The Entitled Brother

For those who haven’t been here, the story so far is this – A son scandalously asks his still-living rich father for his half of the inheritance. Even more scandalously, the father gives it to him. The son does what you might expect from a young man – he goes and wastes it on wild living. He goes broke and wonders if his Dad might take him back as a servant so he could at least survive. He heads home, and we are all amazed as his Father not only takes him back but welcomes him lovingly with open arms and demands his servants throw a massive party with all the trimmings to celebrate the fact his lost son is back. Then we read that this son was only one of two, and we hear the account of his older brother:

Luke 15:25-32 GNB

(25) "In the meantime the older son was out in the field. On his way back, when he came close to the house, he heard the music and dancing.

(26) So he called one of the servants and asked him, 'What's going on?'

(27) 'Your brother has come back home,' the servant answered, 'and your father has killed the prize calf, because he got him back safe and sound.'

(28) The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in.

(29) But he spoke back to his father, 'Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends!

(30) But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!'

(31) 'My son,' the father answered, 'you are always here with me, and everything I have is yours.

(32) But we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.' "

Stop and think about this for a minute. Let me read v. 27-28 again.

(27) 'Your brother has come back home, and your father has killed the prize calf, because he got him back safe and sound.'

(28) The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house.

Say what? Here we have what should seem like an incredibly wonderful event. And the older son’s response? He was so angry he wouldn’t even go into the house. There’s one key thought I want us to think about together about these verses, and it’s this: This older brother missed out on a party because of his attitude.

Let’s jump back a bit in this account. What was the older son doing while the father was looking and worrying about his lost son? The older son was working. I think we start to see a warning sign here. It seems to me that the older son was out of touch with the father’s heart. It becomes clear as the story goes on that this was true. I don’t know about you, but it feels to me like he is like I am sometimes. Annoyed or angry about something, it seems it stewed up inside him just waiting for the chance to blow up. It’s clear that he felt he was worth far more than his younger brother. It’s clear that he felt this was because of all he did. Hear him say:

'Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends! But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!'

Stewing it over. “Look at how hard I work”. “Look at me – while Dad’s wasting his time waiting for that no good brother of mine, I’m at work. For HIM”. “I bet he doesn’t even appreciate what I do – he certainly never shows it”. Then he hears what happened, and he explodes. Can you relate to it?

Well, here’s a wondering. Do you ever feel this way about our Father God? Do you ever find yourself thinking like this:.

I’m so busy for God. I’m not like (person X) who wastes all their time doing (thing x). I (insert ministry here). I tithe. I come to church every week. (By the way, the older son probably suffered from what we might call selective memory – I suspect his father had given him plenty, but in the moment he forgot. We might be the same with our memories of how wonderfully we’ve served God).