Parable of the prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-3, 11:32)

Lent 4 (14^th March 2010)

Text: Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

 

Our gospel reading for today is one of the most well-known stories in the Bible.  Every priest who has served here must have preached at least one sermon on this Parable of the prodigal Son.  So, do I really have anything more to preach on this text that you have not heard?  I don’t know: I shall try my best with this text this morning.

Sermons preached on this text are often about the younger son or the loving father.  This morning I want to talk about the older son. The reason I want to speak about the older son is because many of us can identify with him more.  He is the son who obeys the father, who works hard, who never left home, and who never wasted his father’s money. He is a good son, who minded his own business, lived by the rules and stayed clear of trouble.

This elder son was coming home after a hard day work on the ranch.  When he arrived he heard the commotion but he was unaware what it was all about.  And when he asked one of the servants, he discovered to his surprise, that it was a celebration to welcome his long lost younger brother. You would have thought the news would have followed with a heartfelt reunion of two brothers.  But as far as he is concerned his younger brother was as good as dead.  In fact, the return of his younger brother roused some deeply negative feelings. First, children would not receive inheritance from their parents as long as the parents were alive.  For the younger brother to ask from his father for a share of his inheritance was like cursing him to die.  Secondly, while he ran off to live a life of reckless irresponsibility, it was the older brother who had to take care of everything.  Naturally, the older brother was asking: How could dad welcome and throw a party for a son who had treated him so shamefully?

It was more than he could stand. He was probably hunger and thirsty as he walked back from the farm to the house, but they all seemed to fade with the news of celebration over his brother’s return to the family farm.  It was repulsive and he wanted no part of the unscheduled party. He refused to go in to the house - to welcome back his brother. No forgetting and no forgiving would come from him.

Then the father went out to urge his older son to join them at the table. All this while he had been a good respectful son, but the pleading must have been just too much for him to bear.  Then all the feelings that he’s held back for a long time broke loose.  And out came the resentment toward dad for not giving him such treatment. He was embittered by his brother’s irresponsible and wasted living. The thought that he would have to share the farm again with this no-good brother must have been hard to bear. The last thing in the world that he wanted to do was have a party; and he made this perfectly clear to the father.

In my younger days I used to agree with the action of this older son.  Being the eldest of a family of five siblings, I agreed that this was a very human and a natural way of reacting to an irresponsible brother or sister. So during my early preaching ministry, I would often preach either on the prodigal son or the loving father, and only mentioning to the elder son in reference.  However, my perception of the older brother in this story changed 13 or 14 years ago when I started reading a book by the Henry Nouwen, a renowned Roman Catholic priest and writer. The title of the book is “The Return of the Prodigal Son”. So I hope to share with you this morning some profound truth about the elder son.  I have only preached a sermon on this elder son once before: in Bintulu a few years ago.

Here is a question that can help us to rethink of about the elder son. The question is: How can a blessed person become so extremely ungrateful?  If any one should have been absolutely contented, shouldn’t it have been the older brother?  How is it then, that a person who do all the right things, and who possess all the remaining inheritance from the father, can have a heart so ungrateful?  I want you to re-read the conversation between father and elder brother again.  I am sure we shall discover some things very disturbing.

Read verse.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.’   

There are 3 things you find in that one verse about this elder son. First, he counted the number of years he had been working with the father.  And it was not a pleasant working experience for him. He said, “All these years I have been slaving for you…” He felt that he had been working like slave for his father during those many years. If he was counting the number of years that had gone by, he would also be counting how many more years the father would live so that he could take over the property.  He was just like a prisoner counting the days when he would be released from prison.  Many of us know that it is when we are fully occupied and enjoying yourselves during the week that we don’t realize how fast the days seem to pass.  If you are always counting the days, it means that you don’t enjoy the moment.   

Second, he kept record of his behaviour. He said, “I have never disobeyed your orders.”  He did not enjoy what he was doing in the house or farm. He was simply obeying the father’s command.  He was an obedient son but he didn’t like what he was doing.  Sometimes we don’t have any choice, but to take orders from above.  If we always do thing simply out of obedience to the command from above, we shall never find any enjoyment doing those things.  I shall explain further later why he could not enjoy what he was doing.

