Submitted by admin on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 11:18am
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For the past couple of weeks we've been looking at a story Jesus told about two brothers—a younger brother who was rebellious and an older brother who was righteous. We've been using "The Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhatten.
We saw how the younger brother chafed under his father's authority. He wanted to run his own life, call his own shots, go his own way. So he did something unthinkable in that society. He demanded his share of the inheritance before his father had died, essentially saying, "I wish you were dead."
With his prodigal (or wasteful) lifestyle, he blew his inheritance on wild living. He learned the lesson we all need to learn: our choices always have consequences. So he ended up destitute and famished, working in a pig pen—until he "came to his senses": which means he repented by changing his mind, humbling himself, and returning home.
Next week we're going to look at what can happen when we return home to a loving, heavenly Father. But before we get to that, we're going to take time to consider the older brother in Jesus' story.
[DRAMA SKIT]
On the surface he appears to be the model son. He is, in fact, everything his younger brother is not:
- His younger brother rebels, but he is responsible, respectful, dependable, hard-working, and obedient.
- His younger brother defies and disrespects their father, but he works hard to honor and please his father.
- His younger brother was always cutting corners and goofing off, but he does his chores cheerfully.
- His younger brother complains and gripes about family rules, but not him—he follows every one.
By every standard of measurement, it seems, the older brother is the perfect son. It's not until we come to the end of Jesus' story, that we begin to see how the older brother has his own issues—problems different than the younger brother's, but problems nonetheless. And they were there all along, buried beneath the surface.
Luke 15:25-32
Luke 15:1-2 tells us there were two kinds of people listening to Jesus when he told this story: those who were considered religious and those who were considered irreligious. Tax collectors and sinners, the irreligious, were looked down on in society, scorned, and denounced—and the younger, rebellious brother in Jesus' story represented them. Pharisees and the teachers of the scriptural law, on the other hand, were looked up to and respected as being very religious—and the older, righteous brother in Jesus' story represented them.
In his book, The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller says that Jesus told this story primarily to send a message to the religious people. The "lost" people had been gathering in increasing numbers to hear Jesus, and that upset the religious establishment.
So Jesus tells three stories in Luke 15, each about something lost being found—a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. In each story, when the lost is found, the friends and neighbors are called to celebrate: "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep...coin [...son]."
While the stories are similar, the third one differs in an important way. It tells about someone who cannot celebrate—someone who refuses to celebrate: the older brother. Keller says that Jesus told this story to speak to those who were looking at the riff-raff following Jesus, thinking to themselves, "How dare Jesus reach out to sinners like that... These people never come to our services! Why would they be drawn to Jesus's teaching? He couldn't be declaring the truth to them, as we do. He must be just telling them what they want to hear!" [p 9]
Not only are these older brother, religious types unwilling and unable to celebrate, they are offended and shocked to think that such despicable, notorious sinners can so easily be let off the hook. Keller writes:
It is in response to their attitude that Jesus begins to tell the parable... [It] takes an extended look at the soul of the elder brother, and climaxes with a powerful plea for him to change his heart. [p 9]
The targets of this story are not "wayward sinners" but religious people who do everything the Bible requires. Jesus is pleading not so much with immoral outsiders as with moral insiders. He wants to show them their blindness, narrowness, and self-righteousness, and how these things are destroying both their own souls and the lives of the people around them. [p 10]
How does Keller come to this conclusion? Well, first because of the context of Luke 15—the two types of people who were listening to Jesus teach. But also because of repeated confrontations Jesus has with the religious establishment.
Over and over in the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see how those who worked so hard to please God became upset with Jesus and his view of God's unconditional love and grace. This story is just one example, but there are many others.
- Jesus spoke of Elijah, the OT prophet, who didn't go to a Hebrew widow during the famine but went instead to the widow of Zarephath. He recalled how Elisha, another prophet, didn't heal any lepers in Israel but did heal Namaan from Syria. When he taught that outsiders could receive God's grace, they recoiled at the very idea. "All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this." (Luke 4:25-28).
- Another time we read: "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable..." (Luke 18:9)
- Whenever Jesus confronted them, they got it. "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them." (Matt 21:45)
- In the end, Jesus' confrontations with the religious people were what precipitated the crucifixion.
