Sometimes those of us who are “good” and “religious” can be as lost as those upon whom we look down.
Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.” Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”
The parable of Jesus known as The Prodigal Son features a younger son who turns from his life of wasteful extravagance and is welcomed home by his gracious father. But the younger son isn’t the only lost son in this story. The older son, mired in his anger and resentment, is also lost in a way. Sometimes those of us who are “good” and “religious” can be as lost as those upon whom we look down. We need to be found just as much as the “younger brothers” in our lives. I have suggested that the parable we know as The Prodigal Son might better be called The Lost Son. This fits with the theme of Luke 15 (lost sheep, lost coin, lost son) and is consistent with Jesus’s own language (15:24, 32). But a strong case could be made, I believe, for naming this parable The Lost Sons (plural).
In the previous parables of Luke 15, the action ends with celebration because something valuable has been found (sheep, coin). The final parable in this chapter, however, continues beyond the celebration of the younger son’s return. Jesus introduces the character of the “elder son” (Luke 15:25). He had been working in the field, faithfully discharging his duty as a son, when he heard “music and dancing” coming from the family house. When he learned that his father threw a party to welcome home his younger brother, the elder son became angry. After all, he had been the obedient one who honored his father. He had worked hard for years. Yet he was never the recipient of a party like the one celebrating the return of his disobedient, wasteful, immoral brother. So the elder brother refused to join his brother’s welcome home party, choosing instead to stew in his own angry juices.
I confess that I can relate to the elder brother in this story, not in all details, but using my imagination. I was, all in all, a fairly decent and loyal son. I made plenty of mistakes in my life, but never openly dishonored my parents. The same is true for my siblings, by the way. But I can imagine what it would have been like for me if one of them had gone off the rails and then my parents had celebrated their restoration with a much bigger party than anything I had ever enjoyed. It’s not hard for me to conceive of how I would have felt. Resentment and anger might well have filled my heart.
In this sense, I would have been “lost” in the way of the elder brother. I would have lost out on a grand party. I would have lost touch with my father and his heart. I would have lost the joy that can come when someone truly repents. Though my lostness would differ from that of the younger son, I would have been lost nonetheless.
It’s pretty easy for those of us who try hard to be faithful to get lost in this way. We can get caught in self-righteousness and judgmentalism. We can fail to rejoice when people turn from sin to God because we’re obsessed with their sin. We can be upset when people don’t worship as we do, failing to love the fact that their worship is authentic to their lives and cultures.
If you don’t relate to this kind of lostness, that’s great. But if it feels even vaguely familiar, then you need to be found by your Heavenly Father. You need a fresh experience of God’s prodigal grace.
God seeks us out and invites us home no matter the nature of our lostness.
Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
When the father of the parable learns what his older son is doing, he does a surprising thing once again. He goes out, finds his older son, and pleads with him. The father begs his son to come in and join the celebration. Moreover, the father does not criticize or condemn his older son. He doesn’t accuse him of being dishonorable by failing to join a party thrown by his father. Rather, the father says, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31).
How striking!
The father affirms his older son and his faithfulness. He reassures him about his own inheritance. He reaffirms the older son’s secure position in the family. Yet the father continues to wish this son would join in the celebration of the younger son’s return.
In his wonderful book The Prodigal God, Tim Keller points out that both sons in Jesus’s parable need the extravagant love of the father, even as we need the extravagant love of God:
The first thing we need is God’s initiating love. Notice how the father comes out to each son and expresses love to him, in order to bring him in. He does not wait for his younger son on the porch of his home, impatiently tapping his foot, murmuring, “Here comes that son of mine. After all, he’s done, there had better be some real groveling!” There’s not a hint of such an attitude. No, he runs and kisses him before his son can confess. It’s not the repentance that causes the father’s love, but rather the reverse. The father’s lavish affection makes the son’s expression of remorse far easier.
The father also goes out to the angry, resentful elder brother, begging him to come into the feast. This picture is like a double-edged sword. It shows that even the most religious and moral people need the initiating grace of God, that they are just as lost; and it shows there is hope, yes, even for Pharisees (The Prodigal God, pp. 73-74).
This is good news for all of us. If you relate more to the younger son, then God seeks to welcome you home. And if you relate more to the older son, then God also reaches out to you, inviting you into the divine celebration. No matter the quality of your lostness, God is in the finding business. God’s love in Jesus Christ will seek you out so that you, too, may be found.
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