The Myth--or Misrepresentation--of the Older Brother
This morning, being Sunday, I heard preachers on the radio on the way to and from church and to do my Sunday errands of visiting my disabled brother and, unfortunately, shopping at Sam's Club (a disaster on any day).
This famous pastor, a godly man, was "going off" on the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son (which, by the way, means wasteful son, not wild and crazy guy son). But the word prodigal is not used in the text anyway. I have others go in this same direction, saying scandalous things about this man about whom the text really says little.
Preachers seems to go in one of two directions--they stress how awful, culturally, the younger son was (and he is--if you've ever had anyone in your family like this, you know). The other direction is to say how wicked, evil, demonic, legalistic, unthankful, judgmental, etc. etc. the older brother is.
Rhetorical flourishes become the point rather than Jesus' point--that the Father accepts both. We don't have to make sin worse than it is to glorify God's grace. The text does not pass judgment on the older son (it does the younger), but shows he must accept those whom God accepts, no matter what their sin. And, that moral lives lived in the past do not exclude you from the need for the same grace.
But the older brother is not the world's biggest jerk. He is not condemned for being faithful; he is not just waiting for the Father to die so he gets everything; he has suffered at the hands of the younger son's sin, too; he has watched the Father suffer, also. Civilization exists because of older brothers, the ones who do the right thing, who take care of the farm and the aging parents, either out of obligation and sometimes with frustration and resentment. But the Kingdom ethic says we all need grace and don't get to have levels of need for grace.
This famous pastor, a godly man, was "going off" on the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son (which, by the way, means wasteful son, not wild and crazy guy son). But the word prodigal is not used in the text anyway. I have others go in this same direction, saying scandalous things about this man about whom the text really says little.
Preachers seems to go in one of two directions--they stress how awful, culturally, the younger son was (and he is--if you've ever had anyone in your family like this, you know). The other direction is to say how wicked, evil, demonic, legalistic, unthankful, judgmental, etc. etc. the older brother is.
Rhetorical flourishes become the point rather than Jesus' point--that the Father accepts both. We don't have to make sin worse than it is to glorify God's grace. The text does not pass judgment on the older son (it does the younger), but shows he must accept those whom God accepts, no matter what their sin. And, that moral lives lived in the past do not exclude you from the need for the same grace.
But the older brother is not the world's biggest jerk. He is not condemned for being faithful; he is not just waiting for the Father to die so he gets everything; he has suffered at the hands of the younger son's sin, too; he has watched the Father suffer, also. Civilization exists because of older brothers, the ones who do the right thing, who take care of the farm and the aging parents, either out of obligation and sometimes with frustration and resentment. But the Kingdom ethic says we all need grace and don't get to have levels of need for grace.
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