As I was thinking through this passage of scripture, I was reminded of what I frequently feel when I read this story-- I totally understand the older son's perspective!
The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him, 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. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him! Luke 15:28-30.
So unfair, right? I mean here he is, doing what he is supposed to and his father is so happy because his other son ran out of money and came home! How many of us can identify with this? Here we are, doing what we are supposed to all along, and suddenly someone else starts to do what they were supposed to and everyone is praising them and telling them what a great job they are doing, when your "normal" job is better than theirs!
But the Holy Spirit revealed something else to me. Remember that this is a parable-- a word picture of a lesson Jesus was teaching. What was this a picture of? God's relationship to us and His love for us. Who of us is actually the older son? Who can really say to our Father in heaven "All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders"? No one! Yes, the younger son got the sweet end of the deal and the older son got the shaft, but the truth is, the older son is an obsolete character. We all get the sweet end of the deal, if we admit that we have sinned against our Father, repent, and come back to His loving arms.
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. Luke 15:32
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