\u201cThe Lost Elder Son(Pharisees), Part 3 of the Prodigal Son\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by Rev. James Rausch<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Upon Jesus\u2019 entry into Jerusalem to shouts of \u201cHosanna!\u201d (which means, \u201cLord, Save us!\u201d) and waving palm branches, he was again confronted by the Pharisees whose anger at him was increasing. We\u2019ve been learning why over the past couple of weeks. Jesus welcomed sinners and even ate with them in what the Pharisees saw as a blatant violation of their understanding of God\u2019s law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their practice, a sinner was not to be considered acceptable company unless they completed their strict interpretation of repentance. To repent literally means to turn, to change direction. What this meant for the law-keeping Pharisees is that sinners must admit their sin, apologize for it, make restitution for any damage or loss they caused, demonstrate their sincerity, and promise not to commit that sin again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, if we\u2019re honest, we kind of like that too. Let\u2019s hear it for more people taking responsibility for their mistakes and learning from them. Here! Here! That kind of responsibility-claiming is from God. However, it is not all there is to repentance, according to Jesus. The Pharisees may have nailed the part of it that settles the score when a law is broken, but they failed to appreciate the greater importance of restoration when a relationship is broken. Score-settling has its place, but far more important in God\u2019s heart is the healing of broken bonds of love. Jesus taught an expanded understanding of repentance which transcended the formula. For Jesus, the \u201cturning\u201d of repentance is turning to God in acceptance of God\u2019s gesture of love. Repentance is the acceptance of being found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pharisees found this repugnant. They believed that God wanted it to be only about even paybacks and balancing the scales. Jesus\u2019 insistence that repentance is about responding to grace radically challenged their thinking. Nowhere was this presented more clearly to the Pharisees than when Jesus told the parable of the Prodigal son and the lost older son. When the younger son returned, he even had a plan to try and pay his father back. But no payment could heal the father\u2019s broken heart. The father\u2019s only option was an offer of self-giving love if he was going to make his son realize that their relationship could only be restored through a gift of love from his father. And the love was there always, every day. All of that kid\u2019s life the father was demonstrating love to the son, but he never got the point until he saw his father suffer for him by taking the abuse of the villagers as he ran to welcome him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0And by accepting that love, he is granted a new status. He is restored to sonship, not because of anything he has done, but because of the pure love of the father.\u00a0 And that is defined in Biblical terms as righteousness. He is given a robe, and we\u2019re told it is the first robe of the house.\u00a0 Of course, this kid has no clothes left . . . this is his father\u2019s robe, and when he wears his father\u2019s robe the village will respect him because of the clothes he\u2019s wearing.\u00a0 They wouldn\u2019t dare tear his clothes as they would have had they been able to enact the Kezazah punishment ceremony.\u00a0 This theme also reoccurs in the New Testament, as it talks about the robe of righteousness believers receive in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As tragically happens all too often in our own experience, the young son had never been alive to his father\u2019s love. As the father says at the end, \u201cThis, my son, was dead and is alive.\u201d Now, for the first time, having seen the costly offer of love, it finally got through to him, and now he is coming alive because of his acceptance of that offer of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The father has very carefully, by making the reconciliation scene public, restored the boy to the entire village.\u00a0 The father tells the servants, \u201cGo and dress him.\u201d He doesn\u2019t say, \u201cGive the kid some clothes and let him get showered and cleaned up.\u201d\u00a0 The servants are to dress him like they would royalty, and thereby he is guaranteeing reconciliation to the entire community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now to the elder son and his reaction to all of this. First, the boy comes in from the field and he hears music and dancing. First he will hearthe drum beats which carry quite a distance. They will be the same drums they have had for centuries, and the different beats of the drum are known. He hears the standard beat for a wedding or a big party and immediately thinks, \u201cMan, there\u2019s a party!\u201d So, he hurries into the village (he\u2019s supposed to) and suddenly he discovers, \u201cHey, the party\u2019s at our house! Fantastic!\u201d And he rushes on in to take his expected place. . . but that\u2019s not what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They haven\u2019t yet started serving the meal because they\u2019re waiting for the older son who has a traditional role in Middle Eastern banquets.\u00a0 As the \u201cMajor Domo,\u201d he is supposed to wander around and honor the guests with special service.\u00a0 \u201cHere\u2019s a nice piece, why don\u2019t you eat this for my sake?\u201d\u00a0 The point being that the father is saying, \u201cMy oldest son is your servant.\u201d\u00a0 Now this particular banquet is a bit sticky though because the honored guest is the younger son, so now we\u2019re going to see what will happen as the older son discovers the reality of how this particular party is wired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of rushing into his home, he cautiously sizes up the situation before he decides whether to do as his role calls him to. So, he calls one of the \u201cpaidon,\u201d one of the young boys. He doesn\u2019t call for a \u201cdoulos\u201d (a house servant) or a \u201cdiaconos\u201d (a waiter). Out in the courtyard of the house there is a crowd of young boys who may get something to eat later on, but they\u2019re certainly not at the first sitting. They\u2019re not allowed in with the elders who are enjoying the festivities. It\u2019s one of these kids that the elder son calls. So, we see how the older son came in suspicious – he doesn\u2019t rush in . . . but asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d He then finds out what has happened. \u201cYour brother has come home, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound. He has received him with peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A part of the profits of the farm are being spent on a big party.