In the story of the two sons, Jesus speaks to two sides of the human nature—on the one hand, we are all rebellious, like the younger brother. We want our own way. We want freedom from rules and authority. "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way..." (Isaiah 53:6)
But on the other hand, we can be like the older brother. We know we should be better and we need to try harder. So we think if we're good enough, then we can earn our way to heaven. We feel like God must grade on a curve, and all we have to do is score better than average. I may not be perfect, but at least I'm not like that guy! One story captures that sentiment in a vivid way:
10 Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector. 11 The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: "I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don't sin, I don't commit adultery, 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income." 13 But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, "O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner." 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored. (Luke 18:10-14, NLT)
Jesus tells us about the older brother to address this religious spirit, which is in all of us. The older brother was upright, moral, hard-working—and he was disgusted by a brother who could not "get his act together." He looked down on him. He enjoyed comparing himself to his rebellious brother, because it always made him look good.
We see the same kind of attitudes today seen in those who are legalistic, judgmental, and proud.
People would say to him, "What have you heard from your brother?" And he would say, "Are you kidding? We've heard nothing since the day he took the money and walked out. He doesn't care about his family or his father. He thinks only of himself. From a loser like that what do you expect?"
We know the older son loved to criticize and judge his younger brother, just like the Pharisees loved to condemn sinners. But then we discover that the older son was deeply offended and extremely angry by the way his father treated his undeserving brother.
He is furious with his father because he reinstated his brother back into the family. In fact, he's so angry that he's willing to disgrace his father publicly in front of the whole community. He makes a big scene and refuses to come in to the feast.
This was not a small deal, to refuse an invitation from a prominent community leader. This was a huge event! You don't kill the best calf for nothing. The fattened calf was saved only for the biggest celebrations a family could ever have—a wedding, for instance. And when you refuse an invitation to such a celebration, it is an affront and an insult to the host. No one in the community would have dare turn down an invitation like that!
But the oldest son did.
There is great irony here, because the son who had always done everything his father told him to do is now refusing to listen to his request. The son who had always been with the father is now refusing to go with him into the feast. The son who had always respected and honored his father is now disrespecting and resisting his authority.
But the irony doesn't stop there, because while the oldest son is on the outside of the house angry and arguing with his father, his younger brother—the rebellious prodigal—is inside the house wearing the best robe in the house, with a ring on his finger, waited on by the servants, eating barbecue ribs, licking his fingers, drinking, enjoying the music and dancing.
The Pharisees and everyone listening to Jesus' story saw the irony! Everything in this story is upside down! The one who should be punished is rewarded, and the one who should be rewarded can't go into the celebration because he's standing on principle! Where is the justice? The sense of decency and order?
The older brother won't listen to his father. He's still stuck comparing himself with his brother. "Look!" he says, a very disrespectful way to address his father. "Look you! All these years I've been slaving away for you. In all that time I've never once refused to do a single thing you told me to do. But did you ever give me a party? Did you even give me a small goat to share with my friends? No! But when this son of yours comes back after wasting the family inheritance on prostitutes and wild living, you kill the best calf for a party?! You've wasted the best we have on your worst son!"
The Pharisees listening to Jesus' story could hardly wait to hear how the father would respond to the impeccable logic of the older son. They knew he was right. What was happening was unconscionable. Unheard of. The older brother had worked his fingers to the bone! He had earned the right to be rewarded. But his brother had done nothing to earn anything! In fact, all the younger brother deserves is to be turned out into the cold. He certainly doesn't deserve to be lavished with favor.
And this is where Jesus drives home his point. He wants to teach the religious and the self-righteous about grace. He wants them to see the spiritual danger they were in by judging and comparing others. When the father leaves the feast to go out and plead with his son, begging him to come in, Jesus is actually pleading with the Pharisees and teachers of the law, begging them to come back to the Father.
The father in Jesus' story wants to shower his love on both sons. He is "prodigal" because he wants to lavish his love on them and extravagantly pour out his grace on them beyond what either could deserve.
What's more, the father wants his relationships with his sons to be defined by grace—not by the sins (of the youngest) nor by the slaving (of the oldest). "Love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Pet 4:8, NASB).
Beyond that, he wants to replace the spirit of condemnation and judgment with a spirit reconciliation and forgiveness so the family can be reunited once again. When his oldest describes his younger brother as, "this son of yours" (v 30), the father describes him as, "this brother of yours" (v 32). He wants them to see each other as brothers!
