Friday, October 30, 2009

Lost and Found, Part 43 of 78

TEXT: "Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.' But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found' " (Luke 15:25-31).

IDEA: The elder brother had a great deal to commend him. We will not understand the story unless we give him his due.

PURPOSE: To have listeners understand that the older brother is someone we admire. In life he is more a hero than a villain.

Read again the last part of the story that we call the parable of the prodigal son. This is the longest story Jesus told. This part deals with the young man who stayed home. We find it in Luke 15:25-31.

We sense that this brother is the villain in the story.

There’s no indication that he ever missed his brother or tried to seek him out.
He is resentful of his father’s treatment of his brother.
He is smug about his own fine record of work and obedience.
He is totally “out of phase” with his father’s lows and highs.
He comes through as a sulking prude.

How do you feel about this older brother? How are we supposed to feel?

We can easily be too hard on the elder brother. Elder-brother types make a great contribution to society. They deserve more than our scorn and derision.

We have too much of the anti-hero in our books and pictures. The immoral and the crooked get good press.
The prostitute who saves a child from starvation.
The alcoholic who outgives the deacon at Christmas time.
The cop who plays outside the law to enforce the law.

It should be noted that the elder brother wasn’t a drain on anyone. He is Mr. “Old Reliable.” If it weren’t for him, the younger brother might not have had any place to come back to.

The elder brother is responsible. He was out in the field working. He is not a shirker, but a worker.

The elder brother was respectable. It’s the elder brothers of the world who hold society together while the prodigals are having their fling. We need to give at least two cheers for farmers who farm, teachers who teach, builders who build, for workers who work.

The elder brother was moral. We may be drawn to the younger brother, but if everyone took him as a model, we would have moral and spiritual chaos.

The story of the prodigal son is a story about religion.

It’s about how the elder brother related to his father—and how we relate to God. His lifestyle isn’t being put down in this story any more than the lifestyle of the prodigal is being praised.

Yet it is at this critical point that he serves as an example. It is responsible, respectable, moral people who have great difficulty in understanding grace.