Kettle & the Pot – Part 1

But he answered and said to his father, “Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.” [Luke 15:29-30]

There’s this old saying from back in the day, “You ever hear of the kettle calling the pot black?” It is a retort to someone who launches criticism at another, for something he himself is prone to do. Or perhaps the gainsayer doesn’t do the same thing he is criticizing, but he is known for doing much worse.

There are a good many kettles going around nowadays, and it was no different in Jesus’ day. Luke 15 is an excellent example of this. The chapter contains three parables by Jesus, each one teaching the selfsame lesson. Let’s list the three:

1. the lost sheep
2. the lost coin
3. the prodigal son

There is one additional point to be made before proceeding. The third and final parable, the prodigal son, adds a twist to the lesson being taught. It will be the emphasis of our study in Luke 15.
First we need the context in which the three parables occurred. The context is to be garnered from verses 1-2.

Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Why did Jesus teach the lesson intimated in the three parables? Answer: there were two classes of people around Him at that time. On the one side were “the tax collectors and the sinners”, and they were flocking to Jesus to hear the Word of God and receive blessings from Him. On the other hand were “the Pharisees and the scribes”.

Today we might equate those two classes of people with low-lifes on the one hand and proper religious folks on the other. The low-lifes live for themselves and do whatever gives them pleasure. Their moral tank is on empty. The proper religious folks go to church and consider themselves moral, upstanding pillars of the community. Their moral tank overflows, or so they would say anyway.
The religious folks didn’t like the fact that this upstart carpenter Jesus was getting all the attention. He never went to their seminary, you see. How dare He think Himself a teacher of the Bible! They viewed Jesus as competition. They were the religious experts. Who did Jesus think He was?
To make matters even worse, those who flocked to Jesus and made Him look impressive by the number of followers He had, why, they were the religiously uneducated and Biblically illiterate common folk. If Jesus really knew God and understood His Word aright, He would know better than to associate with such riffraff. In the eyes of the religious leaders, that in itself proved Jesus wasn’t from God.
So Jesus told these three parables to explain how God actually did view the tax collectors and sinners. But we are out of time again, so we must wait until the morrow to continue this tale. See you then.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...