In the parable of the prodigal son, the senior brother was angry and refused to join the celebration of his brother’s return. What really made him angry was that his father celebrated the return of his brother, who had been careless with the father’s share of the property. In his opinion, such a celebration should have been reserved for him, the one who stayed, was obedient, and served.
In life, we often associate celebration with accomplishment, with achieved success, not with rebellion or disobedience. The celebration reported in the parable of the prodigal son comes as awkward for the senior brother, almost a disregard for his diligence. What the senior brother failed to see was that the celebration was an outpouring of grace. It had nothing to do with his younger brother’s past deeds. The celebration was that his junior brother had returned, and most importantly, with a new perspective on life. The junior brother had recognized his past ways as wrong and repented for them. That was something his father, in an act of pure grace, saw as worthy of celebration. Though his senior brother viewed his younger brother by his past sins, what he did not recognize was that his junior brother had made a shift from who he used to be. As his father said, “… It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive…”. Basically, he had begun a new life, and that is worthy of celebration.
God’s arms are always wide open. God is full of grace and consistently looks forward to welcoming anyone who needs to return to Him to that place where we always felt at home. He is forever hopeful that one day, like the prodigal son, we will come to ourselves and run back home to him. When we do take that step to come home, our heavenly Father will throw a party and rejoice. We should keep in mind that those who remained faithful, our ‘senior brothers’, will see us in the light of the person we used to be and not be worth the fuss of a celebration. This is expected, especially as they held the fort while we were out and about in rebellion. What we need to do is pray for our ‘senior brothers’ so that they come into alignment with God and see that we were then dead and now only started living. And that indeed is a cause for God to rejoice.
The parable of the prodigal son can be found in Luke 15:11-31.