Luke 15:25-28, now, you come to the part of the story that most sermons rush through, the part that Jesus actually told the parable to get to, the part aimed directly at the Pharisees and at you. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field, he was working, notice that, while the younger son was wasting and the father was weeping, the older son was in the field doing his duty, following the rules, putting in the hours. He never left, he never disobeyed, he never asked for his inheritance early, he never embarrassed the family, on paper he was the perfect son.
When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing, he had to ask, he did not know there was a celebration, he was not invited or more precisely, he was always invited, he belonged there, but he was so far out in the field, so consumed with his work, so focused on his duty, that he did not even hear the music until he was almost at the door. How many people are like that, technically in the father’s house, technically part of the family, but so consumed with religious performance, with duty, with proving their worthiness, that they have no idea there is a party going on, they are standing right outside the celebration and they do not even know it.
The servant told him, your brother has come home and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound and the older brother’s reaction is the key to the entire parable. The older brother became angry and refused to go in, angry, not sad, not confused, not let me talk to my father about this, angry, furious, so consumed with rage, that he refused to enter his own father’s house and in that refusal, the older brother did something that nobody notices, he publicly shamed his father. In that culture, refusing to join a feast your father was hosting was an act of defiance, just as severe, maybe more severe than what the younger brother had done. The younger brother insulted the father in private before leaving, the older brother insulted the father in public, in front of the entire village at his own celebration and he did it while claiming to be the obedient one.
So his father went out and pleaded with him. The father went out again, he went out for the younger son who was far away and now he goes out for the older son who is standing right outside the door. Both sons are lost, both sons are away from the father, one is lost in a distant country, the other is lost in the backyard and the father pursues both of them. This is the detail that should wreck you, the father has to leave his own party, the celebration of his son’s return, to go outside and plead with his other son to come in, he is a father torn between two broken children and he is running toward both of them.
When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing, he had to ask, he did not know there was a celebration, he was not invited or more precisely, he was always invited, he belonged there, but he was so far out in the field, so consumed with his work, so focused on his duty, that he did not even hear the music until he was almost at the door. How many people are like that, technically in the father’s house, technically part of the family, but so consumed with religious performance, with duty, with proving their worthiness, that they have no idea there is a party going on, they are standing right outside the celebration and they do not even know it.
The servant told him, your brother has come home and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound and the older brother’s reaction is the key to the entire parable. The older brother became angry and refused to go in, angry, not sad, not confused, not let me talk to my father about this, angry, furious, so consumed with rage, that he refused to enter his own father’s house and in that refusal, the older brother did something that nobody notices, he publicly shamed his father. In that culture, refusing to join a feast your father was hosting was an act of defiance, just as severe, maybe more severe than what the younger brother had done. The younger brother insulted the father in private before leaving, the older brother insulted the father in public, in front of the entire village at his own celebration and he did it while claiming to be the obedient one.
So his father went out and pleaded with him. The father went out again, he went out for the younger son who was far away and now he goes out for the older son who is standing right outside the door. Both sons are lost, both sons are away from the father, one is lost in a distant country, the other is lost in the backyard and the father pursues both of them. This is the detail that should wreck you, the father has to leave his own party, the celebration of his son’s return, to go outside and plead with his other son to come in, he is a father torn between two broken children and he is running toward both of them.
