The Other Brother

Delivered June 3, 2012 Video

Luke 15:25-32

Last autumn I preached at the Sandwich Fair on the stage at 8:30 on Sunday morning. It was fun, and I plan to do it again this year. I preached on the stories in the Gospel of Luke chapter 15 – the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. This last story is better known as the parable of the prodigal son. I did these in three short sermonettes, interspersed with music that the Reads played and sung. I omitted the second part of the story of the prodigal son – the parable of the older brother. I just didn’t have the time. That is not unusual among preachers. The other son is often neglected in the telling the story of the prodigal son. He is the Rodney Dangerfield of Bible characters; he don’t get no respect. So today I am going to dedicate this whole message to him. I am going to talk about the other brother, the older brother of the prodigal son. He is the nonprodigal or the unprodigal. He does not get equal time in most sermons, so he will get his full share this morning.

Unfortunately to tell his story I have to at least tell his younger brother’s story briefly in order to put it in context. And there may be some of you who don’t know the story. A certain man had two sons. The younger son got an itching to leave the farm, to go places and see things. He wanted to see the world, make his fortune and never look back. So he asked for his inheritance that he would normally receive when his father died. Surprisingly his father gave it to him, and off he went to a far country. And there it says “he wasted his possessions in prodigal living.” The word prodigal means “to spend money or resources freely, recklessly, wastefully in an extravagant manner.” He is like the person who wins the lottery and is broke again in a few years.

After a few years of living it up, a depression hit that country. His money was gone, and in order to survive he had to take the lowliest job he could find. He realized what a mess he had made of his life, and he hoped that perhaps he could return home and work as a servant on his father’s estate. At least he would be better off back home than he was there in the far country. So he set off to return home, rehearsing his apology to this father the whole way. When he got within sight of his home, suddenly his dad came running down the dirt road. This father hugged him, and wouldn’t even listen to the speech he had prepared. He called the servants to kill the fatted calf and hold a feast to celebrate that his son, whom he thought he would never see again, had come home.

That is where the story of the other brother begins. Up to this point he is not even mentioned. The prodigal gets all the attention. Preachers will wax eloquent about the unconditional love of the father, who symbolizes God. They will talk about how it doesn’t matter what you have done and what a mess you have made of your life, God the Father welcomes you with open arms, forgives you, and invites you back into his family and into his heavenly home. It is a great story and these are all wonderful points, and like other pastors I have preached it often. But what about the other brother? We are going to look at the story of the other brother today. I am going to describe this man under three headings.

I. First he was the Good Son. He was the oldest son. Psychologists have linked certain personality traits to birth order.  Psychologist Kevin Leman says about firstborns: “Firstborns are natural leaders. They tend to be reliable, conscientious and perfectionists who don't like surprises. Although, firstborns are typically aggressive, many are also compliant people pleasers. They are model children who have a strong need for approval from anyone in charge.” There is no middle child in this story so I will skip over that description and go on to the last born.  He says, “Babies of the family are social and outgoing, they are the most financially irresponsible of all birth orders. They just want to have a good time. … These kids love the limelight. While lastborns may be charming, they also have the potential to be manipulative, spoiled or babied to the point of helplessness.” We have three children. When I read the traits of first born, last born and middle children, I see a lot of resemblances to our three children. Birth order also helps to explain what is going on in this biblical story.

The older son in this story was the good son. He is the obedient son. He says to the father in our story: “Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time.”  That is the firstborn. He is the responsible one. He is hard working. When the prodigal comes home, this older brother is out in the field working. He is out there all the time the reunion and preparations for the party are going on. He didn’t even know that his brother had come home until the end of the day. He was walking home after work, and he heard all the music and partying, and wondered what was going on. “²⁵ “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.” This is the kid who always did the right thing. He played by the rules.

When Jesus was telling this story he probably had the religious leaders of his day in mind as his models of the older brother. It is always important to remember the audience that Jesus is telling his parables to. The opening verse of this chapter tells us “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. ² And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” ³ So He spoke this parable to them….” It seems to me that Jesus is saying that religious folks, and especially religious leaders, tend to be more like the older brother than the younger brother. Maybe that is why we tend to overlook the story of the older brother; it hits too close to home. I am a firstborn. I am an older brother, and I am a religious leader. So I have a double reason to be oversensitive to the faults of this older brother. Perhaps many religious people do.

Religious folks tend to value obedience to God. We sing the hymn “Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.” That is what the older brother did. That is what the younger brother did not do. He broke all the rules but was welcomed home as if he had done nothing wrong. Religious people put a high value on ethics. I watch a show every week on PBS entitled Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. The two – religion and ethics - naturally go together. Religious people place a high value on morality and responsibility. We confess our sins and try to do better. We talk a lot about justice. We try to be unselfish and to make this world a better place. We try to be good people. We are – I will speak for myself here – I am the older brother.

