The Other Son

I think most people are familiar with the story of the prodigal son. The father in the parable has two sons: One of them asks for his inheritance early, and goes off to live on his own. After some time, and some bad decisions, he finds himself broke and hungry. Considering where he came from, he begins to realize that he would have been much better off if he had stayed with his family. He decides that his father wouldn’t be willing to treat him as a son, but perhaps there is enough love left that his father will give him a job. When he returns home, though, his father welcomes him home, and throws a celebration that his son has returned. One thing that gets overlooked in the story a lot is the other son. After the prodigal returns, the older brother, coming back to the house from working in the fields, hears the party going on, and, instead of going in and asking his father what was going on, he asks one of the hired servants. Finding out that his brother has returned, he becomes angry. He understands that his brother didn’t come home because he struck it rich and wants to share the wealth, he hit rock bottom and didn’t know where else to go. Word filtered back to the father that the other son was angry about the treatment that the prodigal was receiving, and so the father sought out the other son. “I don’t get you, dad, he has dishonored you, he has dragged our family name through the mud (or worse), he finally gets desperate enough to come home, and you throw a party! Why haven’t you ever thrown a party for me? I’m the son that has always followed your wishes!” The father reminded him that he had never asked for a party; he had never indicated any desire to celebrate with his father.
I think that there is some of each brother in most of us. Sometimes we end up doing our own thing, and end up outside of the will of God. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. When we get right, God is happy that we did. But, then, we swing the other way. We start thinking that we are doing right, and have done right, and we are in the zone; we are just so right with God. But then someone else falls into the same trap that we did, and when they get right, we wonder why God would even forgive them. On some level we know that if God didn’t forgive people, then we are all in deep trouble, but how can He forgive that?
I think that it’s interesting, too, that the other son never asked for a party. He should have at least been willing to celebrate his brother’s return. Apparently he would have been at least as happy if his brother had died in whatever far country that was that he had gone to. It seems to me that, in the natural, at least, he might have been considering the fact that, with his brother gone, he stood to inherit everything that his father had, but with his brother’s return, and the father’s obvious jubilation, suddenly his inheritance stands to be cut in half. Jesus didn’t even address that aspect of it, though, because He wasn’t talking about a natural inheritance. Our inheritance is Heaven, and Heaven will never get crowded, or spread too thin; it will be perfect. Of course, I think most of could understand the other son’s frustration at the idea that he has been doing all of this work for all of this time, and his brother ran off and did whatever he wanted, and now they both stand to gain the same inheritance. Of course, Jesus dealt with the same idea in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard in Matthew 20. What I do for my reward is between God and me, and what you do for your reward is between God and you. I don’t have any business passing judgment. The real problem IMHO, is the brother’s attitude. He’s so busy worrying about his own sense of justice, and his reward compared to his brother’s, that he completely missed his father’s justice, the true justice.

BTW—the above image is courtesy of Edith OSB on flickr.com.