DOWNLOAD PDF THE TRUE ELDER BROTHER : MY SON, EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS

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1 Chapter 1 : + Brother Quotes Sibling Quotes For Your Cute Brother - Fresh Quotes Because at the very end of the parable, when the older son is complaining to the father about the celebration for the younger brother, the father says: "'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. March 10, Rivalry among brothers is quite common even in the Bible. Brotherly rivalries such as Joseph and his brothers, Jacob and Esau, Solomon and Adonijah and so on, all in some way related to their inheritance share. In the parable of the Prodigal son Jesus illustrates a similar rivalry so that his audience could relate to it but at the same time takes the brotherly rivalry into another level and cautions his listeners against spiritual rivalry. The word Prodigal means to be wasteful â both the sons were wasteful. Esau and Jacob while growing up The Parable of the two sons Prodigal son draws similarities from the life of Jacob and Esau. All of which Jacob was not. But Jacob Loved the Lord. Esau might have been the perfect son but he did not love God and God hated him for that, Mal 1: In the Parable of the Prodigal Son the Younger Son was sheltered by his father for so long and had whatever he needed. He was impatient and curious of what was out there and that it could be better. He sought self-reliance and thought he could have an even better life on his own. The Elder Son shows that he cares for his father and is loyal for so long, working for his father. He represents those self-righteous people who think they are saved because of their good deeds. More than that they think they hold the right to deny anyone coming to Christ. How foolish and mistaken are they. The father was extremely happy and welcomed his lost son with open arms and spared no expense in celebrating that his son had come home. Unless he too in his mind had already accepted his share before the death his father. Then that would make him at par with what his younger brother had done. Jesse did not argue with Samuel when he anointed David as king over his seven other sons. Also David chose Solomon as his heir over Adonijah. Even if the elder son considered it as unfair no one could argue with the will of their father. But over here the elder son shows his frustration and anger and refuses to participate in the banquet that his father had arranged. The father replied, My Son 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. The elder son was unable to accept that his sibling had found forgiveness in the eyes of their father. Jesus uses this parable about brotherly rivalry to illustrate the spiritual rivalry existing in our churches. Are we becoming a stumbling block for someone to reach the Father or are we acting as a stepping stone. Page 1

2 Chapter 2 : The Older Brother and Misreading the Parable of the Prodigal Son Thinking and Believing Now, when the father says to the older brother, "My son, everything I have is yours," he is telling the literal truth. Every penny that remained of the family estate belongs to the elder brother. Every robe, every ring, every fatted calf is his by right. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So his father went out and pleaded with him. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. He states his case early on as to what one of our major problems is in the church: I encounter this problem in the counseling room more than any other single hangup. The sermon was about being a minister in the church. He wrote that it is about grace: Only when I am weak, am I strong. These are beautiful words, grace words. He told these four stories to a particular group of people: Jesus was paying attention to the weak, the poor, the less than famous, the less than righteous. Jesus actually went to the sick people, the weak people, the unrighteous people and this offended those who were well, who were strong, who were righteous. So Jesus told these three stories to those who grumbled. Luke also uses it again in And Jesus tells four parables. In the first, there are sheep. So the good shepherd goes out to look for the one sheep. He eventually finds it and brings it home. He calls his neighbors together and they rejoice in the Lord over the one lost sheep that was found. In the second, there are ten coins. One of them is lost. So the woman sweeps and cleans and turns over the cushions and tears up the planks and digs through the garbage until she finds it. Eventually, she finds it. What does she do when she finds it? Well, she spends it on a lavish party and invites all her friends to come over and celebrate the one lost coin that was found. In the third, there are two sons. So the father stays at home and does nothing. He waits and waits and waits and waits. No one goes to look for the younger son. Not the older brother. The older brother goes about on his ownâ why? Well, frankly, because he has his share of the inheritance. Why should he expose himself, his inheritance, what is rightfully his to go out and look for the younger brother who has squandered everything? Tim Keller in his book The Prodigal God writes: The searchers let nothing distract them or stand in the way. By the time we get to the third story, and we hear about the plight of the lost son, we are fully prepared to expect that someone will set out to search for him. It is startling, and Jesus meant it to be so. By placing these three parables so closely together, he is inviting thoughtful listeners to ask: And he also points out that to bring the younger brother back would have cost the older brother considerably. Remember, the property had already been divided. To bring the younger brother back in involved a cost to the older brother. Thus there is a fourth parable. In this parable there is one lost son. He is the older brother who had remained behind and done everything right. If such people [as the younger brother] wrong them, elder brothers feel their spotless record gives them the right to be highly offended and to perpetually remind the wrongdoer of his or her failure. I have no right to feel superior. But elder brothers do not see themselves this way. Their anger is a prison of their own making. It was to the Pharisees and those who grumbled that Jesus would dare go and look for the younger brother. Jesus was the older brother. They were angry that the father was so extravagant, gracious, and generous and forgiving. Keller nails it again: The younger brother knew he was alienated from the father, but the elder brother did not. They see nothing wrong with their condition, and that can be fatal. And I suppose it is fair to ask this question: If your life has not been changed, radically altered at the core, do you understand grace? Or, let me state it negatively: Can you say you even understand the Gospel? That is a hard statement to accept. But the good news is that if the Father waited and waited for the younger brother to return, he went looking for the older brother, begging and pleading for him to come inside. In other words, he is not at all content that the older brother stay outside, missing the party. If the father made a fool of himself for running to the younger brother and robbing the older brother to Page 2

