The Bitter Son Who Stayed

Luke 15:1, 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."

Luke 15:25-32

"Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, "Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound." But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 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!" And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found." 

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It was tempting to focus today's meditation on the parts of the chapter where forgiveness, compassion, and joy are so colorfully portrayed. The shepherd rejoicing over his lost sheep, the woman rejoicing over the valuable coin she had searched for so diligently, and the emotional reunion of a patient father with his wayward son - these parables tug at our heart strings and whispers to us that God has reached across the chasm of human evil and welcomed us home to be his children forever. Few chapters of the Bible receive more attention and rightly so.

But, if the opening and closing statements of this chapter are any indicator, Luke appears to be drawing our attention not only to the mercy of our Abba Father, but to the folly of ignoring and spurning this mercy. Jesus is telling us that there is something about this heartwarming narrative that many people will ignore and even despise.

Perhaps what is considered folly here is the idea that God has welcomed even those that we ourselves hate and distrust. Jesus dined with sinners and tax collectors - the outcasts of his day. This was outlandish to the religious leaders.

Perhaps it was the quickness of God's mercy that struck the leaders. Jesus paints the older son in the place of the Pharisees, and his reaction to the feast for his brother is anything but positive. This feast seemed completely unfair and seemed to ignore completely the gravity of the younger son's shameful lifestyle. He had humiliated his father! Now he is being celebrated? And so quickly? So soon after the shame had took place? This was scandalous!

Perhaps what seemed so foolish to the religious leaders was that the gravitational center of their worldview was so publicly discarded by Jesus and his love for sinners. The older brother's objections revolved around himself! Where's my party? How about a goat? I've served you and I get nothing!

Which shows so clearly who they were really serving, doesn't it? They were serving themselves, even with all their knowledge of Scripture and zealous practice of rituals. It was about justifying themselves in the eyes of their Father, rather than admitting their utter inability and running to him for the unfair grace that he so freely offers.

Unfair grace.

It is unfair for the younger son to get a feast! Ever fiber of our sense of justice agrees with the older son. But that's because we have gotten things so wrong, and missed who is really at the center.

My confession is that I've often acted like the older son, especially at my job at Humana. I get pretty competitive sometimes, and I am often tempted to wish for the misfortune of others, rather than celebrate when they succeed, even if they are promoted or recognized before me or more than me. This feeling of envy is the opposite of Christlike love, as Schaeffer pointed out in his True Spirituality:

"Natural desires have become coveting against a fellow creature, one of our kind, a fellow man, when we have a mentality that would give us secret satisfaction at his misfortune. If a man has something, and he loses it, do we have an inward pleasure?"

To covet, envy, and lust for my own superiority is the height of self-idolatry and is utterly offensive to God. The lesson for us is to apply the picture of the younger son to our immediate context, instead of living out the self-righteousness of the older son.

For me, that means working at Humana in such a way that seeks the betterment of others, that serves them without expectation of return or even recognition. It means being more shocked at my selfish interest than I am shocked at God's unfair grace. It means trusting that the feast will come and that my Father himself alone is reward enough for life's trials and tests.

It means joining the feast, for it is really all about Him.