Your Bro is Back!

"‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’   The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him."  - Luke 15:27-28

The Prodigal Son parable.  Most of us know it well and those who have been to Emmaus know it real well.  This is one of those rare stories that we can relate to at least one of the characters all the time.  And even relate to different ones at different times, although I truly hope I never have to directly relate to the father watching his son go off in a wrong direction carrying a feeling of unconcern for me as though I am already dead.  Heartbreaking.

Why did the father have a celebration?  Because his son "has come ... he has him back safe and sound".  What joy Jesus tells us the Father has when a lost child comes to believe in Him!  As someone with only a limited view of love by comparison to our Father in heaven I find it hard to grasp the amount and extent of that love.  God forgives fully and pours His love upon us when we come to Him.  He does not withhold Himself from us.  When we love properly, we find that all we want is to be closer to the ones we love.  We make ways to celebrate time and opportunity together.  We want to "pour" ourselves into the other person at every opportunity.  The father rejoiced greatly for he had new opportunities to love his son whom he believed was gone forever.  He was not dead to his son!

Yet the older brother was angry because he had obeyed.  There is much that can be said here regarding this older brother.  Looking at it from a ministry point-of-view, do we ever see hard-working Christians in the church who give so much of themselves to the ministry operations of the church but get agitated when someone new comes in and is celebrated?  Of course we do.  They feel like their service, their obedience, is not appreciated.  In this case their heart of purpose has to be questioned.  Are they working for their Father, or for themselves?

Similarly, when a person who commits a "bad" sin (as Reed would say) confesses and repents and starts back to the work of their Father, do we see people look upon them as unworthy and get angry because they haven't sinned but have been obedient?  Of course we do.  They feel as though they have sacrificed while another has not and they want their reward or the punishment of the sinner.  Again the purpose of the heart has to be questioned.  This is where the older brother is living in this parable.  To him, the brother was dead, but now that he was back he was a nuisance.  And his being back questioned the older brother's purpose.  Why was he obedient to his father?  What was his reward? 

We must know that being obedient to the Father is the reward because it pleases the Father (I know that is a big statement coming from a sinner like me).  That is how God knows we love Him.