Are We Acting Like the Older Brother?

You may be familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11-32.  Basically, the younger of two sons asks his father to have his inheritance now, and then goes and wastes it.  When he is broke, eventually he repents of his foolishness and asks his father to take him on as a servant.  The father, being overjoyed that his son returned, throws a party for him.  There’s a lot of food, and everyone’s having a good time.

Except the older brother.

When he hears of it, the older brother gets mad, and won’t go in to the party or greet his brother.  He’s angry that his father has thrown a party for his foolish, sinful, wasteful brother.  Here he has been good, well-behaved, hard-working, and yet his brother’s getting a party, not him.  It doesn’t seem fair.

Instead of rejoicing that his sinful brother has come to his senses, that he’s repented and reconciled to the family, the older brother feels cheated.

He’s so much better, so much more godly.  Why is the sinner getting the party?

We know the end of the story.  The father gently rebukes his older son, since it is right that the return of the younger son be celebrated.  Some pastors have taught that Jesus used this parable to show the Pharisees their hypocrisy.  The Pharisees were the older brother, outraged that the Father would choose to show mercy to the tax collectors, prostitutes, and the other collective “younger brother” sinners who weren’t even bothering to follow the traditions.  While they, who kept to the letter of the rabbis’ teachings, were treated as equal with these sinners.

Too often, we’re the Pharisees.

We Christian girls reject another Christian because she fell into sin and got pregnant outside of marriage, even though she’s repented.

We Christian girls gossip about another Christian who wears a miniskirt to church, instead of offering to go shopping with her and help her realize her body is a beautiful temple of God which no one besides her husband has a right to.

We Christian girls berate another Christian who uses a different translation of the Bible instead of our beloved KJV, NASB, NIV, etc., treating our favored translation of the inspired Word of God as the only translation inspired by God.

Girls, we’ve fallen into the trap the older brother did.

We think we’re so perfect, because we may not have broken a few of the “big” rules.  But we forget that we have broken the rules.

Jesus came to die for our sins as well.

The older brother thought he was so perfect.  But there he was, angry at his father, believing his father was wrong to use his money the way he wanted to, refusing to please his father and go in and celebrate.

The Pharisees thought they were so perfect.  But there they were, holding the traditions of men above the dictates of God.

The older brother thought he was so perfect, but he had no love or compassion for his younger brother.

How often do we forget to love our “younger sisters”?

How often do we think we’re obeying God, but turn a cold shoulder to our fellow Christians?

I’m not saying we should turn a blind eye to those who sin willingly and see nothing wrong with it.  But I am saying that we are super quick to ostracize without examining our own lives.  We are super quick to judge others on things which aren’t even sins but our personal preferences.  And we are super quick to condemn without even going to them as concerned sisters in humility and grace.

What if God treated us that way?

What if the father in the story had turned away his younger son?

God in His mercy forgives us when we repent.  He rejoices when we return to Him.  Shouldn’t we do the same instead of condemning our fellow Christians?

Our fellow sinners?

Comments

Post a Comment

Feel free to share your opinions, however, please be aware that I moderate all comments, and will not approve any with vulgar, suggestive, or rude language (including those which make use of symbols [*%$] to take the place of letters to try to slide by). I also will not approve advertisement comments. Please use your voice to add to the conversation. You are free to agree or disagree, but please no trolling, flaming, or spamming. Thanks!

Popular posts from this blog

Freefalling

Image
Time for a Sunny Saga! Sunny: cheeky little bird If you read this post , you probably remember I have two pet birds. Today I'm going to tell you a little more about Sunny. Sunny is quite spunky. We found him one day inside the fence of the pool, crawling along on the stones and trying to eat grass seeds (by the way, stones are worthless for keeping weeds down). After a futile search for his owner, my parents let us keep him. He eventually became my bird and my responsibility (eventually my other bird came into the picture, but that wasn't until later). That was about sixteen years ago. He's still hopping along, being a regular nuisance. And since cockatiels can live to be thirty, he promises to be a pain-in-the-tail-feathers for quite a bit more (think carefully before you get a bird from the parrot family). The average age is fifteen years, so technically he's already pushing it. But for being an old dude, he's still rather sprightly. I take both birds ...
Read more

3 Things God Can't Do

I cringed writing this title. It just makes my skin crawl, the idea that God can't do something. Isn't that saying He's not all-powerful? But really, it's not a lessening of God's might that He can't/doesn't do these things, but rather a reassurance of the goodness and holiness of His character, and of just how powerful He is. 1. He can't lie "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began" ~ Titus 1:1-2 NKJV Depending on the translation you use, this verse either says "cannot," doesn't," "can't," or some other variable of the same thing. The idea across them all is the same: lying is not something God does, it's not even in His nature.  Unlike us, who sometimes struggle to tell the truth, who find lying...
Read more

Meditation Monday: True riches

“ Better is a little with the fear of the Lord , Than great treasure with trouble.” ~ Proverbs 15:16 Celebrities have it all. Those big houses, fancy cars, amazing vacations, and hordes of admirers. Ever-expanding bank accounts, name-brand bags and designer shoes, perfume lines and make-up boutiques in their own homes. Not to mention closets with enough clothes to fill a small department store. And we can’t forget the messy public break-ups, the cameras flashing into every moment of their private lives, the unflattering photos paraded around by people consumed with jealousy… And the pain of an empty heart. Because when you watch these actresses, these socialites, these singers, parading themselves around as sex objects and letting their bodies be ravaged by men’s eyes, you have to wonder… How empty do they feel, not knowing there is a Savior Who loves them? Whose heart aches when He sees what they’re doing to themselves? Who longs for them to come to their...
Read more