NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

Day 14 - Big brother's spiritual anorexia

Scripture focus: "The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!'" Luke 15:28-30 (The Message)

Lesson 7

Although the casual reader of this story would think that the younger son is the black sheep of the family, serious students of this passage realize that the oldest son isn't a model child either. He's well behaved. He performs day after day. But he, like his sibling, suffers from a bad case of spiritual anorexia. We see that in how he responds to the party thrown by his father in honor of the returning son.

First, he insults the father by not attending the party. He continues to offer insult by interrupting the father's celebration and rudely (notice how he doesn't even address the father with respect) accuses the father of maltreatment.

The oldest son is particularly insulted by the slaying of the calf. He accuses the father of wasteful squandering of resources, and implies that his father has never done this for him. The son wants to have some right over the father's things. He acts as if he should get a vote about how the father chooses to use his material possessions.

Whether we have a nasty habit of wild living or a propensity to try to get our needs met by being really, really good (codependent) - both extremes have the same root problem. In this parable, the younger son wants to take on the role of hired hand - so that he can pay his way back into the family and the older brother does the same. He too acts like this is a business proposition. He gives and gives to the father as he serves as a dutiful son carrying out the business of his father.

Neither the youngest son nor the oldest one seems to have any idea that the father wants to give and give and give to them. Both don't seem interested in simply receiving, they want a relationship built on a contractual exchange of goods and services.

Both boys act like their relationship with the father is somehow dependent upon them earning their way into his good graces. But the father models, for both of his boys, a desire to give and a willingness to do so - even when the boys are behaving badly!

How have you tried to earn your way into the heart of the father? Have you noticed how his love for us is not dependent upon our ability to bring home the bacon and serve it for supper?

Recommended reading: Luke 19-21

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