3 welcome him home, he also made a fool of himself by begging and pleading for the older brother to come in. The problem is that Luke 15, like the book of Jonah, does not have an ending. Did he go in and party and rejoice that the younger came home? Or did he stay outside unhappy and, frankly, unsaved? Because those who are saved join the party. Those who are join the party, are glad that the younger brother has come home. That God goes out of his way to search and welcome everyone home is an startling indication of the prodigal, spendthrift nature of God: To younger wayward brothers; to older self-sufficient brothers. We are invited to examine ourselves. Three of the stories had happy endings. What of the fourth? How will the fourth story end? Did the Pharisees Jesus spoke to that day, the ones who grumbled and muttered, join the party? Did they go inside and rejoice and celebrate? We are invited to stop and look at ourselves and ask a very important question: Which brother am I? And we are invited, before we too quickly associate ourselves with the younger brother, to stop and see if perhaps, just perhaps, we are the older brother. Page 3

4 Chapter 3 : Pastor Gary Buchman's: The True Elder Brother 31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So his father went out and pleaded with him. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. That is a remarkable message. But there is much moreâ though it too is easy to miss. We must remember that this is the third of three parables, told to the same audience, meant to be pondered all together. What do we learn if we do that? The cost of reconciliationâ verses What did it cost to bring the younger brother home? At first glance, it seems not to have cost anything. The wayward son comes home. His Father sees him coming and simply welcomes him back. There is no punishment from the Father for this sinner sonâ this son is just taken in. However, this is a limited view of how reconciliation works with God. It is a great mistake to believe that reconciliation between a perfect and holy God and incomplete idol making sinners is free for all concerned. The reconciliation is free to the younger brother. But it is very costly for someone else. The elder brother knows this. The elder brother is furious with the father for receiving his younger brother back into the family Like Jonah was mad at God for forgiving those terrible, but repentant Ninevites! Butâ you kill the fattened calf for him! Rememberâ the father had given the younger brother his entire legal part of the inheritance. And it was all spentâ all gone. Yet now the father is restoring this wayward son back into the family â and the families wealth. The Father has already put a robe on him, and given him a ring, which was probably the signet ring with which family members ratified contracts. He is the only heir of all the father has left. So the salvation of the younger son is not free after all. It has already been extremely expensiveâ look at the feast. It will be extremely expensive. The father cannot forgive the younger brother, except at the expense of the elder brother. The elder brother then is the one who must bear the cost of the reconciliation. There is a missing elder brotherâ verses The elder brother knows all thisâ that forgiveness and reconciliation is never free. Someone has to pay. The younger brother actually knew this too. In this way justice to truly complete and reconciliation reached. So, in this parable, either the younger brother has to come and earn his way back into the family, as he offered to do see verse 19 or he can come back in immediately, through forgiveness, and then the elder brother will have to bear the cost. Salvation cannot be free. Someone has to pay, either the sinner or his elder brother. But that is not where Jesus wants our minds and hearts to remain. Jesus told his listeners three parables togetherâ the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In each of the first two parables there is a lost object and someone who goes out, searches for it, and brings it home with joy. The shepherd searches until he finds the lost sheep. The woman searches until she finds the lost coin. So when we get to the parable of this lost son, the listeners fully expect that someone will set out to search for the lost brother and bring him home. To our surprise, no one does. No one goes searching for the lost younger son. Jesus is leading us to ask, who should have gone out to search for this lost boy? And the answer would have been quite clear to 1st century listeners: It is the elder brother in the parable who should have said something like this: But I will go look for him and bring him home. Instead the younger son and the father have to deal with a recalcitrant, resistant, self-righteous elder brother. We have a true elder brother. Think of the kind of elder brother we need. Because we are lost and cannot find God on our own. Because we have this sickness that brings us to constantly relying on just about anything and anyone inclusing ourselves0 other than God for our well-being, our fulfilment in life, our direction in life, our meaning as human beingsâ.. We need one who would not just open his wallet for us, but pour out his life. Friends, you have one! We have Jesus of Nazareth, the one telling us this parable to reveal his heart for us and with us, not against us. He had equal glory with the Father, but he emptied himself Philippians 2: He lost it allâ for us. Because Jesus was stripped naked on the cross. Because Jesus took the cup of wrath that might have the cup of joy. He is our true elder brotherâ and he says so. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He truly had the right to all the Father owns. But instead, he came out and Page 4

