This is a carrot to the Pharisees and a stick to the sinners. The Pharisees are right to uphold the law and the sinners are wrong to have sinned. The importance of upholding the law is never mentioned as part of the parable.
That is a good insight, but I think that's only half of what we're seeing here. It is true that Jesus isn't faulting them for keeping the law, because it is a good thing to follow God's law. What he is faulting them for, as we see in verses 1-2, is their attitude of holding the law above the need to reach out in love to those who are outside the law. We see Jesus articulate this elsewhere:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former."" (Matthew 23:23)
Jesus reaffirms the law, but not the practice of a heartless legalism. We get a hint of this later in something the elder son says to his father:
"And he answering, said to his father: Behold, for so many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment, and yet thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends."(Luke 15:29)
This is a subtle poke at the Pharisees being addressed by Jesus that they kept the law punctiliously, but without compassion for their younger brothers who have strayed from the faith, but are trying to return to the Father.
Most priests prepare a homily on this in a kind of Pharisees are villains angle. I don't think this parable actually does that.
I've often heard that too, and I think it's wrong-headed. Except when certain members of the Pharisee party are clearly portrayed as being jealous or participating in the Jewish leaderships efforts to destroy Jesus by bringing false charges against him before Pilate, the Pharisees are not necessarily villains. They are instead portrayed as devout men, but who have fallen into a particular mindset when it comes to faithfully following the law of Moses. This mindset has led some of them into legal rigidity even to the point of losing sight of an authentic love for God and love for neighbor. This is what often leads them into conflict with Jesus and is the occasion for him telling this parable.
Very interesting. I’ve been thinking about what you’ve written. I think like my priest you pass the middle a bit quickly to get to the end and I agree with what you wrote. We understand that the defect being shown in the elder son is a lack of love.
I think your example of Matthew 23 shows that Jesus does not make a distinction between the law and love. He calls out leaders who like luxury and prestige and who are false men of God.
The Pharisees of Luke 15 are different.
They are like the elder son. They are the sheep who never strayed and the coins which weren’t lost. Their problem is that they’ve missed the point of the law. Jesus is not chastising them. He seems more to be pointing out that happiness is within their reach.