, uh, but it's called When God Ran, and it's about this story of God running to the to the lost son.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

And then he throws a celebration. He has a party, he immediately starts providing for his son again by making him food and giving him shoes and a new robe because I mean everything he had was gone. He probably didn't have great shoes. He went to a far-off country walking on foot and then wasted everything. So he was probably in bad shape, but the father in this story just immediately started providing for him, which is just such a picture of what God does for us. Even though the son in this story like wasted all of the other gifts that the father had given him, he still is providing for him.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Verse 21, it says, and the son said to him, and this is the speech that he practiced, right? Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. That's a true statement. Like it's it's not he's not saying anything false. And the father, in fact, doesn't the father doesn't say, Oh, no, you're, no, you are worthy to be called my son, or no, you didn't sin. The father doesn't say that. So a true statement is made, and the father just chooses to, I don't want to say ignore it, but but the father just restores him. You know what I mean? So both of those things are true at the same time. The the son is sinful, the son is not worthy to be called his son, and yet not only is he not called, not only does the father not answer that, the father puts a ring on him and puts a robe on him. And those two things were basically saying, You are you are still the heir, you are still a part of this family. You I'm restoring you fully to this family, um, which is what God does when we when we come back, when we come to Jesus, we receive a robe, we receive the ring, we are part of the family of God, right? The father doesn't chase the son down when he leaves, though. And like, oh, please stay, please stay here, put your robe on, put your ring on, you know. It's interesting. I mean, God lets us, he lets us go astray. But when we when we come back, he he he restore he's looking for us, he's waiting for us to return.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

You know, and he restores us fully. So they have a huge party, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yep. We can pick back up in verse twenty five. It says, Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant, and he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him, and he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive, he was lost and is found. I think so often we look at this story and maybe we read the full thing, but we focus on the son who walked away. But I was actually I was trying out churches with a friend who had moved. She's goes to FSU, and I was staying with her and was trying out churches with her, and we went to this one, which is the one she stayed at. It was really, really wonderful. But the sermon was on the older son in this story. It was on both, but it focused on the older son, and I have notes in my Bible from it. It said that one brother left in rebellion, but the other brother stayed in religion. Both were lost, and both were pursued by the father. I just love the language it even uses in verse 28. Like his father comes out of the house, comes out of the party, and begs him to come inside. And that's just like the older brother stopped outside the father's house and refused to go in. And he came out to him to beg him, but we don't see if he I mean, the story doesn't tell us that the brother goes in.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

It just stops. Yeah. It's so sad. When you were finished, when you were getting to the end of it, I was like, uh, it just it Jesus just stops the story, which makes me think that this story was Jesus told this story because the scribes and the Pharisees were standing there, and he was pointing out, like, you are you are the older son. Yeah. You know, and I think it's so easy for us who have been raised in the church, who have been raised, you know, that it's easy for people to to look down at people out outsiders, right? And and to get so caught up in our religion and lose sight of grace and lose lose sight of the fact that God is inviting this older son into a party. Like there is a there is an amazing party happening on the other side of the door, and the older son is so self-centered and believe and is so prideful, really. He's like, he's like, I did this, I worked for you, I, I, I, I. And he, if he would just turn around and be grateful that his brother is back, he could be part of this amazing party. He could go inside and eat the fatted calf. He could go, you know, and he could have had this fatted calf by himself at any point, but he didn't because he never asked. Yeah, and he was so for focused on his working, working, working, working, which is what I think a lot of Christians do, is they we're just kind of works-based. Oh, I have to do all the right things. But we miss out on the party. Like, Jesus came to give us life and life to the full. You know, it should there should be joy in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

It's so sad, also, like when he's talking, when the son is talking in verse 30, he says, When this son of yours came, he doesn't even consider him a brother, which is interesting because the brother had said, I'm not worthy to be called your son, I'm not worthy to be in this family. And the father is like responds in grace and responds in restoring him, but then his brother responds with like, Yeah, you're not, and I wish you were gone, and I wish like you get essentially what you deserve, and just completely is resentful of the grace that his father gives.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

I just had a thought of I wonder if if I'm ever sharing this story during a club talk, like the phrase at the end, maybe is um, are you in the party? To ask kids like, are you are you know, or even people on this podcast, like, are you in the party?

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Are you are you the younger son who's been restored, or are you, you know, the like the people, the other people who are excited and celebrating, you know, or are you sitting outside sulking because you think you're better than everybody else? I probably wouldn't say that, but but are you in the party? Yeah, you know. Awesome. Well, hey, let me pray. Thanks for being here. Jesus, thank you so much for this time. I thank you for Emily. I thank you just that we have the opportunity to do this together, Lord. Um, I thank you for your word that um that we can read to help us understand more about your character and the love that you have for us, Lord. And um, and I do pray for for us and for everybody out there, Lord, that um that you would help us to be people who are repentant for the sin in our lives, Lord, um, and that we receive your grace. Um, we acknowledge your death and resurrection so that we can have life and life to the full, both here and now and for all of eternity. And um we just lift up everyone who's out there, just pray that you would bless their lives, Lord, that you would um help us all to glorify you in all that we do. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Amen.