5 searched for us, and found us in the pigsty, and carried us home on his shoulders singing with joy. And he gave us his robe, his ring, his place, his wealthâ it is all at his expense. Are we melted and moved by the extravagant and deeply self-sacrificing love and commitment God has for us? To the extent that we receive him, we will be true elder brother for each other. Page 5

6 Chapter 4 : The Prodigal Son and the Elder Brother Christian Forums The Paperback of the The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller at Barnes & Noble. 5 The True Elder Brother: "My son, everything I have is yours." It will challenge. Almost everyone knows it well. Preachers like to preach on it or at least to reference it occasionally. When it is preached, some ministers â â especially Reformed preachers â â like to read too much into the distinction between the older brother and the younger brother. No doubt he also wants to contrast the reconciled and humbled younger brother with the proud and arrogant older brother. But some people talk about the younger brother as if he is humble and therefore the model for a child of God. In other words, people who resemble the older brother are not Christians. The true Christians are the younger brother types. Tim Keller makes this point in The Prodigal God. He is fastidiously obedient to his father and, therefore, by analogy, to the commands of God. He is completely under control and quite self -disciplined. The father has to go out and invite each of them to come into the feast of his love. So there is not just one lost son in this parableâ there are two. But Act 2 comes to an unthinkable conclusion. Jesus the storyteller deliberately leaves the elder brother in his alienated state. The lover of prostitutes is saved, but the man of moral rectitude is still lost. We can almost hear the Pharisees gasp as the story ends. It was the complete reversal of everything they had ever been taught. Jesus does not simply leave it at that. It gets even more shocking. He himself gives the reason: Because at the very end of the parable, when the older son is complaining to the father about the celebration for the younger brother, the father says: 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. And, yes, Jesus wants to show the Pharisees that the way they relate to the sinners and outcasts is out of line with the very nature of God. This is important for two reasons: Some preachers talk as if legalism is the unforgivable sin. The situation there was more complicated. Join other dedicated readers of Thinking and Believing and subscribe to the list. Click here to subscribe. Page 6

