The Elder Brother in Me, Luke 15

This week’s message is called “The Elder Brother in Me".  As we study Luke 15 and the famous parable about the “prodigal son”, Luke makes it clear that the main focus of Jesus’ teaching is actually the elder brother. Jesus is responding to the grumbling Pharisees and scribes who are offended that Jesus actually welcomes and dines with tax collectors and sinners. The elder brother is offended at the grace and love and approval that the Father shows towards the reckless and disreputable younger brother. 

All of us have a little of both brothers in us. Some of us lean towards trying to save our lives by throwing off all restraint and the shackles of religion and family expectations. We want to be free to live without anyone telling us how we ought to live. Others of us are decent, moral, hardworking elder brothers. We are respectable, reliable, and religious. Both brothers have a problem. Their path to self-salvation doesn’t work. The younger brother sees his lusts leave him empty-handed and alone. The elder brother feels that his sacrifice and hard work isn’t appropriately rewarded. So, the pendulum often swings within us. We get frustrated with trying to be good so we give ourselves to sin and self-indulgence. Or we are frustrated with the emptiness of sin and self-indulgence so we try to compensate by serving and working at being a better person. The answer in Jesus’ parable is not religion or irreligion. It is the grace of God in the gospel of the kingdom. Come this Sunday as we look at the elder brother tendency in each of us and flee to our only hope for true joy – Jesus Himself.

 

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