\u00a0 If that calf were not butchered by the end of the year, it would become part of the capital which will sooner or later be given to the older son.\u00a0 Now, what will he do?\u00a0 His role says he should rush in to the party.\u00a0\u00a0 Familial bonds would suggest that he should erupt joy over the fact of his brother\u2019s return.\u00a0\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 People start to recognize that he is outside and not coming into the party.\u00a0 The murmuring among the guests begins and things start to get awkward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0When Ken Bailey first taught this, he had a 16-year-old son.\u00a0 He felt fortunate that they get along quite well.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t quarrel often, but when they did, his son never chose to do so in public.\u00a0\u00a0 If his son chose to do something like that, for instance, when his father was giving a dinner for his most important colleagues at the school in Beirut where he taught, he would be deeply humiliated.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t know how to respond, and he would get all red faced and flustered and would have to get up and take the son out of the room to say, Look, son, you can say anything to me, but please not in public.\u00a0\u00a0 He would try to postpone the argument and then return to his guests struggling to regain his composure which he would never fully recover that evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Well, the older son not only chooses a public occasion to have a fight, but an occasion when all the leaders of the village are there.\u00a0 Now, how is he going to announce this fight?\u00a0 He refuses to go into the banquet.\u00a0\u00a0 So, what is the father going to do?\u00a0 Well, he\u2019s expected to do one of two things.\u00a0 Either send a couple of servants out to thrash the kid, or ignore him and go on running the party, waiting till everyone is gone before he really gives it to the kid.\u00a0 Those are his two options.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unexpected choice the father makes is a costly third option (the same as shown to the younger son). For the second time in the same day, he offers a very costly demonstration of unexpected love. For the second time in the story now we see a son breaking not a law but a relationship with his father. The insult to the father by the older son is on par with the insult made by the younger son. They have both fallen into the same pit. The only question is, do they both know it? And now we find the father in enormous courage and with great public humiliation and pain . . . he goes down and out to his son, hoping to reconcile him with this costly offer of love. On the same day, for the same reason, a costly demonstration of love is required. One time for a son who broke the rules . . . a second time for a son who kept the rules. With the same problem, they both need the same solution. Now the costly offer of love to the younger son was accepted. Would this costly offer of love to the elder son, offered with as much personal pain and humiliation in public be accepted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The elder son reveals his understanding of his relationship to father. When the father gets out there, his son starts shouting. And all through the story up to this point, in traditional fashion, the sons have addressed their father with a traditional title, \u201cFather.\u201d Suddenly, now the elder son addresses his father without a title at all, which is a very clear and cutting sign of lack of respect. And he says (arrogantly), \u201cThese many years I have served you (the verb means \u201cserved like a slave\u201d). Look at how hard I have worked. I have served you as a slave. He is thereby defining his understanding of his relationship to a father. He had not been offering a response of love to one who has done everything for him, but instead was working as a slave and obeying his father\u2019s \u201claws.\u201d \u201cI have never disobeyed your commandments,\u201d he shouted! Amazing! The parallel to the Pharisees here is unmistakable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Think of Jesus\u2019 audience here.\u00a0 These Pharisees are those who will refuse to set foot in the judgment hall of Pilate lest they be defiled, but they sense no defilement at all in the offering of the Son of God to be killed.\u00a0 This innocent man will die, but they will not have broken the law. They will not defile their state of ceremonial purity by standing on those Gentile stones (in the judgment hall).\u00a0 And so here in our story is an elder son who feels, \u201cI have kept all of the rules.\u00a0 Look at my life.\u201d\u00a0 And he is ready to give you the list of all the wonderful things he has done.\u00a0 In the very process of breaking a relationship he is able to boast of how well he has kept the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Let\u2019s look now again at our chart.\u00a0\u00a0 We see the costly offer of unexpected love being given.\u00a0 It was accepted by the law breaker.\u00a0 This was defined as repentance, and upon the acceptance of it he was granted a new status which is called righteousness.\u00a0 Now, this character is offered the same demonstration of love and it looks like he\u2019s not going to accept it.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because he\u2019s not here on the chart (pointing to bottom \u201csinners\u201d), he\u2019s not running on the infield, he\u2019s out in foul territory in what Dr. Bailey calls a place of hardened doctrine. He looks at the world through the eyes that say, \u201cThere is a God.\u00a0 God gives us law.\u00a0 The good guys keep it.\u00a0 The bad guys break it.\u00a0 I keep it.\u00a0 Therefore, I am one of the good guys.\u00a0 My brother broke it, and so he\u2019s one of the bad guys.\u00a0 And the only way he can rejoin us good guys is to admit that he broke the law, make up for what he has done, demonstrate that he will keep the law . . . then we\u2019ll let him into our club.