7 Chapter 5 : # Parable of the Elder Brother (Luke ) -- JesusWalk New International Version "'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. New Living Translation "His father said to him, 'Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. John van Popta, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ The parable of the lost son, the prodigal son has two halves. It is about two sons. A man had two sons. In the first half, we hear of the younger son who asks for his share of the inheritance. We hear of how he leaves home, leaving father and brother behind. We hear of his riotous living, his remorse, his return. And how his father welcomes him home. But now we have the second part. He will not go in. He is without joy. Is he also lost? The true elder Brother. It is striking that the Lord uses the word "presbyter" for elder here. Is there a reference to the leaders of Israel who will not accept that the Lord Jesus Christ welcomes sinners and eats with them? The elder son-we meet him in the fields. We have not heard from him since he accepted the division of the estate. He is out working. Now we should not imagine that this is a house on a farm surrounded by fields. No, this house is in the village and the fields could have been far away. It is as if the elder son has been working, overseeing the work in a distant quarter section. At the end of the day, he returns. He walks the same road that his younger brother walked earlier that day. But his father is not watching for him, for he returns every day. He goes out to work; he returns. He comes near to the house, and what does he hear? He hears that a party is going on. There is music, singing, dancing. The pipes were playing, drums and castanets, songs rang out. There was no doubt. This was a celebration. It is clear that he hears a loud, boisterous, joyous party in progress as he comes near to home. He must have wondered, "What is going on? Why was I not informed? Why was I not even invited? Why does he not know? Well, perhaps the father knew that if he notified the elder that he would try to stop the celebration. Or perhaps there was no time, the son was already on his way home. In any case, in these circumstances we see more clearly the difference, one from the other. One brother from the other. And also their similarities. As soon as the father decides to kill the fattened calf, he needs to invite people to the feast. This is a feast of great proportion. It is perhaps like a wedding banquet. A fattened calf was fed and reserved for very special functions. It would likely be a year old or so and be of quite a weight. It could feed fifty, a hundred or more. The invitations go out. Up and down the street. There is a festive mood in the air. Just as the woman who lost a coin and found it invited all her neighbours, now the father invites the whole village. The music plays, the folk songs are heard, the children laugh and play. The calf is not roasted on a spit. That would take much too long. It is cut in pieces and roasted in the bread ovens. As the men come home from the fields for the evening meal they would have heard the news. When some of the meat is ready, meat was not eaten often, only with feasts and festivals the music starts. The village people come, sing, dance, drink wine, talk, eat, go out, come back in. The eating and drinking will last half the night. And the older son? He hears the noise. Our text says "servant. He calls one of the boys in the street. The children would not be invited, but because of all the noise, the music and the joy, the children come. They cannot escape the excitement. There is likely a bunch of children on the street just outside the party. He calls one of the boys and asks him what is going on. He does not just ask one question, but rather, he kept asking. He kept asking him questions. Our text implies a series of questions. He wants some details. The lad reports, "Your brother is back. Your brother is back safe and sound. But is he back, wealthy or poor? He had lost everything. One third of the estate! And he will not go in. He will not celebrate. He does not care that his brother is home, "safe and sound" as the boy reports it. He does not care that there is a celebration. Well, yes he does care. Yet, custom requires his presence. The older son has a responsibility. He should be the maitre de. He should be at the door welcoming guests. That is his role as elder. A place of honour. He is the elder brother. If fact he needs to honour father with his presence. He needs to work together with his father. But he will not go in. He knows that he must serve, welcoming the guests. He must serve, ensuring that all have enough to eat. He must do so especially for the honoured guests. The village elders, the rabbis, the teachers of Page 7

8 the law. But more than that he would have to serve his younger brother, the guest honoured above all. And this he refuses to do. He will not serve his younger brother; he will not honour his father. He is Without Joy The older son is angry. Page 8

