Luke 15:29, now listen to the older brother’s speech, because it is one of the most revealing monologues in the entire Bible. Look, all these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Count the poison in that sentence. Slaving, not serving, not living alongside slaving, he saw his relationship with his father as slavery, he was in the father’s house, but he experienced it as a prison. The younger brother left home and ended up in slavery, the older brother stayed home and felt like a slave, same result, different geography. Never disobeyed your orders. Orders, not wishes, not heart, orders, the older brother reduced his entire relationship with his father to a transaction. I obey your orders, you owe me a reward, that is not a son talking to a father, that is an employee talking to a boss.
Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. Never gave me, do you hear the entitlement, the bitterness, this man has lived in a house of abundance his entire life and he feels cheated, he has had access to everything the father owns and he feels deprived, he has been in the father’s presence every single day and he feels ignored. This is the older brother’s tragedy, he had everything, he just never enjoyed any of it, he was so focused on earning what was already freely his, that he could not receive it as a gift, he turned grace into a wage and when the wage did not meet his expectations, he became furious.
How many of you do this with God? How many of you serve him out of obligation instead of love? How many of you obey out of fear instead of joy? How many of you read the Bible, pray, go to church, do all the right things and deep down you are keeping score, God, I have done everything right, where is my reward, why does that person get blessed when I am the one who has been faithful. There is a version of this that is so common in churches, that nobody even recognizes it as a problem anymore.
It is the person who has been a Christian for 32 years and is secretly furious at the new convert who gets all the attention. It is the worship leader who has served every Sunday for a decade and burns with resentment when a newcomer with a better voice joins the team. It is the missionary who sacrificed everything for the field and cannot stand the thought that someone who lived for themselves until age 42 receives the same well done, good and faithful servant. The older brother’s sin is not dramatic, it does not make headlines, it does not land you in a pigsty, it sits quietly in the pews, smiling on the outside, boiling on the inside and it is the most dangerous form of lostness in the world, because it looks exactly like faithfulness.
If that sounds familiar, you are the older brother and you are as far from the father’s heart as the younger brother ever was in the pigsty, because the younger brother’s sin was obvious, it was messy and public and everyone could see it, but the older brother’s sin was invisible, it was hidden under obedience, dressed in religious clothing and it was in many ways far more dangerous, because the older brother did not know he was lost. The younger brother knew he was in a pigsty, the older brother had no idea he was standing in one.
Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. Never gave me, do you hear the entitlement, the bitterness, this man has lived in a house of abundance his entire life and he feels cheated, he has had access to everything the father owns and he feels deprived, he has been in the father’s presence every single day and he feels ignored. This is the older brother’s tragedy, he had everything, he just never enjoyed any of it, he was so focused on earning what was already freely his, that he could not receive it as a gift, he turned grace into a wage and when the wage did not meet his expectations, he became furious.
How many of you do this with God? How many of you serve him out of obligation instead of love? How many of you obey out of fear instead of joy? How many of you read the Bible, pray, go to church, do all the right things and deep down you are keeping score, God, I have done everything right, where is my reward, why does that person get blessed when I am the one who has been faithful. There is a version of this that is so common in churches, that nobody even recognizes it as a problem anymore.
It is the person who has been a Christian for 32 years and is secretly furious at the new convert who gets all the attention. It is the worship leader who has served every Sunday for a decade and burns with resentment when a newcomer with a better voice joins the team. It is the missionary who sacrificed everything for the field and cannot stand the thought that someone who lived for themselves until age 42 receives the same well done, good and faithful servant. The older brother’s sin is not dramatic, it does not make headlines, it does not land you in a pigsty, it sits quietly in the pews, smiling on the outside, boiling on the inside and it is the most dangerous form of lostness in the world, because it looks exactly like faithfulness.
If that sounds familiar, you are the older brother and you are as far from the father’s heart as the younger brother ever was in the pigsty, because the younger brother’s sin was obvious, it was messy and public and everyone could see it, but the older brother’s sin was invisible, it was hidden under obedience, dressed in religious clothing and it was in many ways far more dangerous, because the older brother did not know he was lost. The younger brother knew he was in a pigsty, the older brother had no idea he was standing in one.
