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 The story in today’s gospel about the prodigal son is a familiar story to most of us here. We have been told about how the forgiveness of the father towards to the prodigal son is an example of God’s forgiveness to the wayward sinner. This is an important lesson to learn, but today I want us to look at the whole picture of family relations in this story. I believe the older son is often overlooked or even ignored. This is sad, because as a church we can learn much from the relationship of the older son with his father and his brother.
In this well known parable told by Jesus, we have three players. First there is the father, who has two sons and a fairly nice estate with servants. As the story unfolds the father is seen as filled with compassion towards both his sons, even though they both mistreat him. The unconditional love of the father towards his sons who do not love him is beyond the comprehension of Jesus’ first – century listeners.
The mistreatment of the sons begins when the younger son does not want to wait until his father dies to receive his share of the inheritance. Instead, the parable begins with the younger son going to his father and demanding his inheritance up front. As the younger son, he is not entitled to inherit the majority of the land, but he is entitled to a third of it.
According to the Jewish culture of that time, it was the responsibility of the elder son to act as a mediator between the impudent younger son and the father. Instead, the elder son is surprisingly quiet. Yet, his silence speaks volumes to the first-century listeners of this story. The elder brother showed his greed for wealth was greater than his love for his father. Because the elder son stood to receive the greater inheritance, his silence dishonors the father.
As surprising as the elder son’s refusal to demand an apology from his younger brother, the father’s action to divide his estate and fulfill his sons’ desires is even more baffling to Jesus’ listeners. The father had every right to disinherit both of his sons and to give his estate to someone else. Yet, instead of kicking both of his greedy sons out of his house, the father shows compassion that can only be described as godly. It is clear to Jesus’ listeners that this father is the Father God of Israel, who loves unconditionally. In spite of the outrageous behavior of both sons, God grants them their hearts’ desire. He divides his property between them. He gives his younger son his inheritance early and puts the remainder in what we today would call a trust for his elder son.
What follows is well known to most of us. The younger son does not prove himself worthy of his inheritance. The scriptures tell us that “A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.” The actions of the younger son are unwise. He could have acted wisely and invested his inheritance, but he ends up throwing it all away on wild living. As bad as that is, the younger son sinks even lower in depredation in the eyes of Jesus’ listeners. The scriptures state, “When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.”
For Jesus’ listeners, this is about as low as a person can go. The younger son has hit bottom. His job is to take care of pigs, which in Jewish culture are seen as unclean animals. As if that is not enough, he is not even given enough of a wage to feed himself. The unclean animals that he is tending eat better than he does.
At this point in the story, the younger son, whose greed and rebellion have brought about his ruin, has an epiphany. It finally dawns on him that the servants who work for his father are treated better than he is by his employer. So out of desperation, the younger son decides to return to his father’s home. Now this action of humility while it is seen as good on the part of the younger son, the father’s response is not expected.
The younger son’s squandering has brought shame on the family name. The father has every right to declare him no longer a son and to send him away. In fact, the younger son does not even hope to be called a son any longer, because of his rebellious ways. Instead, he heads home in great humility to beg his father to let him be a hired hand. If his father hires him, then his father will be showing unexpected mercy towards his younger son.
The father’s response towards the prodigal son was totally unexpected. Instead of sending the prodigal son away or at least showing mercy by hiring him, the father clothes his wayward son in his best robe, gives him sandals to wear and places a ring on his finger showing to all that his prodigal son has been reinstated into the family. Then the father orders a feast for his son and has the fatted calf killed in honor of his son’s homecoming saying, “for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”
At this point in the story, if you are like me, you want the elder son to rejoice with the father over his younger brother’s return home. Yet, the opposite is what happens. The elder son is furious! The father is lavishing his inheritance on the spendthrift, rebellious son who has brought dishonor to all of them. He sums it up with these words, “For all of these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”
Talk about outrage! The elder son gives his father a huge dose of it. In his anger, we are also given more insight into how the elder son sees his relationship with his father. Instead of seeing his father as his parent, the elder son sees him as his master. There is no love from the elder son to the father. The relationship is only one of material compensation. His acts of obedience are not born of love nor are they done to honor his father, instead he sees himself as his father’s slave. Yet, it is not slavery to his father that has him bound, but slavery to his own greed. Greed is the sin of both sons. The elder brother’s actions though seen outwardly as good were not done out of love. He is as guilty of sin as his younger brother whose actions were more openly seen as rooted in greed.
Yet, the father who has forgiven his younger son also reaches out to his elder son by reassuring him of his love towards him. The scripture reads, “Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
So what does this story have to say to us? If the father is God, then who are the sons? The younger son is clearly those who break away from the Lord to live as they please, but who repent and are reinstated into the family of God. The elder son are those who are obedient to God by their actions, but do not give their hearts to the Lord. They see obedience to God as a duty or even slavery instead of being obedient out of love for the Lord.
In the gospel of Mark, Jesus in summing up the law instructs us on the importance of loving the Lord. The scripture states, “Jesus said, ‘The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” Loving the Lord supersedes all actions of obedience. We can obey every law of God, but if our hearts are not right with the Lord, then it is we who suffer for we cannot love one another if we do not first love the Lord. This is why the first commandment of Christ is for us to love the Lord. Only then can we obey Christ’s second commandment which is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Because the elder son did not love his father, he could not love his younger brother. Yet, his refusal to love his father did not stop his father from loving him. In this story, Jesus is teaching us the importance of loving the Lord God and also of the unfailing love of God’s love for us. As Christians, it is so easy to look down on those who rebel against the Lord and to overlook our own failure in not giving our all to the Lord. It is so easy to point out the sins of those who are in open rebellion against the laws of God. Yet, we too are in sin if our obedience to the Lord has become a duty instead of an act of love.
Before we tell others to repent, we need to first be reconciled to our Father God. Only then, can we be reconciled to one another. Lest we think too highly of ourselves, we need to remember that our righteousness does not come from ourselves, but through Jesus Christ who reconciled us to God through his sacrifice for us.
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