Contextualization – Excel Still More

Summary of my sermon, based on Luke 15:11-31. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto on March 22, 2026.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of Jesus’s most well-known stories. It is a beautiful picture of repentance and salvation, often taught in Sunday school from the time we are young. But because it is so popular, we sometimes miss the complete picture. To truly grasp the weight of this parable, we have to look past the familiar story and understand the context in which Jesus told it.

In Luke 15:1-2, tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus, and the Pharisees grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Tax collectors were considered traitors who defrauded their fellow Jews for the Roman Empire. The group called “sinners” included those living in obvious moral failure, but it also included the poor, sick, and lame—people deemed ritually unclean by their circumstances. Instead of helping them find restoration through the law of Moses, the Pharisees simply excluded them. Jesus told this parable as a direct response to their self-righteous gatekeeping.

Jesus begins with a scandalous premise: a younger son demands his share of the inheritance. In first-century Jewish culture, this was not just asking for an early allowance; it was essentially saying, “Father, I wish you were dead. I want your stuff, but I don’t want a relationship with you.” Shockingly, the father agrees and divides his livelihood. The son liquidates his assets—causing a massive, public economic blow to the family—and squanders it in reckless living. When a severe famine hits, he reaches absolute rock bottom. He hires himself out to feed pigs, an incredibly shameful job for a Jew, and becomes so starving he longs to eat the pig slop.

Coming to his senses, the son realizes his father’s hired servants live better than he does. He decides to return, hoping merely to be accepted as a slave. But verse 20 tells us that while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. The father had been watching the road, longing for his son’s return. Filled with compassion, the father runs—an undignified and shameful act for an elderly patriarch—and embraces his dirty, pig-smelling son. By giving him the best robe, a ring, and shoes, the father takes the son’s public shame upon himself and completely restores him to the family. They kill the fatted calf and celebrate, illustrating the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

If Jesus stopped there, it would be a perfect story of grace. But He introduces a curveball: the older brother. Hearing the music, the older son refuses to go inside. By refusing his expected role as a host in the celebration, the older brother brings a fresh wave of public shame upon his father. When the father graciously comes out to entreat him, the older son angrily refers to his sibling not as his brother, but as “this son of yours.” He reveals that he, too, only wanted what the father’s estate could give him, not a true relationship with the father. Jesus was holding up a mirror to the scribes and Pharisees. They were the older brother—outwardly obedient, but inwardly distant, judgmental, and refusing to celebrate the lost being found.

This leaves us with a sobering warning about how we react when we hear about an unbeliever getting saved. It is easy to respond with skepticism, especially if it is someone famous or someone with a very messy past. We might cross our arms and say, “Let’s wait and see if it’s real.” But responding with skepticism betrays an unbelief in the power of the gospel itself. If we doubt God’s power to save the worst of sinners, how can we confidently trust His power to save us?

Salvation is from God alone. Let us guard our hearts against the cynical attitude of the older brother. Instead, let us choose to rejoice—just as the angels do—whenever a lost soul finally comes home.

Summary of my sermon, based on Luke 15:1-10. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto on March 8, 2026.

Today, we are looking at Luke 15, which contains some of the best-known teachings of Jesus, including the parable of the prodigal son. However, before getting to that famous story, Jesus tells two shorter parables that perfectly set the stage: the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. These two parables provide essential insights into evangelism and what it truly means to seek the lost. To understand them, we first have to understand the situation that prompted Jesus to tell them.

Luke tells us that tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus, and the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying that He receives sinners and eats with them. Jesus was speaking directly against the religious leaders of His day who were ignoring and ostracizing entire groups of people. Tax collectors were despised as corrupt traitors who extorted their fellow Jews on behalf of the Roman Empire. The group labeled “sinners” included those living in overt moral failure, but it also included people who were ritually impure due to sickness or disability. Instead of helping these marginalized people find restoration through the grace of God, the Pharisees acted as gatekeepers, completely shunning them.

Unfortunately, this holier-than-thou attitude can still be found in some churches today. There is sometimes a bias that assumes people who look, dress, or speak differently do not belong. But Jesus made His mission clear: it is the sick who need a physician, not the healthy. A church must be a place of healing for those on the margins of society. I remember ministering to a homeless man in Fort McMurray who used to sleep inside bank ATM vestibules to survive the brutal winter. When he came to our church, he clearly did not fit the mold of a typical youth group member, but we welcomed him, ministered to him, and shared the gospel with him. While we must maintain a robust, correct theology, we must never become an exclusive social club that loses its heart for the lost.

Jesus illustrates the effort required to reach the lost through His parables. He describes a shepherd who leaves his ninety-nine sheep in the open country to go after the one that is missing, not knowing how far he will have to travel. He also describes a woman who loses a single coin in her home, lighting a lamp and diligently sweeping the house until she finds it. Both stories emphasize the immense effort and distance we must be willing to cover to seek out lost souls.

Today, that distance is rarely physical. With the world coming to our cities, the distance we must bridge is often one of worldview and culture. Sharing the gospel effectively requires us to understand how different people perceive sin and salvation. In a guilt-based society, like the classical West, sin is breaking a moral law, and Jesus pays our legal debt. In an honor-based culture, which represents much of the world, sin is public shame and broken relationship, and Jesus takes our shame to restore us to honor. In a fear-based society, sin is enslavement to dark forces, and Jesus conquers the powers of darkness to set us free. The gospel never changes, but we must put in the hard work of contextualizing it so people can truly understand their need for grace.

When the shepherd finds his sheep and the woman finds her coin, they immediately call their friends and neighbors to rejoice. Jesus tells us that, in the exact same way, there is immense joy before the angels of God over one single sinner who repents. To the world, one sheep or one coin might not seem incredibly valuable, but to God, every lost soul is a profound treasure. As believers, we must dedicate our lives and our churches to seeking out that treasure, putting in the diligent effort to bridge the gap and share the restorative love of Christ with everyone around us.

Tag: Contextualization

The Relentless Father