The True Older Brother

My wife and I have been praying for the White family and the medical team working with them. In my personal experience I have yet to find something scarier than one of my children in the hospital.

That being said, on the phone with Keith he told me that even now God is good. What I want to do this morning is simply tell you about God and his goodness.

This morning we will be in , focusing on verses 11-32, but it is also important to see what prompts the telling of the parable in verses 1-2, and we will look at 3-10 later on as well.

So if you would turn to in your Bibles and join me in prayer as we open God’s word this morning.

Prayer

Father,

You are holy and you are good, we ask as we open your word this morning that you revive and remind us of the joy of our salvation, a joy that is ultimately not about what we receive from you, but that we receive you. The greatest gift is that you have given of yourself. You gave us your son and in turn the two of you have given us your Spirit. And when all is said and done we dwell with you. Thank you Father. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be honorable in your site this morning.

Amen

and 11- 32

English Standard Version Chapter 15

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

English Standard Version Chapter 15

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

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 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

Telling the Story

In order to understand this parable. We have to take note of what is happening in verses 1 and 2. Jesus is at a meal with tax collectors and sinners. Just to be sure we are all on the same page, allow me to outline these two groups of people.

Tax collectors were some of the most hated people in Israel. They were jewish people, who had been hired by the Roman government to collect taxes from the members of their community. “They often made sizeable profits by levying higher taxes than Rome required. Consequently, Jews regarded Jewish tax collectors as traitors and as members of the lowest level of society.”

Just to be sure we are all on the same page, allow me to outline these two groups of people.

John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), .

Similarly sinners could be a sort of junk drawer term, or it could indicate someone involved in a repetitive notorious sort of sin, read prostitution. Whatever “sinners” refers to, the implication is that these individuals are excluded from the Jewish community due to sinful manner of life.

Furthermore one prominent commentator notes:

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke 7. Calling Levi (5:27–32)

The Pharisees’ complaint is specifically directed to the act of eating and drinking because in their society table fellowship implied mutual acceptance. No act, apart from participation in the actual sinful deeds of the guests, could have broken the wall of separation more dramatically

Witnessing this jarring scene of a prominent rabbi, the Pharisees criticize Jesus, who responds with three illustrative stories. This story being the third and most detailed.

Jesus beings by introducing us to the three characters. A father and two sons. This sets us up for a triadic parable, an illustrative story whose main point is found in the relationship between these three characters.

The first thing we encounter in terms of that relationship is the younger son’s request for his share of the estate. He wants his inheritance now. The youngest son is doing something deeply insulting here. Inheritances are usually passed on upon the father’s death. This son’s insistence on having it early, along with his move to “a far country” at what is likely the soonest opportunity (“not many days later”).

Inheritance

We are told that the son spends the money on “reckless living.” Subsequently the land he has traveled to experiences a famine so bad that this boy (implied of Jewish decent) hires himself out to feed pigs—and he longs for what the pigs ate.

The pivot of the story is framed by the lines “when he came to himself.” He has a revelation, a realization, a brainwave—I am here starving while my father’s servants live well. So he goes home. If this were a film, this is the part where you would build suspense. You would want your audience to be asking ‘will he take him back?’ or ‘will he get his comeuppance?’ Maybe you have shots of how the family farm is struggling because they had to liquidate assets for the younger sons departure. Maybe you show the older son and the Father working in the fields together and bonding. Instead of building tension though Jesus gives us a climax without suspense.

English Standard Version Chapter 15

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Resolutionless ending

Everything would be totally fine and dandy if the story ended there. But it doesn’t.

The father comes out again. He came out of the house to the ashamed son returning, he comes out of the house to the prideful son raging.

The father uses fraternal language—referring to the younger son as “your brother” —in hopes of building relationship. But the older brother disavows (“this son of yours”)

There is a sense of strong discontent displayed by the older brother. He is not a joyful worker, the father is a task-master to him:

English Standard Version Chapter 15

Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke c. The Lost Son (15:11–32)

The son became angry; but the father “went out,” as he had for the younger brother, and “pleaded” rather than scolded. The older son’s abrupt beginning—“Look!” (v. 29)—betrays a disrespectful attitude toward his father. Likewise, “slaving” is hardly descriptive of a warm family relationship. “You never gave me,” whether true or not, shows a long smoldering discontent. “This son of yours” (ho huios sou houtos, v. 30) avoids acknowledging that the prodigal is his own brother, a disclaimer the father corrects by the words “this brother of yours” (v. 32). The older brother’s charges include sharp criticism of both father and brother. The story has made no mention of hiring prostitutes (v. 30).