9 Chapter 6 : The Older Brother: Luke 15 â Life Under the Blue Sky: The View From Below When the father says to the elder brother, "everything I have is yours" (v) he is speaking the literal truth. So the salvation of the younger son is not free after all. It has already been extremely expensiveâ look at the feast. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. Take me on as a hired hand. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. My son is hereâ given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found! As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. Your father has ordered a feastâ barbecued beef! Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast! There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. The brutal nature of the first truth we encounter morning is that we may in fact see ourselves in this character. Then, like the younger son we too have come running home to God with repentant hearts, forgiven and joyfully welcomed back into his love. Community Covenant Church has a lot of faithful members who have served God through the Church most of their lives. Not only was the younger son wrong in looking for life through freedom and irresponsible actions, but the older son was wrong in looking for life through self-righteous obedience. As I said to the girls at Pelletier yesterday, rules are not bad, and obedience is not wrong. But life is not to be found by living free and irresponsibly, and life is not to be found by simply obeying rules. The younger son discovered this only after he came to the end of his rope; -Only after he had taken all that the father had given him and went off to a foreign country. He could have felt so guilty that he refused the new clothes and the family ring and the party with the BBQ beef. But what about the older son; you know, the one who had always done what his father asked him. But not now, right! Though the father pleaded with him to come into the party and to celebrate, this self righteous son who had defined life in terms of his obedience to the father, did not get why his father was celebrating the return of a disobedient son. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. So let me ask you the tough question: Perhaps you remember another parable Jesus offered to other religious leaders; the chief priests and elders in the Temple of Jerusalem; Matthew There was a man who had two sons. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone. This is a very difficult word for some to hear, for while sinners and tax collectors know they are lost, self-righteous people do not. This is the essence of the gospel. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. Do you accept today your need to repent; to repent either from free and irresponsible living or to repent from self-righteous? Message 2 There is a second message I bring to you today, a message about what Timothy Keller refers to as "the true older brother". This is a message that is very easy to miss in the 21st century. First of all we need to remember the context. Jesus told the parable of the lost son in the context of two other parables; the parable of the lost sheep in the parable of the lost coin. In both of those earlier parables Jesus describes something that is lost. In both those parables Jesus describes a celebration when those lost things were found. But also in those two parables Jesus describes someone who Page 9

10 goes in search of that which was lost. By following up these earlier parables with the story of a lost son, again we as listeners recognize that something is lost; again we recognize that there is a celebration when he who was lost is found. But what is lacking in this third parable? What would the listeners of Jesus day be listening for in his parable of the lost son, but did not hear? Would they not have been wondering who is going to go and search for this lost son? In fact, they would have known who was supposed to look for this younger son and bring him home. Remember how the elder of two sons in Jesus day would have received a double portion of the inheritance. And as Jesus so clearly defined the loving and caring nature of this father, those who heard Jesus tell this parable, especially in the context of the earlier two parables, would have been looking for the older son to go after his prodigal brother and bring him home at any cost. But that does not happen, does it. In other words, he passed on the responsibility to that older son. Later, when talking to his older son about coming into the party, the father says to this son: He failed in his responsibility, and was therefore not a true elder brother. Edmund Clowney, a 20th-century theologian, educator and pastor who served God faithfully through the Presbyterian Church once recounted the true story of a young man; a US soldier missing in action during the Vietnam War. When his family could get no word of him from any official channels his older brother flew to Vietnam and, risking his life, searched the jungles and the battlefields for his lost brother. It is said that despite the danger, this elder brother was never hurt, because those on both sides of the war had heard of his dedication and they respected his quest. Some of them called him, simply, "the brother. Keller, Timothy, The Prodigal God,, p. The listeners of Jesus day would have heard this parable and left, baffled about the extreme love the father, but also wondering where the true elder brother was, the one who would be willing to go off to a distant land and to bring back his brother at whatever cost. Is it not Jesus who told the story; the One who was willing to come all the way from Heaven to earth in search of the lost sons and daughters of God. And is it not Jesus who, by living in response to the love of His Father, obediently suffered and died so that we would find our way back home? Today I ask you to do two things: First of all, recognize that you are lost. Will you seek life lived in the love of God today? Secondly, because of Jesus Spirit living in those who have trusted in him, recognize that you are now an elder brother for those who are still lost. And, you have to choose whether you want to waste your time mulling over the letter of the law, or serve God by finding those who are lost and joining them in the party God has planned for all who come to him in faith. Are you willing to go and find those who are still lost and celebrate with them? Copyright c,, by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. Page 10

