The older son continues to serve his Father devotedly, follow
his Father’s plans, work in the things required to make their holdings
profitable, and revolve his life around his Father and their estate. He is as
central to the story as the younger brother is.
The younger brother represents the “sinners” who were
flocking to Jesus’ ministry in repentance and faith. They were the “lost” who
had been “found”, as the two preceding parables also communicate. They were
lost sheep coming home to their shepherd, lost coins returning to God’s treasured
possession, lost sons returning to their Father.
The older brother represents the religious elite, the
Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Rabbis, anyone who was putting their faith in
their obedience to the Law, rather than the gracious gospel of the Messiah.[2] These people, clearly identified as religious
hypocrites in many of Jesus’ teachings, had a distinctive view of their own
relationship to their Father, along with a distinctive view of all the “sinners”
in relationship to God. This led them to believe that Jesus could not possibly
be their Messiah, since he appeared to approve of prostitutes, tax collectors,
and drunks, and consistently showed up the religious leaders as fools.
In this parable, Jesus summarized the older brother’s
response to the younger brother’s return like this: “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. But when this son of
yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the
fattened calf for him!’”[3]
The Older Brother had an issue with entitlement, as he was
sure his behavior warranted a better response than his inheritance-squandering
little brother received. He did not understand that his Father’s focus was on
the restoration of relationship, not a trophy wall for good conduct.
Now, to get to the point, while the imagery of a loving
Father longing for his sinful little rebels to come home stirs my heart, I
relate much more to the prideful, self-centered, good-works-oriented older
brother. In a sense, we could say that
the whole Prodigal Son parable was more for their sake (the prideful religious
do-gooders) than the encouragement of all the prodigals who had already
returned to the Father through their faith in Jesus.
The older brother represents all the good church people who
think that they form the inner core, and the “sinners” of faith are the fringe.
These are the ones who resent a new Christian getting accolades for an “amazing”
testimony of conversion, while their record of good service goes largely
unnoticed.
I could go on with examples, but I am really trying to describe
more of a feeling. It is the feeling of injustice that someone else gets some
kind of honor, or privilege, or status they clearly do not deserve due to a
history of bad behavior, or bad association, while good ol’ me gets nothing at
all.
It really all comes down to an issue with the justice of
God. It is a distorted, eyes-half-closed belief system. On one side, it sees
God’s gracious blessings on the poor in spirit as an injustice. They simply do
not deserve what they are getting. There is something seriously wrong with God
if he does such good things to people who have treated him in such bad ways.
On the other side, there is the belief that God simply does
not give enough credit where credit is due. This prideful blindness sees every
act of good behavior as if magnified through the Hubble space telescope. It has
no reference to their own sinfulness, their failure to attain the true
righteousness of God, or the myriad of mistakes and failures that litter their
journey through life. They simply feel that God notices the wrong people, gives
credit where it is not due, and constantly frustrates their goals of attaining
acceptance through performance.
While I heartily endorse the whole-counsel-of God preaching
that includes calling the church to “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and
peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart,”[4] I also must accept any conviction of the word and the Spirit of God
that exposes a law-based, good-works mindset in the church.
Yes,
some believers are doing better than others at living out the “obedience of faith”.[5]
Yes, there are distinctions in levels of maturity. Yes, there are necessary “factions” between those in the church
who are sinning and those who are obeying “in
order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.”[6]
But, as soon anyone turns to a law-based, “I’m-better-because-I’m-gooder”
mindset, we must run afresh to big brother Paul so we can feel his horrified
perplexity[7] at
people turning to a “different gospel”[8]
that tries to mesh grace and good works into one message, and present any particular
group in the church as the best performers of the will of God.
If
I haven’t been clear, what I’m trying to say is, this is all about me (and all
the “good Christians” I represent). This is all about me as an individual
Christian, one who has depended too long and hard on good behavior, welcoming the convicting work of the word and
the Spirit of God, welcoming the double-edged sword that convicts and comforts
all those who receive it.
This
is all about “good Christians” surrendering to the work of God that makes us
feel that our poverty of spirit is every bit as impoverished as that of anyone
else who has ever fallen before the cross of Jesus Christ in repentance and
faith. This is about well-behaved church-goers feeling as much mournfulness
over our sinful condition as anyone else we have secretly (or not) judged as the
“chief of sinners”.[9]
This is about prideful, self-dependent religious zealots crying themselves into
the meekness of acknowledging that we are just as unable to save ourselves as
those wretched prostitutes, tax collectors, and drunks.[10]
And, it is about longstanding members who have grown up in the church feeling
the same hunger and thirst for righteousness as the worst of sinners have ever
felt on their journey to Christ.[11]
Today
I am considering all the things Jesus accomplished for us through his death,
primarily as identified by the twenty-eight worshipers of Revelation 5. There
they sang this new song: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you
were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and
language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to
our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”[12]
If that is what Jesus did for me, and for all the other
sinners-turned-saints-by-grace that are in the church, then I want to
experience, enjoy, and nurture fellowship with every believer in Jesus Christ I
ever meet (in person or online!), without any sarky filters telling me I am
better or worse than they are.
All believers in Jesus Christ are part of the “one new man” Jesus has created out of
the most diverse enemies of Jews and Gentiles.[13] To live worthy of this new identity,[14] I seek to humbly and eagerly “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”[15]The bond of peace is the cross of Christ that
levels the playing field so that all who come to Christ are sinners saved by
grace, saints who are set apart as holy unto the Lord through our experience of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. The unity of the Spirit is the Spirit’s activity of
uniting all believers into a maturing experience of our identity as this “one new man”, who is the body of
Christ.
Now that God has me turned in the right direction, my only
concern today is to keep in step with the Holy Spirit[16] however he chooses to work in me “both to will and to work for his good
pleasure”. If I do my part of working out my salvation with fear and
trembling, I can be sure that it will be a good day.
From my heart,
Monte
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Luke 15:11-32
[2]
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the
Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats
with them.’ So he told them this parable:” (Luke 15:1-3)
[3]
Luke 15:29-30
[4]
II Timothy 2:22
[5]
Romans 1:5
[6]
I Corinthians 11:19
[7]
Galatians 4:20
[8]
II Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6
[9]
Or “foremost” of sinners, as Paul described himself (I Timothy 1:15), which
actually applies to one of those good religious sinners, not those… you know… really
BAD ones!
[10]
This is a trilogy often used in the gospels to identify the sinners who were
repenting and entering the kingdom of heaven
through faith in Jesus Christ. Cf Matthew 11:19; 21:31,32; Luke 7:34;
[11]
Based on the Beatitudinal journey of Matthew 5:1-12
[12]
Revelation 5:9-10
[13]
Ephesians 2:15 and context
[14]
Ephesians 4:1
[15]
Ephesians 4:3
[16]
“25 If
we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become
conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5)
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