“But the older son became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and appealed to him, but he answered his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet you never gave me even a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends! But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and everything that belongs to me is yours. It was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.’” —Luke 15:28–32
It appears that the “perfect” son at this point in the story had a similar problem to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law of Jesus’ day. They were simply unhappy offering mercy or having someone share in their “kingdom.” Lacking in mercy and selfishly motivated, they were stomping their feet at the inclusion of the repentant. “It’s not fair!” they cried out. What they didn’t realize is that life is not fair! How “unfair” it was for Jesus, who being in very nature God, left His heavenly home to come down to earth, just to live a perfect life and die an excruciating death on the cross. Talk about unfair!
The older brother here is just like Jonah who also was displeased with God’s mercy towards the lost. It was Jonah’s desire for the Ninevites to be wiped away. God had sent him to deliver a message of destruction, and yet God gave them mercy. The Ninevites had been very cruel to the Israelites, and Jonah personally wanted to see their destruction. He wanted to be spared from calamity, but he did not want the Ninevites to be kept from disaster. Jonah, like the older brother, was an object of God’s compassion yet displayed no compassion for those he believed to be unworthy—even when they truly were repentant:
“This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, ‘Oh, LORD, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish!—because I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. So now, LORD, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!’ The LORD said, ‘Are you really so very angry?’” —Jonah 4:1–4
As the parable of the lost son comes to a conclusion, we find an unavoidable, urgent, need to celebrate—the rebel returns repentant and there is a great reason for rejoicing! Paul tells us:
“Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose. Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well.” —Philippians 2:1–4
The Father pleads with the older son to be glad over the return of his lost but now found brother. Yet the older son could not justify in his own mind the mercy his Father was now lavishing on his once wayward brother. How like human nature for us to keep score of our works and to grumble when one who has done less receives more. The older brother was resentful, believing his works outweighed those of his brother’s all the while never realizing how his own actions were weighed and found wanting as well.
Become More
Mercy, we all need it and we all desire to receive it. Yet many find, like the older brother, it is a very difficult blessing to give.
“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, maintain yourselves in the love of God, while anticipating the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings eternal life. And have mercy on those who waver; save others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy on others, coupled with a fear of God, hating even the clothes stained by the flesh.” —Jude 1:20–23
“Can the elder son in me come home? Can I be found as the younger son was found? How can I return when I am lost in resentment, when I am caught in jealousy, when I am imprisoned in obedience and duty lived out as slavery? It is clear that alone, by myself, I cannot find myself. More daunting than healing myself as the younger son, is healing myself as the elder son. Confronted here with the impossibility of self redemption, I now understand Jesus’ words to Nicodemus: ‘Do not be surprised when I say; ‘You must be born from above.’’ Indeed, something has to happen that I myself cannot cause to happen. I cannot be reborn from below; that is, with my own strength, with my own mind with my own psychological insights … I can only be healed from above, from where God reaches down. What is impossible for me is possible for God. ‘With God, everything is possible,’” — Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal
Further Reflections
“You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross!” —Philippians 2:5–8
“Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the Prodigal Son who had fallen most low could still be saved.” —Søren Kierkegaard
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how unfathomable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to God, that God needs to repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.” —Romans 11:33–36