11 Chapter 7 : The Elder Brother Spirit Evangel Tabernacle And with tears gathering in the same eyes and longing in his voice, he reminds his elder son, "You are always with me, and everything I have is yours. Come in, my son." The grace is the same; it is extreme, absurd, beyond all we can ever imagine. 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. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 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! 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. I have to marvel sometimes at the amazing foresight Jesus had to understand every heart in the room because I have to be honest with you â for most of my life, I approached my need for forgiveness much more like the older son in this story. I remember sitting in Sunday School, almost smiling with self importance as the Sunday school teacher let us color in pictures of the lost son feeding the pigs. I would say in the quiet of my heart, as I chose the ugliest crayon color for the pig slop, this serves you right â you were awful and you got what you deserved. I was admittedly a very self righteous 5 year old I wonder how of many of us can relate to that? The Prodigal Son is an incredible image of mercy, grace and repentance. A lost son found. A dead relationship mercifully brought back to life. But I grew up in a Christian family. I went to church. I behaved in school. I served at home. In many ways there was an ambitious nature to my faith that strove to be rewarded for my obedience, my works of righteousness and my morality. Refusing to go in. Writing retorts in my head. Perhaps for you, the most heartbreaking scene in this parable, is that of the lost son, sitting among the pigs, weeping bitterly into their slop as he regrets his path of destruction and hopes for a servants wage in his former life. For me, the most heartbreaking scene is this speech. That the absence of any reward was intentional. That the younger brother was always loved more, preferred, blessed more. That there are no consequences, good or bad for behavior. How many of you can picture yourself in these shoes? Some of us have never strayed that far. Some of us have stayed in the field all our lives. We may have even watched them get what we think they deserve â suffering, hard times, reality. For some of us, it is a painful experience to watch these brothers and sisters be mercifully forgiven, re embraced into society and met with exorbitant celebration and seeming reward. For some of us, the very sight of a father running to a brother in need of forgiveness, feels like that same father is running away from us. Forgiveness can brew bitterness. The beautiful part about Jesus including the older son, is that in just the same way the Father ran to embrace his lost son. He leaves the party to plead with the older son. The Father also loves the older son. You are always with me, and everything I have is yours. For some of us we need to sit in this moment. To have the Father attend to our deep pain, our bitterness, OUR SIN, and respond with the same heart we see at times more loudly on display for others. The Father calls us his. He breathes intimacy and draws us close. He assures us that nothing, nothing is withheld from us. There is no favoritism. No ignorance of our service. The Father has seen, known and loved me all along. It is all available to me just the same. The Father still shares an opportunity for growth with this field captive son. This son of yours. Not this brother of mine. But the father reminds him. We are not intended to be children vying for attention, but rather fully present and loving sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, who break when others break and who rejoice when others rejoice. It is first, an invitation to stop being alone. To recognize that you too are a son, a brother, a family member, a tribe member â who breaks and who is built up by the collective community. He was lost and now is found. The scope is limitless. When our brothers and sisters leave, we grieve as if death has occurred, when they repent, we rejoice as if there is resurrection. Once upon a time I may not have named my sins as readily as the Prodigal Son. Now, with the eyes of the Father I can see, not only does my works righteousness, hard heartedness and jealousy also need a forgiving, pleading father â But every brother who was lost and who now is found, is an opportunity for me to find a piece of myself Page 11

12 again. We are all prodigals in need of forgiveness, we are all brothers, we are all in this family. May we never grow too old to join the celebration of the Father. Page 12

