Hello
You know, it rankles when someone takes what is rightfully ours; but it almost devastates when it feels we have been denied love. How do we respond to acts of blatant, overt disrespect and favoritism? Consider today’s Holy Nougat
““Now his older son was out in the field. And as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look, so many years I’ve slaved away for you—not once did I ignore your order. Yet you’ve never given me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.” Luke 15:25, 29 TLV
I cannot wholly say I fault the elder brother’s reaction; no siree. It was bad enough that his father’s child demanded his inheritance, that he wasn’t punished for it, that he survived life abroad (having sent nothing back!!), that he got/was (self-) deported; but to have the audacity to come back to this house?!
But the insult on injury is that despite being the heir apparent – NO ONE bothered to inform him ; NO ONE kicked the ingrate out; in fact – the opposite occurred – he was rescued from possible jail time; restored into the family (this set to gain more inheritance on father’s death) AND a grand Welcome Home party begins in his honor. The kind that would go on and on. In any case, NO ONE advised the elder or even THOUGHT to invite him. That’s high level disrespect and favoritism!
But we’re called to overlook and still extend grace to the one who wronged us! Let’s dig a little deeper …
We don’t know if the brothers in the parable had been close in the past. But when we join them there seems to be a fiery chasm between them. We also know that Jesus’s audience was exceptionally familiar with the Torah, and would probably have made the immediate link to another two brothers …
Unlike Esau, to whom we’ll return soon, this brother had not sold his birthright by taking it for granted. According to what we read, he was diligently working to maintain (or perhaps restore) the family fortunes. For his father Seemed to have allowed the younger son to threaten his inheritance (birthright) by pandering to the younger’s demands. The family might have had to mortgage their property to pull the younger brother’s inheritance together, at least in our times. And it was frowned upon. Whereas the younger may have lost his way by being distracted by his inheritance; that was not the elder brother’s challenge.
Rather he lost his blessing and was blemished by being bitter! Yup. His disgust (okay, that might be too strong a word); rather his perceived bitterness at being slighted cost him his joy, his peace and perhaps even his self control. All because he couldn’t let go of the past come back to taunt him! His lost, rather compromised inheritance! It didn’t matter that it might have been restored many times over; on discovery of the welcome home party the elder brother’s pain returned full strength. And manifested itself in bitterness.
My dears, it is possible to be IN the household of faith and still lose our way! It is possible to assume we’ve overcome and lose sight of God’s Grace. Inasmuch as the parable is open-ended, creating room for us to determine what next; so too is the story of our own journey of faith! The decision is ours –
Blessed by being Better
Blemished by being Bitter
– which will it be?
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
