“Who was very upset when the prodigal son came home?” the children’s church worker asked her class. A little boy put his hand up and replied, “The fatted calf!”
I can understand that. But, as we know, the answer the
teacher was looking for was, ‘the elder brother’. His younger brother went off
in rebellion into the far country. He wasted his inheritance and lived
immorally with prostitutes. He insulted his father and brought shame on the
family name. Yet at the end of the parable he is the one inside the party as
the centre of attention and his dutiful, elder brother is outside, grumpy and
all alone.
His father got up, left the party and went out to his elder
son, pleading with him to come inside. In response, the son uttered a phrase I
have heard over and over again when a legalist gets the revelation that all he
was trying to get through his works he already had by grace! “All these years I
served you, and you never even gave me a kid goat!”
All these years
Here are some of the things that people say when their eyes
are opened to the unmerited, unconditional favour of God given to us freely in
Christ:
“All these years I have tried to keep the law; then you come
along and announce that Jesus has fulfilled it completely on my behalf and
nailed it to the cross!”
“All these years I have tried to deal with my sins one by
one – confessing and repenting, confessing and repenting – and then you come
along and tell me that Jesus made one sacrifice once for all and all my sins
have been forgiven!”
“All these years I have tried to get more power through
fasting; and then you come along and tell me that the same power that raised
Jesus from the dead already lives inside me.”
“All these years I have been trying to break curses over my
life; and then you come along and tell me I am not cursed, but blessed with
every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus!” “All these years I have been trying to live for God; and then you come along and say, ‘Don’t try to live for God, let Him live through you!’”
“All these years I have been trying to die to self; and then
you come along and tell me I am already crucified with Christ and that it’s no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me!”
“All these years I have been chasing God; and then you come
along and tell me He never left me!”
And what did we get for all our work over all those years?
Not even a skinny goat! Why? Because God doesn’t do deals. Any works we perform
in an effort to get things from God are called ‘dead works’. They are
superfluous, because everything God wants to give us and everything He wants to
do in our lives is already paid for.
Surprise ending
We expect Jesus to give the elder brother a bad ending in
this parable; after all he deserves it, right? And so an appropriate conclusion
to the parable would be to give him a good telling off. But Jesus doesn’t do
that. Instead we see the father leaving the party to come out to his elder son
and lovingly plead with him to come in. You see, this father had two sons and
they were both lost – one in the far country and the other in the house. And he
loved them both equally – the rebel and the legalist.
Some wonderful things are happening in our Father’s house in
different parts of the world today. It is being known more and more as a house
of grace. And prodigals are coming home because they feel safe to do so.
But let’s make it easy for the elder brother too. I have
read several internet blogs on grace-based sites and wonder if a new breed is
emerging – the grace Pharisee. It’s easy to become smug and self-righteous in
our new-found discovery of the wonder of grace, and then arrogantly turn and
point the finger at the legalist who has not yet had the same revelation.
When I’m tempted to condemn the elder brother, God reminds
me that I was once one! He is not the enemy of the lost; He is their Seeker and
their Finder. So when we engage in discussion and debate with the legalist,
let’s not just preach grace – let’s model it also. May they not only hear
grace, may they experience it too!
i was once one as well...in more ways than one...this is a story though that i solidly relate to....
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