Third, he felt entitled and yet he didn’t even dare to ask.  He said, “Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.”     His life must be really miserable one.  He was surrounded by many farm animals and yet he didn’t dare to slaughter any of them. He felt that he was entitled to something but he did not get it.  I don’t know what was in his mind when he saw the younger brother getting his fair share of the property, sold it and spent the money.  He knew when his younger got the other half, he must be the owner of the remaining half, and yet he could not enjoy it. So the father said, “All that I have is yours…you don’t need my permission if you want to slaughter a goat and celebrate with your friends…they are all yours.”

We are told that he had friends, and yet he never celebrated and have a good time with them.  What a life!  There are people like that in this world: they seem to have everything and know everybody - yet they miss their share of happiness.  It is not because they haven’t got it: the fact is they haven’t stopped to enjoy it.  No wonder that this elder son felt like a slave: he has money and he has friends but he could enjoy them.

Now, what is the main cause of his problem? Read verse 30. Look at how he described his brother.  He called him “this son of yours”.   Most of the times when we say things like that about certain people; it is because we have deep resentment and anger inside us.  We don’t even want to mention their names!  That was why the elder son referred his as “this son of yours”.  But what he forgot when he said that was how much it revealed the truth about himself.  Behind the façade of obedience and homely boy commitment, there is much resentment in the heart of this elder son against his brother and father. That explains why he did not enjoy living in the house and working in the farm: he felt like a slave.  That was why he could not understand his father’s heart; why his father was so loving and forgiving; and why his father celebrated when the lost son returned home.  He didn’t really know who he was, so the father had to remind him: “Son, you are always with me”.

This story is only a parable: it is not a true story.  But it is a story about real people, and Jesus was telling them to the Scribes and the Pharisees.  The Scribes and the Pharisees looked down on the tax-collectors and sinners and they could not understand who Jesus was so friendly with these people.  They felt that as a religious man he should stay away from them; but instead he was eating and chatting with them. So Jesus told them the story and ended with verse 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."

What should this mean to the older brother and to us? It means that If we are unable to share in the joy of the Father’s heart, something is definitely wrong with us.

This is a story about us - religious people who take God and his Church for granted.  It is a story about people who work and worship in the church, who do not really know their heavenly Father.   It is a story about people who are busy doing things for God but fail to understand the love of God.   It is a story about people who experience the mercy of God and yet fail to be merciful to others. 

So you understand why I have always avoided preaching about the elder son in my younger days.  It is an offensive message and I know it is not nice to offend church-goers. That is the whole idea and why it is slotted during this season of Lent so that we can examine ourselves.  When confronted with these words, we must be able to say as the Psalmist writes in Psalm 139: 23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  What is it that we want God to reveal to us?

We want him to reveal whether we treasure our relationship with God more than doing his work.  Through this story God is telling us that we have always been with him.  He is saying that it is not our work that is important, but our relationship with him.  

Jesus is also telling us in this story that we have access to all of his resources.   He is saying, “You are a joint heir with my Son, Jesus. All that I have is available to you right now.”  God does not want us to look around at other Christians and be jealous of them because it seems they are receiving more blessings than us.  Be thankful.  

Jesus also tells us in this story that we need not dislike people because they commit sin different from ourselves. Self-righteousness is one of the world’s most deadly sins.  This sin is deadly because it is so easily disguised as something justifiable. This is what is wrong with a self-righteous spirit. It can always be proved by the book to be right. There is a sense in which this son can be justified for his attitude. But that is always the mark of self-righteousness.   And when we are self-righteous; when we think we are better than others, it is impossible to be gracious.  That leads us to a final point, that is:

God is also telling us that it is his party, and he is inviting us to join him.  This father was celebrating the return of his son, but it was his party and celebration of his joy.  He was inviting the elder son to join in. Likewise, this is God’s Church – not anybody’s Church, where we are celebrating.    

We don’t know how the story ends.  Did the elder son join the party and celebrate with the father or did he walk off in anger? I think Jesus left it open-ended on purpose. He left it for the listeners to decide for themselves.  If you were in position of the elder son, what would you do?  Come in and celebrate or walk off in anger?