Luke 15:25-32

Luke 15:25-32 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! 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. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

What is the elder son all about? He probably believed in paying your way. If you do what is right, the payoff should come to you. If you are a good person, a responsible person, you should receive the reward. Logic says, the father should have killed the fattened calf for the good son, not the irresponsible one. Isn't that exactly what the parables on the talents are all about? Shouldn't those who work the hardest gain the biggest rewards? Those who don't work should receive little or nothing. Isn't this the way we in America think about our society? Good people, disciplined people, those who work hard, should get the payoff, not the irresponsible, the shiftless. This son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ We understand the elder son's anger. After all, he was the "good son," the profitable son, who obeyed his father without hesitation. Yet the father in the parable did not give his son even a young goat to celebrate with his friends. Of course, the eldest felt slighted, unappreciated. To him the world was turned upside down. But the father reminded him, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

Likewise, we who are Christians have already received the grace and mercy of the Lord; we are in the kingdom. We are the ninety-nine sheep, the nine coins, the eldest son. We are already experiencing the blessings of God and have received the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. At this very moment, we are sons and daughters of the Lord, possessing the full inheritance of the Father: eternal life. Fortunately, we do not need to find our way back to the Father, for we are already in him, and He in us. With such great blessings, we should readily welcome any wayward person to God's fold, even those who slip in at the last moment, those who never paid a tithe or carried the load of being a Christian in a dark and desperate world.

We should reject an elder son's attitude, for he did not really know or understand the goodness of the father, the depth of his grace and mercy. God is no respecter of persons; He loves sinners as much as He loves those in the fold. He loves the murderer, the rapist, and the Hitlers as much as He loves those in his household. God gave his beloved Son, the SONG AND JOY OF HEAVEN, FOR US including the worst among us. Paul said he was chief of sinners, for he persecuted the body of Christ, killed God's chosen ones. Nevertheless, God loved Paul with an everlasting love.

Therefore, we should put away our prejudices against the mass murderer who comes to Christ on Death Row. We should reject our resentful spirits when we see a formerly wicked person rejoicing because they experience the mercy of the Lord. We should rejoice with the guilty, with sinners who come home. We should rejoice with them because God rejoices over their redemption. God gave us the fruit of the Spirit, his talents, to serve him. Let those talents of love, mercy, goodness, and the like be multiplied in our lives, so the lost might find God. Let our God-given talents reveal the Father to sinners, leading them to repentance and the path towards home. As children of the kingdom, let us rejoice with the Father as He receives the lost into his presence. Definitely, let us throw off the elder brother's spirit as we praise God for his many blessings.