The response of the older son derails our ending and leaves us with no true resolution.

Typical Understanding

I find this story utterly fascinating. I am captivated by it. I am to be honest deeply disturbed by it.

This story runs headlong into the messages of our culture, the molds and character types of our culture, and confronts them with the harsh realities of the human heart.

You see it all

In fact, I believe this passage’s message is so counter-cultural that we far to often miss the point. In fact, I dare say, and believe you me, I do not say lightly that most Bible’s prime you to miss read the passage.

Priming is an interesting thing. It is a psychological phenomena or technique where by:

exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention.

I checked the most common Bible translations used and almost all of them prime us to read the passage in the same way.

ESV - Parable of the Prodigal Son

Lack of Resolution

NIV - Parable of the Lost Son

NAS - The Prodigal Son

NKJV - Parable of the Lost Son

Mes - The Story of the Lost Son

Each of these titles encourages us to read the parable as if the emphasis is on the younger son. We are encouraged to see a dichotomy:

Rule-follower vs. Rebel

Good kid vs. Bad kid

In-God’s-Will vs. Out-of-God’s-Will

But this parable presents with two sons that are in trouble, two sons that problematic views of their father. Sure the younger son is the college dropout, sure the younger son moved to a deeply secular big city, sure the younger son’s social media account has pictures with questionable substances and a number of scantly clad girls, sure the younger son repudiated the faith and hasn’t been to church (in literally) only God knows how long. But did you hear the response from the older brother?

In the last few verses we find out that the older brother hears about the party and is upset. Not just upset, he is livid. A few very important things take place in the last few verses:

The father comes out again. He came out of the house to the ashamed son returning, he comes out of the house to the prideful son raging.

The father uses fraternal language—referring to the younger son as “your brother” —in hopes of building relationship. But the older son disavows the younger (“this son of yours”).

There is a sense of strong discontent displayed by the older brother. He is not a joyful worker, the father is a task-master to him:

English Standard Version Chapter 15

Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

The response of the older son derails our ending and leaves us with no true resolution. Jesus’ point here is that there are two ways to be lost.

The liberal way is obvious—you push back, you rebel, you break the rules. This all usually gets classified under the banner of self-discovery. I need to leave and find myself, eschew the parents, tradition, and expectations. I am going to define myself, to discover right and wrong for myself, to live how I want to live—true to myself.

The conservative way is less obvious—you do all that is required of you. You go to church, you didn’t party in high school or college, you got respectable grades, on a surface level you did all that was required. We could call this mere moral conformity.

What do these two brothers have in common.

“Neither son loved the father for himself. They both were using the farther for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying and serving him for his own sake.” Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God

They both want God’s things but they have a false view of God. The younger brother wants God’s things to enjoy, but thinks that God is withholding them from him. Take sex for example. The younger son looks at sex and says that seems like fun and he hears the father saying “no!” So he hates the father and seeks to obtain it apart from the father.

Why is this false. God created sex, God wants humanity to enjoy sex. How do I know that? What is the first command in the Bible? To be fruitful and multiply. But what does God say about sex? Sex, according to the Bible, is so powerful it can only be properly enjoyed within the boundaries of an equally powerful institution. The younger son heard “no!” but what was really said was “not yet.” And the “not yet” was for the younger son’s good, but his view of God has cut off that option.

The older son wants God’s things too, but he sees God as withholding until you are proven worthy, until you earn it. His obedience is driven a miserly view of God. The older son views God as a curmudgeonly old relative with immense wealth. If he can just stay in his good graces until he kicks the bucket then all that wealth will be his. But he too cares nothing for the father. You see this not only in his response to the other son’s return, but in overlooking his own failure. Notice this (v.29):

English Standard Version Chapter 15

I never disobeyed your command

To this son the issue is external obedience, not joyful service. He never disobeyed, meaning he never violated the explicit commands of his father. But did he want to and long to accomplish the desires of the father’s heart? I don’t think so. I think Jesus is getting at this with the two parables he tells immediately before this one.

