The Other Lost Son

Scripture – Luke 15:25-30 (NRSV)

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!”

Devotion

In a recent devotion, I 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. We’ll talk about this more tomorrow. For now, you may want to reflect on the following questions.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the High Calling archive, hosted by the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Best of Daily Reflections: Do You Suffer With Older Brother Syndrome?

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