The Prodigal Son and Our Belovedness in the Father, Part III

Selections from Part III of a talk I gave on the Parable of the Prodigal Son
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Part III: The Invitation – Resistance and Humility

While the YS was away from home and while the father was waiting, what could the older son have been doing all along?  Holding onto grudges?  Upset with the father because he gave the younger brother the share of the inheritance?  He is stuck with all the work? 

Upon hearing the rejoicing and celebrating, the older son is confused as to what is happening.  He is angry, upset, and jealous.  He does not understand the father.  You must know someone before you can understand them.  Even though the son has been with the father all this time, he does not know him. Do we know the father?  Do I know that I am His beloved?

The father comes out.  Again, the father comes.  He initiates.  He comforts.  He consoles.  He pleads with the son.  Just imagine that scene.  A son standing outside of the home, not willing to go in, where there is rejoicing and celebrating because his brother came back home.  This son is resentful. He does not think this son deserves this kind of welcoming.  He doesn’t even know why he is here – he took his share already.  But the father comes out and tries to persuade him to go in.  The father invites the elder son to the celebration.  The father pleads for reconciliation.  Just like the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 to seek the one lost sheep, so does this father. 

Again, even though he has been home all this time, he does know the father.  The son says to the father “All these years I have served you.”  The son says he stayed close by and served the father.  To the elder son, the relationship he had with the father was contractual – boss and worker.  And he says, “and have not disobeyed your orders.” All this son worried about was getting the job done.  Making sure everything is the way it should be.  We are told that the older son represents the Pharisees.  As long as I follow the rules and do everything by the books, I should be rewarded, and then I will be deserving.  But the problem was that he’s not a worker, he is son.  But the son could not see this.  He did not understand the relationship.  His heart has been hardened.  Peter Chrysologus says “It [Jewish people] stands outside because of jealousy… It does not wish to enter… Through jealousy, it remains outside.  In horror, it judges its Gentile brother by its own ancient customs, and meanwhile, it is depriving itself of its Father’s goods and excluding itself from his joys.” 

The elder compares himself with the YS.  And he uses words like “your son” and pointing out the sins and faults of the younger son, and perhaps things that he thought he may have used his money on.  But when he refers to himself, it’s only how well he’s kept the rules and worked on the land. 

The Father affirms the older son’s sonship “My son, you are here with me always.”  He calls him Son, not servant as the son feels and believes.  In Greek Luke actually used a term for son that means “child” and expression of ultimate tenderness and intimacy.  Notice that the son does not address the father as “father” as the YS does.  He also reminds him of what belongs to him: everything.  Because the son did not know who he was, he could not understand who the father was and what they relationship was.  And this lack of understanding blinded the elder son from seeing that his father has been with him and has continually offered everything to him, but he only saw what he wanted to see.  This son only remembers the bad things, the unhappy memories.  He prefers darkness to light.  He prefers sorrow to joy.  He prefers grudges to forgiveness.  He is holding onto the past, and he is allowing the past to affect his present and future.  The past is preventing him from living in the present.  There is a lot of resistance here.  The older son was resistant to the Father’s love and invitation.  He held on to the grudge and resentment. Am I holding onto a grudge right now?  Has someone sought forgiveness but I refused to give it? 

Like the YG, this elder son too has traveled to a distant country.  However, this traveling away was one of the mind and heart.  Though he was physically closer to the father, he was much farther away than the YG was from the father.  This kind of distance is much more difficult to travel back than the physical kind.  Just as the YG was enslaved by worldly pleasures, the elder son was enslaved by the past.  By holding on so tightly to the past and onto grudges, he has become a slave to it, not allowing himself to live in the freedom of a son.  This son has forgotten who he was.  He no longer understood the relationship.  He was lost because he has forgotten about the father.  There was no father, only boss.  “If today you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts” (Ps. 95:7-8).    

The Father wanted reconciliation.  He wanted his family to be together.  The celebration was not just for the YS, it was for the elder son too.  The fattened calf was for him too.  He has been with the father.  Where the father is, so too is the son.  He forgot he was son.  If the elder son claimed his identity, this would look completely different.   The elder son would be with the father every step of the way.  We do not know if the elder son ever traveled back home and if he went inside the home to rejoice with the family.  We do not know if there was reconciliation.  Are there relationships in my life that needs reconciliation?  How do we respond when the other person does not want reconciliation?