The Prodigal Son - Part Two

Part Two: Older brother

We don’t hear much about the older brother until near the end of the parable. 

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

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.’”

The Older Brother is Angry

Sadly this older brother refuses to join in the celebration that the father is giving for his younger son.

He is angry!

He is Angry with His Younger Brother. 

When this younger brother leaves it means the older brother has to work harder. The prodigal brother does not care about the work of the farm or the property they shared, so he goes. The older brother is left to organise his own work too.

You know there are people that leave churches. They go for all kinds of reasons but ultimately because they think life is better in another church, better outside of church, they will do their own thing. But that means that the rest of us have to pick up the work that they used to do. And this can lead to anger! We can resent them. They have left us to do the work of the church, the work of the gospel, alone. 

Now when they come back - and often they do - we think that they owe us in some way! We can get angry at the way they are welcomed! Surely they should pay something, be made to sit at the back! Not be allowed to sing in the choir, be told not to pray!

You see the older brother actually thinks he is better than the younger brother!

Sadly, there are a lot of ‘older brother’ attitudes in the churches today! 

Here is the problem:

We have to forgive them and quickly! We have not been appointed as their judge:

Matthew 7: 7-5: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

You see we cannot ask for mercy for ourselves but ask for judgment for others. We cannot ask God to make them pay for their sins but forgive us for our sins.

Matthew 6: 14-15: For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins

If we have experienced the forgiveness of Father God we must forgive those who have left the church and then return. Don’t sit in anger!

He is Angry with the Father! 

This older brother is angry with his father! The older brother is so angry that he refuses to go inside and join the party.

Why?

Why should his younger, wasteful, sinful brother receive such a reception by their father?

Naturally, his father hears about it and comes to talk to him.

The older brother points out that he has never disobeyed his father's commands but that his father has never given him a kid (a young goat) so that he could slaughter it and have a party with his friends.

In contrast, the younger brother has "squandered your property with prostitutes" (wasting a third of the father's estate!), but when he comes back "the fatted calf" (that is, the best, most tender and delicious animal, specially raised to be so) is killed!

The older brother sees this difference in treatment as a manifest injustice toward him and is angry with his father because of it.

He is worried about his own place in the family that the younger brother seems to be the favourite. 

You know God does not have favourites! He is the perfect Father. He does not love one more than the other.

If we are going to be like the angry brother in the parable we are going to point out to the Pastor or our friends that we have served so long in the church. We didn’t leave. We were the through the tough times and the good times. We should be rewarded too but we didn’t even get a baby goat!

He doesn’t want to eat any of the fatted calf!

The Response of the Father:

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.’”

The father tells the older son three things.

First, he tells him: "Son, you are always with me." 

God does not love you more or love you less when He forgives someone else.

Your place is secure. You are with him, and He is with you.

Second, he tells him: "everything I have is yours.” This is because the division of property has already taken place. The younger son took his third, so the two-thirds that remain will go entirely to the older son.

This means that the current celebration does not represent a threat to the older brother or his inheritance. Instead, it is a celebration of joy occasioned by the return of the son.

But it also expresses a truth: right now, everything you need is yours in God’s Kingdom. 

You see the older son decided to live his life in a miserable way: Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

I have been slaving! Now this young man is also a son, right, but he has been living as a slave: trying to find his own worth in the household. 

You can be miserable like the older brother or you can have the joy of the Lord instead (Galatians 5: 22-23). 

Thirdly the father tells 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.’”

The Father’s desire is that we rejoice when the lost is found, when the dead is made alive, when revival comes to a church! We must rejoice. You see if we don’t we will be left outside of the celebration, not because God puts us outside, but because we choose to remain there. In the dark, hungry, no light, no food, just angry.

Tonight could be a special night for you. To let go of bitterness and anger against the prodigals before they return!

Wrapping this up:

Tonight if you know there are other people you need to forgive, then do it tonight, They may have left this church. They may be people that have sinned against you in other areas of life. But that anger is holding you in prison. Release yourself. Not forgiving them and holding anger against them is like drinking poison and expecting them to die.