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0That\u2019s not what has happened to his brother, and that\u2019s not what now will potentially happen to him.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go on and see what this fellow who is keeping the law does with his father\u2019s enormously costly demonstration of unexpected love offered in public humiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u201cYou never gave me a goat.\u00a0 This character gets a whole calf!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s accusing his father of loving the younger brother more than he loves him.\u00a0 You are loving the bad guys more than you love us good guys.\u00a0 You never gave me anything to party with my friends.\u00a0 Obviously, the people inside, namely his family, do not constitute his friends.\u00a0 He wants his party with someone else!\u00a0 His brother and father are not amongst his friends, and his idea of joy is also pretty clear.\u00a0 It is not welcoming his brother home.\u00a0 His idea of joy is a belly full of meat with his buddies.\u00a0 You see this fellow is telling us a great deal about himself.\u00a0 \u201cWhen this son of yours…\u201d (AH!\u00a0\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say \u201cmy brother.\u201d\u00a0 I have nothing to do with him.\u00a0\u00a0 You may be related to him, but I\u2019m not.)\u00a0 … has devoured your living with harlots . . .\u00a0 Now, where did he get that?\u00a0\u00a0 He knew absolutely nothing about how the money was spent.\u00a0 He\u2019s making it up as he goes, which is what we often do in our self-righteousness – looking at others.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The elder brother\u2019s position is now stated (and it is the same as the Pharisees). This action of rewarding this character for having broken the law is irresponsible . . .How are we going to have a decent society when you do ridiculous things like that? How are we going to grab him by the ear and twist it until we force him to keep the law if you reward him after he breaks it? Okay . . . this mirrors what the Pharisees were saying about Jesus. How come you welcome these sinners? How can you show love to people like this? They\u2019ve first got to keep the rules! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0The elder son entirely misses the fact that he too has been offered the reward of his father\u2019s love.\u00a0 The father has just reached out in a gesture of love even in the face of all this hostility and bitterness and all of this twisted perspective as he makes this incredible public offer of love in deep pain and humiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Now the father says tenderly, \u201cSon, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.\u201d\u00a0 And here he uses a special word.\u00a0\u00a0 Up to now in the story the word for son is \u201chuios,\u201d the ordinary Greek word for son.\u00a0 Now we\u2019ve got a special word, \u201cTeknos,\u201d which means \u201cmy beloved son.\u201d\u00a0 The offer of love is now verbalized.\u00a0 The father\u2019s dramatic action had made no impact.\u00a0 Now that dramatic action is verbalized as well.\u00a0 My beloved son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.\u00a0 He\u2019s saying, \u201cRelax. I\u2019m not going to carve away from your rights.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to make a new will.\u00a0 You won\u2019t lose anything by having your brother at home.\u00a0\u00a0 And there he ends up having to defend joy!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Has the elder son been persuaded to accept that he needs reconciling love to restore the relationship he has broken, or will he remain defiant, confident in his self-righteousness? Alright. We come to the absolute climax of the story at the end. All of these little kids in the courtyard are listening, and all the guests inside are listening, and now we\u2019re waiting to hear his response. Is he going to accept his father\u2019s gesture of love, embrace him, come in and apologize in front of all the guests? Or will he stand outside in the self-righteousness of his defiance of the offer of love which breaks down his self-confidence in his self-righteousness – which is all based on his belief that he has kept the law and is better than the next guy who doesn\u2019t keep it? What\u2019s he going to do? There the curtain closes and we don\u2019t see. The response is left open for the Pharisees to write the ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason for this is that this is the part of the drama in which the audience truly becomes a part of the play. Now the pharisees who are listening walk on stage, and now they must answer up to this parable. Are they going to say, \u201cWe see now. This young man is God\u2019s Messiah, and he\u2019s giving us the vision of how God wants to deal with us. He is the unique agent of God who comes to us in self offering love and humiliation… And we are called upon to respond …?\u201d Or will they remain bitter and cement the break in the relationship? We don\u2019t know at the end of the story. But by the end of the gospel, we know that their choice was to have Jesus killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not coincidentally, the very act of Jesus\u2019 submission to their rejection and murderous treachery in real life mirrored the father\u2019s response in the story when both sons wished him dead. Jesus went through with it in the greatest possible demonstration of costly love. The story remains unfinished for each of us until we make our choice to accept or reject the love offered to us. In accepting grace, we then live in thanksgiving and take our place at the banquet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many times, Jesus\u2019 stories end in a banquet. The banquet of the Messiah which Isaiah looked forward to . . . The banquet in which God himself sits with all believers at the end of history. Until that time comes, Jesus says, \u201cWhen you sit with me, you participate in that banquet \u201cproleptically,\u201d you celebrate ahead of time.\u201d And when we break bread in the Holy communion, we are participating in the banquet of the Messiah at the end of all history, ahead of time, in the now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe Lost Elder Son(Pharisees), Part 3 of the Prodigal Son\u201d by Rev. James Rausch Upon Jesus\u2019 entry into Jerusalem to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1268,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions\/1268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}