“Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’ “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to do. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’ “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!'”
Luke 15:25-32
Remember the father gave the older son his inheritance as well. He seems to have forgotten. It is more problematic to work out how the older son would have received his inheritance at the same time as the younger son. Joachim Jeremias in his 1963 work The Parables of Jesus tells us there were ways of dealing with this division legally. If the father chose to divide the property, the elder son could be given the legal right of possession but not the right of disposition. Under this arrangement the son had possession of the property but his father still had control over it. How could there have been enough money or enough assets to go around? The older son could well have been given the father’s third in the same way the younger son was. If that were the case then they would have received two thirds of what they were entitled to. The father would have kept the control of the property for his needs. The farm would likely have stayed under the control of the father but the older son would have been free to do whatever he wanted with his current share. But in the future he can look forward to the estate falling to him at which time he will be given disposition rights. It is evident from the text of the story that the father is still in control of the decision making. The father’s comment in verse 31 adds light on what has happened. Everything you see is yours. It seems the farm is his NOW. Now, not at some time in the future. The father has done the shocking thing of turning over the farm to these ungrateful sons. How shocking that the father should make that decision with such ungrateful sons.
These sons seem to match the tax collectors and sinners referred to at the beginning by the Pharisees. They sure were behaving like sinners and like tax collectors in the sense in which they were grabbing everything they could. While the older son didn’t specifically ask for his share the father gave it to him. Clearly the attitude that was present in the younger son was also present in the older one, which is made clear toward the end of the story with his melt down. The older son blames his brother and holds a condemnatory grudge against him, coming up with accusations of him being with prostitutes. There is no attempt on the part of the older son to be factual or fair with his younger brother. Clearly he wants to paint him in as bad a light as possible. His relationship with his father is not great either. There is clearly no love lost between the father and the older son nor between the older son and the younger son. The family relationships are in tatters.
but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
Luke 15:29-30
Take note of verse 29 – there is something missing here too, just like in the younger son’s speech. There is no honorific given to the father. In the speech of the older son there is no “Dear Father” or “Father, whom I honour”. The older son allows the anger to burst forth from him in his outburst “All these years I slaved for you . . .” What an intriguing response. Either this son is so bitter and twisted that he doesn’t recall that “all he can see is his”. Or he is angry that the father has usurped his authority and killed the fatted calf for his “good for nothing brother” without his permission. Assuming the father now has to get his permission to spend the family assets. But remember the father still likely has a third of the family wealth at his disposal. The younger son has forfeited his full share of the land which will all go to the older son at the father’s death.
The sons in this family are equally to blame and equally at loggerheads with their father. Neither have respect for him. The younger showed no respect when he took his inheritance and ran. The older son shows no respect when he took his inheritance and stayed. Now he is bitter and twisted about the perceived hurts from the past – “all these years I’ve slaved for you” as well as the disrespect to his leadership now in killing the fatted calf without his permission. He is reminded by the father that it is all his anyway. We will look at this more tomorrow. See what you glean from it in the meantime.
When we allow past hurts to impair our present judgement all get hurt. Forgiveness is required.
Hate & condemnation are natural. Acceptance & forgiveness are supernatural.
Alvi Radjagukguk
Forgiving, when you’ve been deeply hurt, is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, but you must forgive, and keep on forgiving until resentment no longer controls you.
Bob Gass
To forgive is to set the prisoner free…and then discover the prisoner was you.
Anon
Forgive your enemies. It messes with their heads.
Bob Gass