The Older Brother

An acknowledgement: Tim Keller’s book, “The Prodigal God” provided the needed background information on the older brother. You can watch the Prodigal God by Tim Keller on rightnowmedia.org (you will need a password to log in- just text me your email at trsouth@juno.com)

There is a disadvantage to just reading a blog versus  getting the full blown impact of our “Encounter Sundays”. Our Encounter Sundays are just that …. They are intentionally designed to have some reflection time and to respond to God in a creative way. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of planning goes into our other Sunday morning services but on this Sunday I don’t preach. I just give an introduction to the focus of the day – the rest is  up to God. This morning is filled with scripture, music, and just you listening to His spirit. So, if you can, think of every chorus or hymn you know about the love of God and start singing it. Read every scripture you know about the love of God. I have listed a few here to get you started:

Ephesians 3:17-19 (NLT)

Romans 5:6 (NLT)

John 3:16 (NIV)

Romans 8:38-39 (NLT)

Romans 8:35-39 (MSG)

There are tons more. I encourage you go to http://www.biblegateway.com/ and do word search with the word “love”. You will get an long list of verses that have the word love in them. Reading this scriptures alone will change your life.

Here was the focus of the morning.

Read Luke 15:11-32 (just click on the verse if you want to read it)

Most people are familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son.  It is kind of like the song Amazing Grace. When you start singing that song it seems like everybody knows it. The same is true with the story of the Prodigal Son. If you have gone to church for any length of time you are very familiar with the parable of the  prodigal son.

Traditionally in this story, we focus on the younger brother. He wanted half of his estate. His father gave it to him.. He spent his money on prositutes and various other things you do with a lot of money. You can say that the younger brother was on self-discovery trip. He wanted to get away from his father and spread his wings and find himself. After he spent everything he had he found himself eating pig slop and working as a hired hand. As the story goes, the younger brother  comes back and his father runs to him and embraces him.

A couple of things you need to know about the Jewish culture. A father never ran to anyone. Everyone came to the father. The second thing to note here his that the younger son would normally have to work his way back and earn his father’s love. These notes are crucial to understanding the story because the hearers of this story would have been dumbfounded that the father ran to the child.  When the father embraced him and through him a party (which meant everyone was invited), this was unheard of.  He  immediately became  a regular part of the family without having to earn his way back into the family. This too would have dumbfounded them. Jesus had their complete attention.

This would have been a great ending to a great parable. But Jesus thens turns the parable and talks about  the older brother. If you know the story, you know that the older brother was not happy. His father (instead of enjoying the party) is out talking with the older son trying to convince him to come and join in the celebration. The older brother refuses. We learn here that not only was the younger brother lost but the older brother was lost too. The older brother was guilty of self-righteousness. He was focused on himself and refused the father’s invitation to come in and join the celebration. He was so bitter that his heart grew hard towards the father. The bottom line is that he refused to repent of his self righteousness. You see, the older brother  was right when  he said,  “I have obeyed you. I have done everything you have asked of me but yet you wouldn’t even give me a goat to have a party with my friends.” The older brother was caught up in the good things he was doing and thought he deserved what the younger brother was willing to receive. The older brother needed to repent of every good thing he had done and turn to the father. The older brother (like the pharisees) refused and grew bitter towards the father.

Another thing  to understand about the Jewish listeners to this story is they expected the older brother to go out and find his brother to keep the family together. If the younger brother was lost it was up to the older brother to go find him. Why didn’t the older brother go out and look for him?

In the the two previous parables that Jesus told in Luke 15 before this parable, he told the parable of the lost coin and the lost sheep. In both parables they went looking for the object and found it. In this parable, the prodigal son was lost but the older brother never went to go find him. Tim Keller suggest that the reason that Jesus told it like this is so that they would long for the true older brother. The true older brother is Jesus.

Jesus does go looking for the lost. He is asking those who are on a trip of self discovery to repent and  come home. He is asking the self-righteous to repent and come home.

A final part of the story that you might not be familiar with is the fact that when the younger son came home the father split the remaining estate with his oldest and youngest son. Ouch! The youngest son got the finest of robes and a ring for his finger. This is something the true older brother (Jesus) deserved.

Instead what did the true older brother receive? Instead of a ring on his finger – he got a crown of thorns. Instead of getting the finest robes – he was stripped naked.

The true older brother paid a heavy price. Why? Because he loves you and he wants to keep the family together.