One parable, three pictures—tragic distance

In the last study on Luke 15, we come to the point of the parable. We have seen the dark colours of miserable sin, the bright colours of sovereign mercy, and the warm colours of rejoicing love, but the parable itself is a response to the Pharisees who murmured because Jesus received sinners and ate with them. They enter the parable in the portrait of the older brother, in his distance, anger and resentment, still exposed by the steady compassion of the father who receives sinners.