The Elder Brother

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2fjb85

Jealousy is not attractive. But then, neither are stubbornness, anger, outrages, self-centeredness and a lack of love. To find each of these in one person is not a very pleasant image.

One of the truly sad lessons in Luke 15 comes in the latter portion of the parable of the prodigal son. That younger son had made some terrible decisions. He forced an early division of his father’s inheritance. One portion went to himself and a double portion to his older brother.

He decided to leave his family and venture into a strange country. While there he spent, or rather, wasted his inheritance on his lifestyle. Friends were surely in good numbers while the money was there. But then it ran out and his friends ran off.

Finally the younger son was forced to feed swine and was so filled with hunger that he almost ate their food with them. Then he realized that he had made a terrible mistake. With humility and repentance, he returns to his father expecting to be a servant for life. Instead he is greeted warmly and joy fills the house. The lost is found; the dead is alive.

While this is going on the elder brother approaches the house and soon becomes filled with jealousy. His focus is not on the joy of finding his lost brother. Rather his focus is on criticizing the actions of his father’s son.

Here is that account from Luke 15:25-32.

“Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’

“But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘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. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’

“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 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.’”

Isn’t it sad to think that some people are unwilling to share the joy with others who return to God? This older brother’s actions soon showed his real focus and that was on himself. But this really wasn’t about the older brother at all. The younger brother’s actions were against the father, not the brother. In fact one might argue that the older brother benefited from his younger brother going off since the inheritance was divided early.

Hopefully the Pharisees saw a little bit, or a great deal, of the older son in themselves. They were totally consumed with their own standing and had little regard for the spiritual welfare of others. When Jesus came to seek and save the lost, they cried “foul” wanting any attention to be paid to the righteous and not the sinners.

God loved the world so much that He gave His Son to die for us. Jesus loved us so much that He willingly laid down His life so that we might have forgiveness of sins. None of us deserved those expressions of love. Yet God offers them and calls upon us to love others as He has loved us.

But the older brother just couldn’t bring himself to share in the joy of others receiving the attention for now being found. Interestingly it was the older brother himself who shut himself out of his father’s house by his own refusal to participate in that joyful celebration.

Isn’t it sad to think that some may still have the older brother complex today? That some would rather cut themselves off from the blessings of the Father rather than to share in the joy of one who comes back from the dead and is found after having been lost?

The arrogant boasts about not having transgressed against his father certainly look out of place when heard from such a self-centered, jealous, angry and stubborn son.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we fight the temptation to think poorly of anyone who turns their life to God. May we determine to make every effort possible to help celebrate their transformation from sin to sanctification.

Our thought for the day: “Jealousy shoots at others and wounds herself.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.