II. Second, the other brother was the Angry Son. Look how he responds when he hears that his younger brother has come home broke and that his father has thrown a welcome home party for him as if he were a returning hero. The servant tells him “‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ The older brother responds in the next verse: ²⁸ “But he was angry and would not go in.” Why was this older brother so angry? I think there was a lot going on in this guy’s head and heart. For one thing he was “out of the loop.” He did not even know this reunion was going on. He had to ask a servant what the music and laughter was all about. That could not make him feel good. Next to his father he was the second in command, and here he is not even informd what was going on. No one like feeling like an outsider, being the last person to know something, being the one that people forget to tell. That is how the other brother felt.

He also felt unappreciated. Listen to what he says to his father when the father finally comes out of the party to talk to his oldest boy. “‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. ³⁰ But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ He feels like he has been taken for granted. He has been slaving for his father and for the family business, and his dad never threw him a thank-you party. He feels like life has been treating him unfairly. He does not think it is right that his reprobate brother gets all the attention and love whereas he has done all the work.

A lot of people feel this way about God. I have known Christians who felt like God had treated them unfairly. They felt like they had been good Christians – they believed in God, worshiped and served God, and yet God didn’t seem to keep his end of the bargain. God let a loved one die. God let a serious illness strike them or their family. They thought that if they were faithful and did what was right, then God would protect them and their family –give them what they needed to live and keep them from harm. When that didn’t happen, they got angry. Then when they saw bad people, who scoffed at God and did not try to do what was right, blessed with money and wealth, then that rubbed salt in the wound. They cried “Foul. Unfair. Unjust. This is wrong, God.” They get angry at God and won’t go into his house anymore.” That is what the older brother did, and what some people do today. They are angry at God. They are angry with those sinners in the church. That older brother thought he was just as good if not better than his brother or any of those people having a good time in that party. And he was mad that he was not appreciated the way he ought to be. He was the angry son.

III. Third, this other brother was the Accepted Son … and didn’t know it. Now we come to the climax of the story. In the parable of the prodigal son, the climax was when the prodigal finds himself in the arms of the father, forgiven and accepted unconditionally. For the older brother it is a very similar scene. Once again the father goes out to meet the son. But this time the son will not embrace his father. He is not repentant and will not come into the Father’s house. But still the Father goes out into the darkness of the night to get him. Verse 28 says, “Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.” This father should not have to plead, but he does, because he loves his sons – both of them. He loves his older son just as much as his younger son. Listen to what the father says to him in verse 31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. ³² It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

He says “You are always with me.” We are always with God. People are looking for God. They say they are on a spiritual search; they are seeking to know God. But the reality is that we are always with God. We are always in the presence of God,, if we just open our eyes. That is my definition of heaven – being in the presence of God. My definition of hell is the absence of God. When Jesus described hell he described it as “outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That describes the older son pretty well. He has willfully stayed out of the party, which in this story is the symbol for heaven. He put himself into self-imposed exile, staying in the darkness outside while a party of forgiveness and joy is going on inside. Apparently all the time that the younger brother was away, the older son felt excluded and unloved, and he is only expressing it now. He spent his life trying to earn his father’s love, but doesn’t feel like he has it. And he resents the obvious fact that his no-good brother has received this love. So the father comes out into the darkness and says, “I have always loved you and always been with you. Please come into the house.” This older son was always loved and accepted but didn’t know it.

Next the father says, “All I have is yours.” The older son complained that his father never even gave him a goat to have a party with his friends. But the father says, “What do you mean? All I have is yours!” That is literally true. Remember that early in the story the father divided the inheritance between his two sons. Furthermore the inheritance laws gave the firstborn a double potion. The older son got two thirds of the estate, and the prodigal son only one third. Yet this older son still felt like he had nothing. He felt poor. I know people like this - who are rich materially but they feel poor. They always feel insecure, like they don’t have enough. That is the way many of us are with God. The truth is that we are rich in God – in spiritual things. We are sons and daughters of the King. The Kingdom of God is ours, now. But like the older son, we don’t realize it.

Finally the father says to the son, “³² It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’” The older son resented the forgiveness and welcome extended to the younger son. Some people don’t think it is right that God forgives people after they have done terrible things. It doesn’t seem fair that the murderer on death row can confess his sins and be forgiven by God, and be welcomed into heaven just like people who have tried all their lives to live right and serve God. It seems unjust and unfair. Jesus in this parable is saying that we need to get over it. That is what the grace of God is all about. And God offers that grace to all of us – the good son and the bad son, those of us who are the prodigal and those of us who are the firstborn. To all he comes into our darkness and meets us in our sin and pleads for us to come in and join the resurrection party. “³² It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”