In my last post I looked at the story that Jesus tells in Luke 15, and building off the posts about the same story at my friend's Josh's blog, how the younger son thought about himself and his father. In this post I want to look at the older son. But before I go forward I want to go backward.
At the beginning of chapter 15 the writer of Luke sets the scene for us:
"All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"
Now if you are not familiar with these stories it's worth pointing out that the pharisees and legal experts are Jewish religious leaders who, while very devoted to God, seem to miss the point of Jesus' life and teachings...
a lot!
So when they see that Jesus is hanging out with tax collectors and sinners (think of them as the equivalent of people that no one really likes - like modern day... well tax collectors and sinners I guess.) they get upset.
Why?
Because "those" people are bad...
Something is wrong with them...
They are trash.
In the last post i looked at how some people view everyone as trash. In this post we will look at how some people only think that "those" kinds of people are trash.
"Those" people are the ones that are different than us. They don't live the way that we live.
If God loves us he can't love them...
right?
A few months ago I was walking with a friend one night near downtown.
As we were walking we passed some girls who were all dolled up with make up, short skirts and high heels. As they passed by us my friend cleared her throat rather loudly and then said, "I don't know why some girls have to dress like that to get attention."
The girls turned and looked at us since they obviously heard her. I could tell that they were not thrilled about being judged so harshly but after a second they just kept walking.
I was a little embarrassed and pretty angry but mostly disappointed.
We didn't even know these girls, and yet my friend acted like she had them all figured out.
Was she trying to shame them into changing the way they dressed?
Why did she think she had the right to look down on people just because she never dressed like that but they did?
It almost seemed like she saw the way those girls were dressed and she assumed they were trash.
That's what the pharisees and legal experts did.
They assumed that people who didn't live up to their standards were just trash.
So Jesus sees what they are saying. And he calls them out on it.
He tells a couple of stories about including the outsiders as insiders and those who were lost being found and how in his eyes this radical inclusion is cause for throwing a party.
Then after he tells the story about the younger brother he gets to the older brother:
"Now his older son was in the field. Coming in from the field, he approached the house and heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. The servant replied, ‘Your brother has arrived, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he received his son back safe and sound.’ Then the older son was furious and didn’t want to enter in, but his father came out and begged him. He answered his father, ‘Look, I’ve served you all these years, and I never disobeyed your instruction. Yet you’ve never given me as much as a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours returned, after gobbling up your estate on prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’"
In his post Josh pointed out how the older brother thinks about the younger one. He doesn't even refer to him as his brother but as "this son of yours".
He's just like the pharisees and legal experts. He thinks that because of the way his younger brother lived that he is trash.
What a horrible way to think about your own brother!
But the reality is his incorrect view about his brother actually stems from his view of his father.
He says, "I've served you all these years".
As Josh points out he sees his father basically as a slave driver. He sees himself as a mere servant.
What a horrible way to think about your own father!
He thinks that because he has served his father that he has earned his father's affection. He sees his father as someone who only loves those who have earned it.
But I think his incorrect view of his father goes even deeper than that.
He's upset because his father killed the fattened calf for his brother and he complains that he never even got a goat.
When Josh, a few other guys and I were talking about this one night in a bar we discussed how the fattened calf was a big meal.
Along with bread and vegetables that would have been included in this feast that would have been way too much for three people. That much food would be enough to feed the whole village.
The whole village is at this party?
With all the music, wine and people at this party it's safe to say that this father knows how to throw down.
He seems to be a very generous man.
But the older brother doesn't see him that way. He says my friends and I never even got a goat.
A goat?
The fattened calf was juicy, meaty and great for throwing a feast. A goat was much tougher, gamier and didn't have nearly as much meat on it.
He doesn't have a big enough imagination.
He doesn't realize how generous his father really is.
Apparently he thinks his father is stingy.
But his father says, "Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours."
Everything I have is yours...
Everything!
It's like the father is saying, "Who wants a goat? If you wanted the fattened calf I would have gladly given it to you. After all I gave your brother his entire inheritance simply because he asked for it.You didn't have to earn a party from me, you could have just asked. I would have loved to thrown you a party."
The older brother thinks his younger brother is trash because the older brother doesn't understand the way the father sees his children.
Does it seem like the older brother may even be a little insecure about himself?
Is that why he is lashing out at his father and little brother?
This is the part of the story that really hits home for me.
I'm so much like the older brother.
I'm a pro at using other people's failures to feel good about myself.
At least I'm not as messed up as that person...
At least I don't do what he does...
At least I'm not as judgmental as that girl...
right?
I think maybe I have a hard time seeing others the way God sees them because I don't understand how God sees me. So i project my insecurities onto other people and I focus on their brokenness so I don't have to own up to my own. Because if I own up to my own then I am faced with a very startling question - could anyone, let alone God, love me?
It's hard sometimes to see past your own shortcomings isn't it?
Sometimes it's hard to accept love.
Grace & Peace
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