THERE are but few of our readers who are not in some measure acquainted with the story of the prodigal son, so blessedly setting forth the manner of a sinner’s reconciliation to God. But many have not so fully considered the character and folly of his elder brother.
From the opening of Luke 15, it is clear that in speaking of a certain man with two sons, our Lord represented two classes of persons who listened to his teachings, ―the publicans (or tax-gatherers) and sinners on the one hand, and the Pharisees and scribes on the other. The younger son, the prodigal, sets forth the former; the elder son, the latter.
The grace of the father had reconciled the younger, and lavished upon him all that a loving heart could devise, calling upon all his household to feast with him and make merry, when the elder son, who was in the field, came and drew nigh to the house, and as he did so heard the music and dancing. But although he drew nigh to the house, he had no thought of drawing nigh to his father. And although the sound of the merriment fell upon his ear, he had no heart to join in the merrymaking.
Calling one of the servants, he asked “what these things meant?” (vs. 26.) He would like to know all about what was going on. Inquisitiveness was part of his nature. But the unbroken pride and self-righteousness of his deceived heart would not allow him to share the joy. The servant replies, “Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because be hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in” (vs. 28). Strange conduct this on the part of so good a young man (as he thought himself). Angry at the return of his scapegrace brother; angry that the fatted calf had been killed; angry that the long-lost one had been received back, safe and sound; angry at his father’s love and grace!
One would have thought he would have been overjoyed, and followed his father’s example by running to embrace his brother, and share in the festivities which celebrated his return. But no, the father’s grace to the ungodly spendthrift only produces anger from his self-righteous and self-satisfied soul.
And, dear reader, what a living likeness is this picture, drawn by the Perfect Artist, of the Pharisees and scribes who surrounded our Lord! And, alas, how many are found like unto that same race at the present moment. Today, as of old, “there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” (Prov. 30:1212There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. (Proverbs 30:12)).
Grace still reigns. Thousands of prodigals are welcomed home. But thousands of self-righteous religionists stand aloof from the joy and the blessing, and will not come in. On all hands we hear the cry, What is all this fuss about? What do these people mean by being converted and saved? What is all this hubbub, and singing and praise? Do you think people are going to heaven for their much psalm singing? &c. Thousands come near the house of blessing, but refuse a loving Father’s grace. They hear the sounds of joy over sinners saved, the praises that ascend from hearts happy in the love of God, feasting in communion with Himself. They are interested or inquisitive enough to ask what it all means, but come in and share the blessing and the joy they will not. “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John 5:4040And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. (John 5:40)).
Every sinner who comes as a sinner, is welcome. “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)). Of each who has come, it can be said that God “hath received him safe and sound.” Yes, safe and sound; eternally safe, and eternally sound. Safe in Christ, and sound through His finished work. Reader, have you come? Are you a pardoned and reconciled soul? or a self-righteous, angry, and self-willed religionist?
But is the elder son to be left to his angry mood, and away from the festal scene? Listen, “he was angry, and would not go in; therefore came his father out, and entreated him.” Think of that. Ah! dear reader, grace reigns. God is in the attitude of beseeching the self-righteous to be reconciled to Him, as well as the ungodly sinner. It is said to all, “as though God did beseech,... be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:2020Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)).
But the father’s condescending grace and loving entreaty to the elder son are in vain. He, answering, said to his father, “Lo, these many years do I serve thee; neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends: but as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf” (vss. 29, 30.) Good-for-nothing fellow to answer his father thus! “Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?” (Rom. 9:2020Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? (Romans 9:20)). And note his answer, I, I, I, me and my; self from first to last. “These many years do I serve thee.” Nothing more than he ought to do, and which he was morally bound to do. Even God’s people are enjoined to say, when they have done all, “we are unprofitable servants,” &c. (Luke 17:1010So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Luke 17:10)). “Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment.” In short, he had always done right, and he had never done wrong. What a delightful specimen of human nature! God says “all have sinned,” and “there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” But if we are to take this young man’s character from his own lips, we have found for once an exception to the rule.
Alas, alas, man deceives his own heart; deceives himself, and is deceived of Satan. He is all wrong, but has no true sense of it. Moral and religious as many undoubtedly are, yet are they duped by the enemy, deceived by sin, Christless, godless, lost. “Yet thou never gavest me a kid,” he continues reproachfully, “that I might make merry with my friends.” Why, this is just what the younger son had been doing. He had been feasting with his friends, away from his father; and here is this good young man, that had always behaved so nicely (according to his own account), nursing his dissatisfaction for years, and now, when the testing moment comes, lets it all out. He reproaches his father, reminding him that he had never given him a kid that he might make merry with his friends. Why does he not come in, and share the fatted calf with his father and his friends? Ah, that will not suit his selfish heart. With all his many years’ show, his love to his father, and delight in his company and service, were just about on a par with that of the younger son. Its amount may be summed up in the word nil. No, there was nothing there but self. Self, morning, noon, and night, from first to last, from beginning to end, for all these many years that he was so careful to remind his father about.