13 Chapter 8 : The Prodigal Sons The Prodigal Son and the Elder Brother Discussion in 'General Theology' started by Hazelelponi, Nov 1, at PM. and everything I have is yours". Calling one of the servants, he asked what it was all about. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your propertyhe and his loose womenyou kill the calf we had been fattening. At the time when I was familiar only with the detail of the painting in which the father embraces his returning son, it was rather easy to perceive it as inviting, moving, and reassuring. But when I saw the whole painting, I quickly realized the complexity of the reunion. The main observer, watching the father embracing his returning son, appears very with drawn. He looks at the father, but not with joy. He does not reach out, nor does he smile or express welcome. He simply stands thereat the side of the platformapparently not eager to come higher up. It takes place at the left side of the painting, while the tall, stern elder son dominates the right side. There is a large open space separating the father and his elder son, a space that creates a tension asking for resolution. What is going on inside this man? What will he do? Will he come closer and embrace his brother as his father did, or will he walk away in anger and disgust? The way in which the elder son has been painted by Rembrandt shows him to be very much like his father. Both are bearded and wear large red cloaks over their shoulders. These externals suggest that he and his father have much in common, and this commonality is underlined by the light on the elder son which connects his face in a very direct way with the luminous face of his father. But what a painful difference between the two! The father bends over his returning son. The elder son stands stiffly erect, a posture accentuated by the long staff reaching from his hand to the floor. His figure remains in the dark, and his clasped hands remain in the shadows. Exteriorly he did all the things a good son is supposed to do, but, interiorly, he wandered away from his father. He did his duty, worked hard every day, and fulfilled all his obligations but became increasingly unhappy and unfree. Lost in Resentment It is hard for me to concede that this bitter, resentful, angry man might be closer to me in a spiritual way than the lustful younger brother. Yet the more I think about the elder son, the more I recognize myself in him. As the eldest son in my own family, I know well what it feels like to have to be a model son. I often wonder if it is not especially the elder sons who want to live up to the expectations of their parents and be considered obedient and dutiful. They often want to please. They often fear being a disappointment to their parents. It is strange to say this, but, deep in my heart, I have known the feeling of envy toward the wayward son. It is the emotion that arises when I see my friends having a good time doing all sorts of things that I condemn. I have no difficulty identifying with the elder son of the parable who complained: All of this became very real for me when a friend who had recently become a Christian criticized me for not being very prayerful. His criticism made me very angry. For years he has lived a carefree and undisciplined life, while I since childhood have scrupulously lived the life of faith. Now he is converted and starts telling me how to behave! My anger and envy showed me my own bondage. This is not something unique to me. There are many elder sons and elder daughters who are lost while still at home. And it is this lostness--â characterized by judgment and condemnation, anger and resentment, bitterness and jealousy--â that is so pernicious and so damaging to the human heart. Often we think about lostness in terms of actions that are quite visible, even spectacular. The younger son sinned in a way we can easily identify. His lostness is quite obvious. He misused his money, his time, his friends, his own body. What he did was wrong; not only his family and friends knew it, but he himself as well. He rebelled against morality and allowed himself to be swept away by his own lust and greed. There is something very clear-cut about his misbehavior. Then, having seen that all his wayward behavior led to nothing but misery, the younger son came to his senses, turned around, and asked for forgiveness. We have here a classical human failure, with a straightforward resolution. Quite easy to understand and sympathize with. The lostness of the elder son, however, is much harder to identify. After all, he did all the right things. He was obedient, dutiful, law-abiding, and hardworking. People respected him, admired him, praised him, and Page 13

