Pastor White recently preached on one of the most popular texts in St. Luke’s Gospel: The Parable of the Prodigal Son, also known as the Parable of the Lost Son. The pastor spoke passionately and in some detail about the Prodigal (wasteful, spendthrift) Son and his father and his father’s love. He stressed the truth that the Lost Son stood for all of us, while the father in the story stood for our heavenly Father and His love. When we leave our Father’s house and go off into the world, we may have a short season of pleasure and satisfaction, but sooner or later we end up in self destruction, destitution, and debilitation. But our Father still loves us, and we can always go back to Him and be welcomed with open arms and festal celebration. The pastor compared the new clothes the Father gave the Prodigal to the robe of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. The richest of foods that were served at the feast was compared to the Gospel. Pastor applied the gift of the new sandals to the commission to go and offer the food of the gospel to one and all.
As always, the pastor spoke with great fervor and energy, even though he was personally tired from a very busy and trying week. But as good and interesting and invigorating as the sermon was, Elder Tom and his wife noticed that there some things that he did not cover. Mary noted right away that the pastor did not mention the ring on his finger. The ring meant that the prodigal son was fully restored to the family with authority over the servants, rather than becoming one of them as the son was ready to do. Elder Tom, among others, noted that nothing was said about the older brother.
You know about the older brother. He was the good son. He stayed with his father and did everything his father told him. He was out in the field working when the Prodigal returned and was welcomed. When the older brother came in, tired and aching from the day’s labor, hungry and thirsty, ready to have his feet washed by one of the servants and receive a smile of approval from his father, he found that there was a party going on. This was a surprise. The thrifty household did not usually spend money on frivolities or luxuries. The puzzled surprise turned to shock and anger, and indeed, disgust, when he heard that his good-for-nothing brother’s return was the cause for the festivities. Why, if a reception was held in anyone’s honor, it should have been done for him, not for the black sheep of the family. If his brother was let in at all, he should have come in by the back door, and the only food the prodigal should have gotten was the crumbs and scraps that fell from the master’s table, just like the dog he was.
The older brother refused to come in. Even when his father came out to urge him to attend the soiree, he still refused. As as the older brother did so, he showed that he was every bit the “Lost Son” that his prodigal brother was. Oh yes, he was hard working and thrifty, disciplined and consistent. The older brother certainly looked like he was obedient to and supportive of his father in every way. Everyone who looked at him would have said that he was really his father’s son, unlike that wastrel who ran away from home and came crawling back in smelly rags.
But the older brother was not really his father’s son. If he had really been his father’s son, he would have run into the party and given his brother a big bear hug as well as – in their culture – covering him with kisses. Tired as he was, the older brother would have jumped up and down and danced and sang and feasted and drank and had a real good time. But he did not welcome his brother. The older brother was harsh and judgmental instead of loving and forgiving, welcoming and accepting. Then listen to what the older son said to his father: ”All these years I’ve been slaving for you…” With these words he showed how he really felt about working for and with his father. The elder brother didn’t see his work as a source of enjoyment and satisfaction, nor did he view his duties and responsibilities as an honor and a privilege. He saw them like the toil of a slave. He didn’t really want to accomplish great things for and with his father, he did what he had to do, what he was compelled to do. He resented the life he lived and the work he did. The elder brother really thought that his prodigal brother was the one who had all the good times. as despicable as his activities were. Instead of cherishing and relishing the life he led, the older son resented it and and thought that he was stuck with the short end of the stick.
How did the father react? Did he give him one up the side of the head, as Elder Tom would have been tempted to do? He treated this lost son the same way as he treated his brother – with love, forgiveness and acceptance. What did the father say: ”You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” He reminds the older brother that he always lived in the father’s love and walked in the father’s steps. In a very nice way, he tries to show him how much better off he was than his brother, no matter how many kicks the prodigal had gotten our of his debauchery. He reminds his older son that he was not a slave but a partner in running the estate, and someday that estate would be his and his alone. His father showed him that he had status and security, and indeed, wealth and honor. Then the father urges his older son to see his brother as one who was lost to them and was now back with them; one who was dead to them, and now was alive and part of their family again.
What did the older brother do? We don’t know, because that is where the story ends. We hope he went into the reception arm in arm with his father. But we don’t know. But we do know that just as, to quote Pastor White, “We are all the lost son,” so, as Elder Tom says, we are all the older brother. This is especially true of those of us who have been with the Lord and His church all our lives. Elder Tom is, well, an elder of the church. Elder Tom’s wife, Mary, has been a Sunday School and VBS teacher for – perhaps it might be better for Elder Tom if he didn’t say exactly how long, but it’s been a while. They were in church for the sermon on the Prodigal Son; they are in church for almost every sermon. They have not done anything wild and crazy. Though elder Tom is more than a little prodigal, Mary is very thrifty and prudent. Their idea of a high old time is to go to Bronner’s in Frankenmuth and buy ornaments to help commemorate the Savior’s Birth.
There are many people like us. Elder Tom is fairly sure if you are reading this, your story is much the same as his and Mary’s, and your service to the Savior and His church may well be far greater than theirs. People like us may be tempted to think that we missed out on things, that we haven’t indulged in all the vices and pleasures and entertainments that world has to offer. We may see our lives as dull and insipid, not really filled with excitement and enjoyment. We may envy the people of the world and all the good times they are having, or look like they’re having anyway. We may not be quite so eager to have them hear the gospel and join with us in all the rights and privileges that are ours in Christ. We may think that these people should get what’s coming to them, rather than what’s coming to Jesus and to us. We may think God is too generous and loving to them.
We may think that, and if we embrace that line of thought and persevere in it, then we are and will be truly lost. But God still loves us, and He keeps speaking to us in His loving voice, in the gospel of Christ. He reminds us that we are with Him always. We were with Him in His heart before He made the world; we joined His family when we were baptized; we have been getting all the good things of God by Word and Sacrament for over half a century (in Elder Tom’s case). We have had the honor and privilege of serving our Father in the Kingdom of His Son. We have the honor and privilege of reaching out to the lost in this world, urging them to come and share the Feast of the Gospel with us. As we have been welcomed by our Father, with open arms, so we are eager to welcome others and celebrate their entry into our Father’s house. For like us, they were lost and they have been found; like us, they were dead in in and unbelief, and now they live by faith in the Savior. In spirit and in the Spirit, let us hug each other, even as we nestle in the Father’s perpetual embrace. And let us never forget that we who live in and with our Savior are the ones with the great life, who enjoy the good times, who live in genuine enjoyment and satisfaction.
