Luke 15v25-32,   The older brother in the parable of the prodigal son

Angry and Stubborn, v28

Now the reticence and ignorance of the older brother changes. Instead he becomes angry and stubborn. It is clearly a ridiculous anger, an unreasonable anger. It is a case of cutting of your nose to spite your face. He could be inside rejoicing, joining in the happiness, but instead he is outside, alone, excluded, upset and boiling.

Now while it is clear that he has no one to blame for this but himself, lets still take time to think over it. News that should have lifted his heart with joy and fuelled his steps to run into the happiness of that tent instead infuriated his heart and locked his steps.

Lets examine the anger. Not all unconverted souls get angry when someone else is saved. But often it depends who that person is. I am sure there is a reason Jesus told us about an older brother. He probably wouldn’t have reacted like this with anyone else. If he had just heard of some other waster who had come to his senses, he would have been quite reasonable. But examine - whose conversion has or would make you spitting mad? Often it might be a brother or a sister. Maybe a young person.

Next lets examine the paralysis, an inability to follow. Even if you aren’t mad at conversions can you follow them? Do you know just exactly what it was like for this older brother to be rooted to the spot outside the tent. Perhaps his heart was yearning just to be able to go in, to enjoy, to join himself to the others, but he could not. Have you ever felt like the Gospel has left you high and dry? Outside and in the cold?

And yet what do we read - v28b. To this irrationally angry man, to this bitter and stubborn man, to this paralysed, impotent man, the Gospel comes once more.

Oh friend, if you feel like the Gospel has cold-shouldered you, abandoned you and rejected you, look at this verse! You who are good, decent, upright and salt of the earth, the Gospel is to you too! Jesus is not only interested in the hardest cases. He is not out to save those who would be left with a breathtaking testimony. What about the 99, what about the 9? The Gospel comes to you too.

The word intreated is expressive. It means that the father called him to his side. The Gospel calls you to the wounded side of Christ. It does not leave you. Just as surely as the shepherd went after the lost sheep, so the father comes out after the older brother. Satan wants you to believe the Gospel has given you a raw deal. But Christ intreats you.