‘My son, the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours’
Luke 15:31
The parable of the prodigal son is a pretty familiar passage to most people, but this beautiful story about the Father’s grace in welcoming back his lost son is actually only one side of the story.
… Because there was also a second brother.
I think it can be easy for anyone who has grown up in the church to feel a bit like the older brother. I know that I have at times.
If you’ve grown up in a Christian family, always going to church, following the rules, and trying to do the right thing as best you can, it can be tempting to resent those who seem to make bad decisions and break all the rules… and yet get extended the same grace anyway.
‘It’s not fair’ I have found myself saying more than once … but then isn’t that exactly the point?
Nothing about grace is fair. It was never meant to be.
We are all sinners, and if we got what was fair we would all be separated from God.
This story offers a powerful reminder of that truth.
It’s easy to forget that the older brother was every bit as much a sinner as the prodigal son, and his response at the end of the story only serves to highlight the true state of his heart.
His response to his Father’s elaborate display of grace is essentially ‘But, what about me?’
I love this story because it’s so honest, so real, so human. Haven’t we all been there?
But the truth is that whenever I begin to resent God’s abundant grace and goodness towards someone else, I am failing to recognise my equally large need for grace.
The Father’s response silences the ‘What about me?’ question once and for all.
He simply replies: ‘For you are always with me and everything I have is yours.’
When you truly understand your identity as a child of God, and that staying close to the Father and remaining in his house is the very best place to be, why would you ever resent the grace extended to someone else?
Why would you ever feel threatened by God’s goodness and grace to someone else, when you already get to be with the Father’s all of the time?
And why would you ever feel envy when you already full access to all of the resources in his house, with all of the safety and security and protection and sense of belonging and privilege that comes with that?
His goodness to others doesn’t take any of his goodness away from you.
There is more than enough to go round.
So today … I am rejoicing in God’s goodness to others wherever I see it.
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