14 likely considered him a model son. Outwardly, the elder son was faultless. Suddenly, there becomes glaringly visible a resentful, proud, unkind, selfish person, one that had remained deeply hidden, even though it had been growing stronger and more powerful over the years. Looking deeply into myself and then around me at the lives of other people, I wonder which does more damage, lust or resentment? I know, from my own life, how diligently I have tried to be good, acceptable, likable, and a worthy example for others. There was al ways the conscious effort to avoid the pitfalls of sin and the constant fear of giving in to temptation. Without Joy When I listen carefully to the words with which the elder son attacks his fatherselfâ righteous, self-pitying, jealous wordsi hear a deeper complaint. It is the complaint that comes from a heart that feels it never received what it was due. It is the complaint expressed in countless subtle and not-so-subtle ways, forming a bedrock of human resentment. It is the complaint that cries out: Why do people not thank me, not invite me, not play with me, not honor me, while they pay so much attention to those who take life so easily and so casually? Often I catch myself complaining about little rejections, little impolitenesses, little negligences. Time and again I discover within me that murmuring, whining, grumbling, lamenting, and griping that go on and on even against my will. The more I dwell on the matters in question, the worse my state becomes. The more I analyze it, the more reason I see for complaint. And the more deeply I enter it, the more complicated it gets. There is an enormous, dark drawing power to this inner complaint. Condemnation of others and self-condemnation, self-righteousness and self-rejection keep reinforcing each other in an ever more vicious way. Every time I allow myself to be seduced by it, it spins me down in an endless spiral of self-rejection. As I let myself be drawn into the vast interior labyrinth of my complaints, I become more and more lost until, in the end, I feel myself to be the most misunderstood, rejected, neglected, and despised person in the world. Of one thing I am sure. Complaining is self-perpetuating and counterproductive. Whenever I express my complaints in the hope of evoking pity and receiving the satisfaction I so much desire, the result is always the opposite of what I tried to get. A complainer is hard to live with, and very few people know how to respond to the complaints made by a selfâ rejecting person. The tragedy is that, often, the complaint, once expressed, leads to that which is most feared: When he came home from the fields, he heard music and dancing. He knew there was joy in the household. Immediately, he became suspicious. Once the self-rejecting complaint has formed in us, we lose our spontaneity to the extent that even joy can no longer evoke joy in us. The complaint resurges immediately: The music and dancing, instead of inviting to joy, become a cause for even greater withdrawal. I have very vivid memories of a similar situation. Once, when I felt quite lonely, I asked a friend to go out with me. All of my inner complaints about not being accepted, liked, and loved surged up in me, and I left the room, slamming the door behind me. I was completely incapacitatedunable to receive and participate in the joy that was there. In an instant, the joy in that room had become a source of resentment. This experience of not being able to enter into joy is the experience of a resentful heart. His inner complaint paralyzed him and let the darkness engulf him. In place of the party, Rembrandt painted light, the radiant light that envelops both father and son. In the story one can imagine the elder son standing outside in the dark, not wanting to enter the lighted house filled with happy noises. But Rembrandt paints neither the house nor the fields. He portrays it all with darkness and light. All the music and dancing are there. The elder son stands outside the circle of this love, refusing to enter. The light on his face makes it clear that he, too, is called to the light, but he cannot be forced. Whatever happened to the elder son? Did he let himself be persuaded by his father? Page 14

15 Chapter 9 : theinnatdunvilla.com - The Prodigal Son The Elder Son 31 "'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 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.'". Non-Denom Married This is a thread concerning only those who are saved. So keep this in mind while reading my intellectual offering. Someone indicated in their testimony today that they believed they were a lesser Christian due to their status as a prodigal son. In specific they said: But there is a cost [in returning to Christ after playing the prodigal son]. Once the party ended, it was revealed in my heart that everything now belongs to my beloved brother. I am a son of my Father, but a servant to my brother. Link - good read. I would like, however, to respond to the mindset of being lesser in the Kingdom for being the prodigal son. Perhaps it is that we misunderstand the story of the prodigal son sometimes. Not that prodigals are misunderstanding their roles as an illustration of the modern day prodigal son, but rather, that maybe something was overlooked about what the elder brother portion of the story is concerning. We all gain eternal life through His Grace. Also, all those who are brothers and sisters in Christ are sent to serve.. Beliefs then, of a saved child of God, prodigal or not, being lesser than someone who is not a prodigal is a bit misguided in my honest opinion. There are three stories all in a row in the same sitting in Luke But the lead-up and finale is just as important as what is inbetween. Jesus told these three parables in response to the Pharisees sitting around complaining about Jesus eating with sinners and so forth. After hearing the first two parables we come to the prodigal and see the rejoicing that took place over his return. But then you see, as the story draws to a close, the elder brother first in the field at a distance, who heard the celebration and came to see what was going on. Then the elder brother got mad when he heard of the younger brothers return and subsequent celebration. The Father left the banquet being held for the younger son, and went to look for the elder. Remind you of the lost sheep? Then kindly, and patiently reminded the elder how loved he was, and that he still had his inheritance too, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours" Why would he need reminded do you think, that his inheritance was safe? This story, is just as profound for those who never left "home", as for those who went a partying.. It got those Pharisees no where. We are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God and all in need of Christ and guidance whether we are the elder brother or the prodigal son at the banquet. There is just far more humility of heart, perhaps. Feel free to discuss. Nov 1, Like x 2. Page 15