I have been reading a great book by Timothy Kellar called "The Prodigal God" (you can see a short video introduction by the author here). The book centres around the parable we commonly call "The Prodigal Son", but Kellar explains how a better title would be "The Two Lost Sons". Both sons in this story have rebelled against the father's love. We tend to focus on the younger son who demands his share of the inheritance and squanders it on "wild" living. But the elder son also rebels. He refuses the father's invitation to join the celebration of the younger brother's return. He proclaims "All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends" (Luke 15:29) and in doing so, he exposes his heart. He does not obey because he loves his father and his father loves him, he obeys because of what he wants to get from his father. His rebellion is much subtler than the younger son's, but no more displeasing to God. Both of these young men needed the grace offered by the father, but only the younger one recognized it.
My friends, it is all too easy for us to slip into the place of that older brother. That place where we rely on our own righteousness, our own good deeds, and become our own saviors and fail to recognize that we still need the grace of God and the sacrifice of His Son to save us from our sin.
Another interesting thing about this parable is that Jesus tells it as the third in a series of parables in Luke 15. They are all about something that is "lost": the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In the first two someone goes looking for that which is lost. The shepherd searches for his sheep and the woman her coin. But no one searches for the lost son. When our "younger brothers" are lost, my friends, it is our job to seek them out and lead them back home. That's what a true "elder brother" would do. That is what our elder brother, Jesus, has done for us.
Grace and peace be yours in abundance,
Bruce
God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
(Luke 18:13)
Lord,
Make my younger brother's way back to you
as smooth as it can be and
as rough as it has to be.
Amen
(adapted from http://www.inspirational-prayers.com/prodigal-son.html)
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