Lessons from the Prodigal Son and his Brother

Read Luke 15:11-31.

There was once a man who spent his life doing the right things. He was a reliable man who tended his father’s farm. Day after day, he rose early, along with the servants, to work the fields until sunset. His strength, his suntanned complexion, spoke of his persevering, painstaking labour. So did the plentiful harvest he helped to reap.By all appearances, he was an exemplary man: hardworking, efficient, persevering, faithful, fruitful.

But in spite of all this, the man still lacked something. The joy and contentment that should have come with his hard workwere absent. This became apparent the day he heard that his father had organized a celebration to mark the return of his younger brother.

In his eyes, his younger brother had done everything wrong: he had asked for his inheritance, then left home for a distant land. He had indulged in wild living and squandered all his inheritance. When the young man had become destitute, he returned home and begged his father’s forgiveness.

The older brother complained bitterly to the father:

Lk 15:29-31: “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for Him!”

“My son”, the father said “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

How many times do we act like the older brother, doing the right things for God, and missing the inheritance our Father wants to share with us? We may be faithful in our praying, in studying our Bible and doing kind deeds for our neighbours, but we miss out on the peace, love, joy, contentment that God promises His children.

Why does our striving sometimes hinder us from knowing the God we work so hard to please?For a possible answer to this question, let’s turn to Matthew 5:5. This is the passage that refers to the Beatitudes. Jesus is telling His disciples that they will be blessed for who they are, not for what they do.

Matt 5:5: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

What an inheritance! Nothing less than the earth! But it is God’s children who are meek that will experience this blessing. It is not a by-product of their doing, but flows from their being. Meekness is an attitude of the heart towards God: an attitude of humility. Without meekness, we will not receive what we already have in Christ. In the same way that the older brother failed to receive his father’s love.

What does it mean to be meek and humble before God? We see this quality in 3 images from the life of the son who left home.

A humble heart. Meekness and humility begin with a heart that recognizes how needy, helpless and impoverished it really is. Until our hearts are emptied of self, we cannot be meek before God. The older son was far from meek, in spite of his commendable deeds, because his heart was haughty. He was self-sufficient, self-righteous and he valued recognition morethan a deep relationship with his father and his brother. The younger brother initially adopted the same attitude as his brother. He prematurely demanded his inheritance in order to live his life in his own terms.

But things went wrong for him. His wild (and expensive) living and a famine stripped his hopes bare, and revealed his need. When he hit rock bottom, he came to his senses and he remembered he had not lost everything. He remembered that he still had a good father to whom he could run.

But there was a catch: he needed to give up his arrogant heart in exchange for a meek one. The prodigal son knew he was unworthy of love and forgiveness, and that he was absolutely dependent upon the mercy of the one whom he had rejected.

A destitute heart recognizes that apart from God we can do nothing. We are utterly impoverished and dependent on Him. All our good works and efforts will not satisfy our craving for love and meaning in life. Only a deep relationship with Christ in an attitude of humility and dependency on Him will.

Bended knees. Rembrandt the famous artist has a painting of the return of the prodigal son. He depicts him on bended knee pleading to his father while the older brother stands nearby – stiff, unsympathetic, and furious. In contrast, the prodigal’s posture is one of complete surrender.

Surrender involves two actions: --[if !supportLists]-->·

Letting go, which requires continually releasing control over our lives and relinquishing our plan in favour of God’s will. It may mean letting go of a bad habit, an addiction, an approval-seeking behaviour or anything else we’ve used to find fulfillment apart from God. ·

Relaxing. The call to surrender is also a call to relax in the Father’s unconditional love, into which we are forever invited. Our striving, grasping, positioning, manipulating, performing and mask-wearing can all slip away as we yield to the goodness of our Father. He loves us and accepts us as we are. In relaxing, our souls find true rest.

Open hands. Finally, a meek heart resembles open hands that are ready to receive. The older son missed out what he already had in the father’s household. He was so consumed and blinded by his efforts to earn the father’s riches that he couldn’t receive the father’s freely given love, presence and acceptance. The father wanted to give so much more than just an inheritance to his sons. He longed to give himself. In the same way, our Heavenly Father wants to give Himself to us. He longs to be admitted into our hearts. But He does not force His way. Rather, He waits for us to open the doors and receive Him (Rev 3:20).

Yet, unless our hearts are destitute, unless our knees are bent before God in surrender and in submission, it will be hard to stretch out our hands, to wait for and receive the gift of love and mercy that God is always ready to give. As we welcome our neediness and surrender our control to God, we are released to receive all that He waits to bestow on us. Through the hidden blessing of meekness, we inherit the earth – and all the joy our Father wants to share with us, His beloved children.