Luke 15:11-32
My problem is that I tend to think that it’s all about me when it should be all about God. All that the older brother has and enjoys is from God and it is only by God’s grace that he is able to live rightly, and by the way, he still needs God’s grace and mercy to sustain him. He has lived well and will receive much but if he cant be happy for his brother who has returned than where is he? How upset do you get when people don’t play by your rules? How forgiving and gracious are you to those who have been selfish and foolish? How accepting and welcoming are we, individually and as a church? Let us be known by grace and love and rejoice when someone returns to Jesus, no matter how far they have wondered. Jesus rejoices and throws a party when they come back and we want to follow Jesus because He doesn’t get lost.
As an older brother I can totally relate to this parable. None of my brothers have squandered their inheritance but I can totally understand the sense of injustice that the older brother feels. He has worked his butt off and done everything right. He’s disciplined himself and made sacrifices for the family. The older brother has probably even had to take more on his plate since his younger bro has flaked out, taken from and abandoned the family business and the family. It doesn’t seem right that this one who wasted his life should be able to just pick up where he left off. Not only this, but have a party thrown for him!
Too true. I wonder how many of the Jewish leaders heard this parable and knew that Jesus was talking about them being the older brother. I wonder how often we see ourselves as the older brother.
ReplyDeleteI know of a church that was looking at evangelism and one of the elders of the church said: "We're all full, we don't need any more people here. I'll just stand at the door and tell them we're full."