You're most probably already familiar with the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32, but there is something about the story that we may have taken the wrong way for the longest time. I grew up thinking that the story was about just one lost son. Later on, I came to the realisation that there was not one, but two lost sons in the story.
Growing up in church, I heard the story of the lost son first at a young age. By then I was old enough to know that the young wayward and reckless son was not the kind of boy I should be. I felt sorry for the older brother who had to put up with such an insubordinate and inconsiderate brother. In many ways, I preferred being like the older brother- responsible and level-headed.
It was later on that I realised that the older brother was just as lost as his younger brother, and how many of us are like the older brother - lost thinking that we're on the right track. In Luke 15:29, the older brother says with frustration, "Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends."
Does that sound like something you would say to God if you were in the same spot as the older brother? Imagine this scenario: You hear about a serial killer in the news who gave his life to Christ and changed His ways only moments before being executed. Fast forward some sixty to seventy years later you enter the gates of heaven to see that serial killer enjoying the presence of God. How would you react?
Those who would cry out "unfair!" would most likely find themselves in the same spot as the older more responsible and compliant brother. But God is not looking for mere compliance and service, although those are important. What matters most to God is a relationship we share with a loving Father who says that all He has - favour, blessing, joy, peace and happiness - is already ours for the taking.
We don't have to earn the grace of God just like the older brother thought he did, and we shouldn't squander it just like the younger brother did. On the one hand was a brother who wanted his father dead (because He took the inheritance which was only given after a parent dies) and on the other was a brother who thought that to His father He was dead.
God calls us to partake in the favour that has now come through the blood of Christ and to share it with other brothers and sisters who may have once been lost, but are now found.
