We often read with interest the parable of the prodigal's return, but many stop at the end of that, and forget that "a certain man had two sons." We like to hear how the wanderer was received back; but does the question ever arise: What about the elder son? What became of him?
Are any of you who read this little paper still in company with the elder son of the parable? All are either inside, rejoicing with the Father in His joy, and thus identified with the returned wanderer; or outside in company with the elder son. If this last, my friend, why? Look a moment at his history: "He came and drew nigh to the house," and hearing the music and dancing, he wanted to know what it was all about. Have you ever wondered what makes your believing relatives and friends so happy? Have you asked yourself what such joy means?
God the Father rejoices in the return of the lost ones. They have confessed that they were once in "the far country," but have now been brought to God, and they are glad. Then how about you, dear reader? Are you, like the elder son, angry too? Why? Is not the door open for you, the same door by which the younger brother entered? Indeed it is! It is still kept open by a hand of love.
"He was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him." The angry elder son stood on the outside and his father, the master of the house, came out himself to "entreat"! "As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
How blessed it is that God can thus "come out," for the Savior has been right down into the very depths of death to enable a holy God to come out in righteousness, as well as grace, and save "all that come unto God by Him."
Friend, do you join hands with this stubborn elder son in his answer to the entreaties of love? "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." Is this your answer too to the entreaty of love? It is full of pride, self-righteousness and selfishness: pride, in his length of service; self-righteousness, in his claim never to have transgressed; and utter selfishness, as shown in his complaint that his father had never given him a kid that he might make merry with his friends. His desire was not for his father's company, but for the gift that he might enjoy with his friends. Is this your desire, dear unconverted reader, still standing outside, angry and proud? God is keeping the door open, as it were, with His hand on the latch, entreating you to enter even up to the very last moment.
Do you say the elder son is a picture of the Jew? No doubt he is; but the first elder son we read of in Scripture was no Jew. Cain was not a Jew, and Cain's has been the sad history of every proud, self-righteous, selfish sinner ever since. Cain's end, as described in the epistle of Jude, will be the everlasting end of all such.
Oh, pause and think. You may be inside, rejoicing in the company and love of the Father, having come to an end of yourself, naked except for what the Father's grace has provided to cover you, and rejoicing in His joy at having His lost one back. Else you are outside, refusing to come in, "angry, and would not come in"; proud, in standing up in your own strength before Him; self-righteous, in cleaving to your own wretched morality apart from Him; and selfish, in refusing Him the joy of blessing you according to His own heart of love.
It may be you know that you have no righteousness of your own, and you would gladly have the blessing. If so, what saith the Word to you? "We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." Everything has been done; all that God has of blessing is there for you in Christ. The door of His mercy stands wide open, for "He hath made Him to be sin for us (He) who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Sinner, God beseeches you, why do you stand without?