Today's passage is Luke 15:25-32. The older brother angrily refuses to join the party for his brother. When his father begs him to join the celebration, the son complains, comparing his good behavior to his brother's bad. The father says the young son has returned while the obedient one never left.
Why does the older brother ask a servant what's going on instead of finding out directly himself?
Why does the father go out to him instead of ordering him to come in?
The older son's angry self-righteousness estranges him from his father no less than the prodigality of the younger one.
The father shows his love for the younger one through the celebratory welcome. He shows his love for the older son by humbling himself and going out to him to try to persuade him to come in.
Such loving compassion this father has!
How well his sons and his circumstances trained him to humbly, generously, joyfully do what he does for his boys! What a great picture of God the Father.
I cried when I read today's passage because I suddenly saw myself so clearly in the angry self-righteousness of the older son.
Although I was never as obedient as he, I felt I was more obedient than many other people I knew.
I felt I deserved more than I was getting in life.
Angry complaint characterized me more than I want to remember.
Always I compared myself favorably to others.
Always I was superior and deserved more.
Somehow I am like both the sons.
I am like the prodigal son because I have repeatedly risked everything for selfish self-indulgent without counting the cost and ended up with nothing but hardship and suffering.
I am also the angry, complaining older son with a self-righteous sense of entitlement.
Even though I have everything I need, I lack an attitude of entering joyfully into someone else's moment of sunlight.
I cannot let go of myself and be free to love and celebrate, just like the older son.
Yesterday I went to get new glasses.
It was near the end of the day and the shop was busy and the workers were tired but polite.
Suddenly, someone said something which triggered one of the workers to sing a line from a song, which in turn made another worker make a comment, which another worker reacted to with a long and loud laugh and before any of us knew what was happening all the staff were in a party mood.
Some of the customers joined in the fun.
For a while I remain judgmentally aloof.
I considered the bad singing and unsophisticated comments beneath my dignity!
I wanted calm efficiency. I wanted to be served quickly and with respect.
When I realized how pompous I was behaving, I said a quick apology to God and relaxed into the atmosphere of fun that was there to unite us all. God's gift of a moment.
Application: try to be more like the father, not the sons.
Lord, open my spirit to your inivitation to celebrate my salvation and that of others.