The father wants his oldest son to be reinstated into the family just as the younger brother has been. He wants him to discover the joy and the celebration of a relationship—not the burdens and tasks and the slavery of a religion.
At family camp last week, Dave Ogren reminded us that it is possible to be orthodox in our teaching but yet lose our passion for God. We can get everything right as far as religion is concerned but still allow our relationship with God to cool. Dave talked about the church at Ephesus: Jesus knew their deeds, their hard work, their perseverance, their discernment, their endurance without growing weary, and yet Jesus had a problem with them—they had forsaken their first love. (Rev 2:2-4)
It still happens. The religious spirit that consumed the Pharisees and the teachers of the law lives on today. People might get religious details right but forsake the most important thing—a love relationship with God.
The attitude of the older brother persists whenever people focus on their efforts and good deeds—whenever people believe God owes them something because they worked so hard for him; whenever people compare their righteous behavior to others; whenever people look down on others as worse sinners than they are.
Younger brothers need to repent for rebelling against the Father! We saw that last week. But older brothers also need to repent for judging and condemning younger brothers. Older brothers need to repent for trying to manipulate the Father through their own efforts. They think that by being religious—by living a righteously legalistic life and doing good works—that they deserve the blessings they crave. For that, older brothers need to repent.
I said earlier that human nature has two sides—that we all have something of both the younger brother and the older brother within us. So how do we recognize if we're like the older brother? Keller lists some specific characteristics of an "older brother" spirit in chapter 4. You may be like the older brother when you...
1. Are angry or bitter. Life's disappointments don't just make an older brother sad; they also make him deeply angry and bitter [p 49]. Older brothers believe if they live a good life they should get a good life—that God owes them a smooth road if they try hard to live up to standards. When these expectations fall short and you find yourself furious with God for letting you down or giving you less than you deserve, then you're like the older brother.
2. Think you're better. Older brothers compare themselves to others and see themselves as superior [p 53]. Competitive comparison is the main way older brothers achieve a sense of their own significance. This spills over into racism, tight little cliques, or even religious pride. Some even hide their self-righteousness behind the claim that they are only opposing the enemies of God.
3. Are unforgiving and judgmental. Older brothers develop an unforgiving, judgmental attitude toward others [p 55]. The older brother cannot forgive his younger brother for wasting the family's wealth, for disgracing the family name, for weakening the family's place in society. If you look down on others saying, "I would never do anything like that!" then you're like the older brother.
4. Have a joyless religion. Older brothers slip into a joyless, fear-based compliance [p 57]. The older son boasts about how he always obeyed his father, but his underlying motivation and attitude is revealed when he says, "All these years I've been slaving for you." A slavish, joyless drudgery is not motivated by a loving relationship!
5. Do good for the wrong reasons. Older brothers are good for selfish reasons—for their own benefit [p 60]. Older brothers may be kind to others or helpful to the poor, but at a deeper level they are doing it either so God will bless them or so they can think of themselves as virtuous, charitable people. If you give in order to get, then you're like the older brother.
6. Feel spiritually uncertain. Older brothers waver in their assurance of the Father's love [p 63]. Older brothers inevitably begins to wonder if they've done enough or have been good enough. Doubt begins to creep into the equation and challenges the father: "You never gave me a party."
Last week we saw how the younger brother repented—he confessed his sin against heaven and his father. And he acknowledged his behavior had caused such damaged that he no longer deserved to be part of the family. Since he could no longer see himself as a son, he hoped to be a servant.
In other words, he thought he would probably need to be more like his older brother—slaving for the father. But that wasn't what the father wanted. Our heavenly Father wants us in a relationship, not in religious bondage.
Yet when we are in the right kind of a relationship, we can serve our heavenly Father in the right spirit! We said last week: "We serve because we're saved; we're not saved because we serve."
Both brothers needed to learn this lesson. Whether you're the younger, rebellious brother or the older, righteous brother, what you need ultimately is a relationship with the Father.
How is your relationship with the Father? Are you enjoying the joy of being his son or daughter? Are you celebrating? Whether you've hit bottom in a pig pen or are slaving in the fields for your reward, the Father wants you home!