Ah! beloved reader, rest assured that the Lord has not overdrawn the picture. Here are you, as plain as life, if you have nothing more than a fleshly service of God; if you have never been born again, and reconciled to Him. The generation that are pure in their own eyes, is a very large one. Its ranks are recruiting daily. Whatever you may be outwardly to the eye of man, inwardly your heart is all wrong, “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” You may not have been an ungodly spendthrift like the prodigal. Outwardly you may have led a blameless life; but God looketh upon the heart. He knows you thoroughly, ―thought, word, and deed; mind, lip, and heart. It is for yourself you are living, unless Christ has taken possession of your heart. Without a living personal interest in the living risen Saviour, at your best you are but like the elder son. Self predominates and rules. There is no sense in our natural hearts of the joy of the heart of God in dispensing grace, and no sense of our need of it, until aroused in infinite mercy by Him. “A kid to make merry with my friends,” is what every natural heart delights in. We are all fashioned alike as to this.
And this is not all. The elder son has not done yet. He has something more to remind his kind father about besides his own goodness, and that is his brother’s badness, and his father’s unwarrantable favor. (Everybody is wrong but himself; poor young man!) “But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.”
Now the father had received and reconciled the younger son, without a word of reproach for his misspent life. His return in self judgment showed the genuineness of his repentance; and he ran to meet him with nothing but kindness, love, and grace. So is it with God and repentant sinners. But the elder son is full of accusation, citing his brother’s misdeeds.
And then he complains of the ready welcome his father had given, “As soon as this thy son was come.” Why, here is one of the chief beauties of grace, “as soon as.” There is no delay. As soon as he came, he was welcome. “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)). Not by-and-by, but the present moment. And as soon as you come, dear reader, whoever you are, you will be received too; that is, if you come as the prodigal did, on the ground of “I have sinned” (Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). Of course, if you stand outside like the elder son with “I have not sinned,” you will just miss the blessing as he did.
And “this thy son,” says the disrespectful young man. The father might own the scapegrace if he pleased; but would he own him as his brother? Not he. He winds up by saying, “Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.” This last sentence shows how utterly he was out of communion with the heart and thoughts of his father. He saw nothing in it but unmerited favor bestowed upon one who was utterly unworthy of it. This was perfectly true. But the father loved him notwithstanding all, and also had his own joy in the reception of his son.
All this wonderfully shadows forth, on the one hand, the grace of God to sinners, and His joy and delight over their reconciliation; and on the other, how utterly the natural heart, however moral and religious, fails to enter into the thoughts and joy of His heart. We learn that, whilst grace saves the vilest who return in self-judgment to God through Christ, the self-righteous remain outside the door of blessing, murmuring against God, and looking down upon and accusing the saved.
The Lord has brought out in the character of the prodigal elder brother a picture of the Pharisees of his day, and all who resemble them in the present, as a generation that are jealous, inquisitive, angry, self-willed, unyielding, disrespectful, self-righteous, selfish, reproachful, accusing, and ungrateful.
The prodigal was bad, very bad; as to the elder, the foregoing will speak for itself. Tens of thousands who have sinned deeply against God, have returned in deep self-judgment before Him, and have been pardoned, reconciled, and saved through the finished work of Christ. And tens of thousands with the profession of Christ upon their lips, but steeped in self-righteousness and unbelief, pass on their way to the judgment of God.
The father said to the elder in reply, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:31, 3231And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. (Luke 15:31‑32)). The Pharisees and scribes were religious leaders of the people, who had all the privileges of Judaism (Rom. 9:4,54Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:4‑5)). All that God had in the earth was Israel’s, so to speak. But now grace was going out to publicans and sinners, and the prodigal’s welcome was a sample of the reception of all who come. “It was meet,” the father continued, “that we should make merry, and be glad.” Yes, indeed, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:1010Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Luke 15:10)).
Dear reader, have you returned? Has the heart of God found joy over you? Is heaven filled with gladness at your reconciliation? If not, why not? Delays are dangerous. There is no reconciliation in hell.
“For this thy brother,” the father says in closing, mildly rebuking the elder son, for he must own him, “was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found.” Blessed words! Yes, reconciled ones have passed from death unto life. The Son of God says so. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)). And Jesus has found them, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)).
Again, beloved reader, we appeal to you, ere we lay down our pen, Are you reconciled? Are you safe and sound? Have you life? Are you found? Or, are you priming yourself up in your own fancied goodness, a strait-sect religionist, but outside the door? Prodigals and Pharisees are alike invited to return. There is “bread enough and to spare” for all in the Father’s house, for the true bread of heaven, Christ, is there. “Fatted calf,” too, at God’s festal board, and heavenly merriment, for all who confess their sin and come. But soon the door of grace will be closed; the lips that cover prodigals with kisses, pronounce the solemn doom of the impenitent; and those everlasting arms of love, that fondly embrace repentant prodigals and self-judged Pharisees, be stretched out in everlasting judgment upon all who neglect or ref use His grace. May God in His infinite mercy lead you to return now. E. H. C.