Let us look at the elder son today. Are his reactions towards his lost brother and his father justified? Can we not see that this son, too, is lost?
The parable gives us a sense that this elder son feels alienated. He feels forgotten, and left out, and not good enough. His resentment towards his brother is palpable. Is this resentment just? He has had no celebration to mark his reliability and loyalty. He has not been treated in any way like his lost brother has been treated. He is resentful of the unfair preferential treatment and he feels
angry and rejected. Why, can two brothers from the same household, not be treated the same?
This older son is experiencing his father’s behaviour as unjust. And this behaviour goes against all the father’s own rules and doctrines and convictions. In fact, he claims the father’s actions to be scandalous and unfair. Are his feelings accurate and fair?
Some may say that this boy is self-righteous and selfish, and yet he identifies and expresses the scandal of this parable, the scandal of God’s grace, very clearly. What this boy doesn’t see is that his father has not denied him or cast him away. He has, in fact, the upper hand on his lost brother. His father reassured him by calling him “son”, and assured him that all that is his will be the son’s.
Perhaps he doesn’t see the position he is in, the standing that he now has in the family, which is far superior to that of his lost brother. How will he respond?
How often do you feel unjustly and unfairly treated? How often do you bemoan the good fortune of others because you feel hard done by, or think others are favoured over you? God doesn’t have favourites, and he doesn’t give other preferential treatment over you.
God waits for you to respond to his call, and he assures you that all that is his, will, one day, be yours.