Proceeding Parables

English Standard Version Chapter 15

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Proceeding Parables

English Standard Version Chapter 15

8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Do you see the common recipe in those first two?

Something of immense value is lost.

Someone diligently and thoroughly seeks the lost item.

The lost item is found.

Rejoice at regaining that which was lost.

This parable is told in stark contrast there are similar elements, but the differences between the sheep, coin, and sons is critical, not superficial.

Someone of immense value is lost.

(______________________________)

The lost one “comes to his senses” and returns.

Rejoice at regaining that which was lost.

The dramatic difference is that the lost son is never sought. It seems clear to me that the old brother was supposed to go seeking his lost brother. If he really wanted to do what the father desired rather than merely what the father commanded then he would have packed up and gone looking for him.

Lost > not sought > “he comes to himself” > returns

Which, by the way, did you catch the moment that triggered the telling of this story?

Lost and Not Found

Tax collectors and sinners are eating with Jesus and Pharisees (the religious leaders and teachers) are criticizing him. What is happening? Jesus is with the younger brothers of Israel! The older brother is a stand in for the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who use their mere external obedience to God’s law as a barrier to separate themselves, to look down on others, and to force God into giving them his wealth.

The true older brother

Conclusion

Jesus came for many reasons, one of which is illustrated here. The older sons of Israel rejected the younger ones. As such Jesus comes, taking on the mantel of brother. He will be the true older brother—seeking and saving the lost at great personal cost to himself. He will be the true older son who sees the desire of the father to save and spends his life to accomplish the father’s will!

God is the true spendthrift (meaning of prodigal)

Which actually means I should amend something I said earlier. I criticized modern Bible translations for priming us to misread this parable, but I wasn’t entirely accurate. We only misread the parable if we don’t pay attention to the original meaning of words.

We have been sought

You see prodigal means “spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.” Or “having or giving something on a lavish scale.”

Prodigal

So the parable is about a prodigal son or more accurately it points us to the prodigal son. The Son who recklessly spends his life to seek and save the lost sons of God.

adjective

Conclusion: Which means this for us

You are being sought

having or giving something on a lavish scale.

If you are in here and do not consider yourself a Christian. Maybe you are just checking Christianity or Gospel Community Church out. You are being sought by a God who loves you, who gave his son for you. You might be a mess. He doesn’t care, he can clean you. You might have done some pretty bad things. That’s okay, he can forgive you. Maybe it is not simply what you have done, but it is who you are. He can make you a new person.

We have been sought

For those of you in here who call yourself a “Christian” know that you are so because you were sought. You may have lived a clean life obeying commands and doing what you were told or you may have lived a reckless life and ended up in life’s pig stye, either way you were lost, you were sought, and now you are found. This should humble us and this should draw out our praise to join (as Luke says) the chorus of angels in heaven rejoicing.

So let us seek

Very few people have the realization of the younger son in this story. Very few will come to themselves or their senses without exterior input. We need to seek. We who have been saved can mimic our true older brother Christ by reaching out to those around us.

But I am not an evangelist, apologist, or theologian. I don’t know the answers to the questions I will get. That’s okay. I’m not asking you to be one. I am asking you to take a step

Prayer (step to the side)

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive The Prodigal Sons

Our Father, tonight we are listening to what your Son has told us. In my entire life, in all of my reading and in all of my study of the Scripture, this is the place where you have most clearly shown me the uniqueness of the gospel and its transforming power. That certainly couldn’t be true of everybody else out there. You’ll speak to other people through different passages of Scripture, but I pray you would change some lives tonight.

I pray there would be some people who will never forget this sermon as long as they live, not because it was so eloquently expressed but because it will keep jumping out of the pages at them as they read it over the years, and they will see how much you can change our lives. Father, thank you for this time. We pray it all in Jesus’ name, amen.

Father in Heaven,

Your name is holy and your character is love. You are good and gracious. Some of us rebel externally, some of us rebel internally with superficial obedience. But all have been or are currently lost. We thank you that you are a God who seeks the lost, forgives the sinner, and makes us new creations.

Help us, by your Spirit, to know ourselves in light of you and to see the tendencies we have to rebel and to come home. Create in us clean hearts and restore to us the joy of salvation.