The Elder Brother's Choice | 9th after Trinity

by The Rev. Benjamin Bernier

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The Elder Brother's Choice

The parable of the prodigal Son touches us very deeply. It is the story of a father that loses and finds a Son. It is not uncommon for good families to lose members to sin. This is always a very painful experience. God used this very painful and common human experience to reveal his heart as a loving and merciful father.

There are many interrelated themes running through this parable. We see the foolishness of the younger son, then his process of repentance and return, We see the Father's response and then the elder brother's response, and finally the Father's response to the elder brother. Over all one thing comes very clear; The father answered both the foolishness of the young son and the self-righteousness of the elder son with the same compassion, mercy and love. The Father loved both his sons. Mercy and love was the foundation of his relationship with both of them. The same for the one that went away and returned as for the one that always stayed home obeying.

This parable is the third in a sequence of parables, The Lost sheep and the lost coin were told first in response to the Pharisees' complain that Jesus received sinners and ate with them. Jesus rejoiced when sinners return to God. He taught the Pharisees their need to do the same. They did not. So he gave them a third parable. It begins with the foolish actions of the younger son:

He said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ The Father divided his property between the two sons. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all, and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

He went to a far away country. Breaking lose from the constrains of love and duty to his father. But not everything worked as planned.
14 when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

His dream of rebellion, freedom and pleasure led him to hunger and bondage.
This is an image of the wages of sin. The son's life came to be of less value than that of unclean pigs. Here we have a graphic representation of the true nature of sin and its effects upon life. We may dream about enjoying the sinful world, but hunger, uncleanness and death is the only thing that lies at the end of the road of perdition.

Yet, there are good news in this parable. All the suffering helped this young man to come to his senses. It is God’s mercy which allows us to receive in this life a little bit of the consequences of our sins that we may come to our senses before it is too late to return. So

17 ". . .when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."’ 20 And he arose and came to his father.

The son came to himself. He saw the light in the midst of darkness. And decided to return. But, he did not expect anything but to be a servant in his father's house. This made perfect sense for he knew he had no right, nor merit to deserve anything from his father. Even a hired servant, with no familiar claim to fellowship with the Father was better than the condition he found himself.

So the young man arose, came to his father and expressed his repentance. But he was taken by surprise. The Father saw him first. He was expecting his return:

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

The Father needed no messengers to tell him about the return of his son. The Father was watching, waiting, hoping for the return of his son. So, when the son returned he received him with his arms spread and without a word of reproach. He did not receive his son as a servant. Rather He took his son, dressed him, put a ring in his hand, made him again partaker of his wealth, He dressed him with the best robe, he put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And then he kills the fat calf to eat and celebrate.

This is the heart of our Heavenly Father towards us repentant sinners. This is the third time in which the repentance of a sinner ends with rejoicing and a feasting celebration.

He said
23 . . . let us eat, and be merry:
24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

This could be a suitable end for this wonderful story, but there is still one more important development; what about the elder son? How will he respond?

25 "Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’.

Why, was he angry? look what he said. I have serve you all this years, obeying your commands and you have not rewarded me; This guy does everything wrong and you reward him. What was he thinking? In his min his relationship with the father was based upon his performance. He believed that he was enjoying the benefits of being a son because of his works. He felt self-righteous, and, of course, by comparing his actions with the actions of his brother, it was easy for him to set himself in a higher stance. Saying: I am not like him, I am better than him. And you should treat me accordingly. I have a right to claim your love towards me and it should be different to the way you are treating him. This is self-righteousness at work.

The older Son was offended by his brother's return and his Father's response. I don't know about you, but I can easily sympathize with the hurt feelings of the older son. I think we all can, in fact too easily.
We say, I can understand him, if it had been me I could see my self, refusing to go in, feeling miserable for this turn of events. Frustrated that things did not work out as I thought they should have.

The young brother acted like a fool, he asked for his inheritance before time, he spend all his money in terrible vices. Now he returns and the Father makes a party for him! Is that right?

It does not make sense from a human point of view, the elder brothers appears to be right. He had the natural human response to the sinful behavior of others and their repentance. That is why we need to be careful. Our natural fallen response to sin and repentance is not the best.

The Older brother represents the attitude of the self-righteous Pharisees who complained against Jesus being a friend to sinners. Jesus received them and ate with them as if they were not sinners. He treated Pharisees and publicans on an equal footing. He went to the house of one as he went to the house of the other and ate.

For the Pharisees, as for the older brother this attitude was unacceptable. The father's response was an offense to their pride. That is why this parable is so important for us. We have not gone away to a distant land to commit obvious public sins. We are the ones that remain at the house, staying and obeying the father. We are the one exposed to the dangers of self-righteousness. We are the religious ones.

The Pharisees, the elder brother, and even the younger son all agreed in one thing. A repentant sinner has no reason to consider himself worthy of anything but becoming a slave in the father's house. A repentant sinner is worthless. But God sees the same reality in another light. He sees repentant sinners as precious, invaluable. He love sinners. He sees the lost sheep and precious coin, found. He sees the dead son returning to life. He rejoices for one sinner who repents more than for 99 who need no repentance.

Every body else saw the situation in the same light. If that light was all there is there would be no hope for us. Because we are all sinners. If repentant sinners are worthless in God's eyes, then we are worthless in God's eyes. But the father has a better Eyes. Eyes of Love, mercy and compassion. The light of the Gospel forgiveness and reconciliation, assures us that mercy triumphs over judgment, forgiveness over sin and life triumphs over death and.

This is good news for us.
God sees us as the Father of this story saw the returning son.
Likewise, we must learn to look at repentant sinners in the same way Jesus did. Because with the measure that we measure others we will be measured.
If we do not look other's failures with compassion, we will not be looked at with compassion. If we have no mercy, we will receive no mercy.
If we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven.

The story ends with the final response of the father :
‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.

The unsuspected secret covered before the eyes of the elder son and the Pharisees, is that God's compassion toward repentant sinners is greater than human understanding. God values repentant sinners more than anything else in this world. Think about that. We are his sons returning to life.

Life in the father's house is based on compassion, mercy, forgiveness, love and grace, not upon self-righteous merit. If it was a matter of merit the house would be empty. But the house is not empty. The house is full, and in celebration, the doors are open, because the father's love and compassion is the life and joy of the house.

There is still one more question the parable does not answer. How do you think the elder brother finally responded? Did he stayed out, or did he come in and embrace his brother in forgiveness and reconciliation?
We do not know. I guess God left that question open, the end of this story, so that we may write our own ending to complete this story.

What will the elder brother do? Is for us to answer. What will we chose? Compassion and mercy or self-righteousness and judgment.
We are the elder brother. We live in the house, All the things of the father are ours. Now is our turn to respond.

May God deliver us from hardness of heart and help us to extend to others the same compassion, mercy, forgiveness and grace that we have received from our loving Father. Amen.

Let us pray:

Grant to us, Lord, we bessech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.