How dare you forgive, father?
How dare you accept this disgrace?
I mean no insult but how could you
Let him return to a home he despised
To the people he rejected and denounced?
How dare you throw a party for this scum
What about me that never left?

The good brother was returning home after a hard day at work when he heard the singing and rejoicing. “What are we celebrating that I have no idea about? Did I forget something?” Curious, he hastened home. He called one of the servants aside to inquire what the partying was about and the story grew wings, “Your brother came home!” “So? What’s there to celebrate if he came home,” wondered big brother who is trying to wrap his head around the event. His informant continued, “He came back in rags! Everything he went out with- all gone!” “What? He wasted everything? And my father accepted him back,” big brother is now getting annoyed.

“You haven’t even heard half the story,” the informant added. “Your father saw him a long way away and ran all the way to meet him. In public, he hugged him and kissed him before your brother had said anything. And as soon as he opened his mouth, your father forgave him and brought him home. We were all in shock but your father was not done, he called servants X, Y and Z and instructed them to clean him up, put on him the best robe and those expensive sandals and ring. He was so happy we thought he was losing his mind! And while they were cleaning up your brother, he sent others to go prepare a feast and invite the neighbors.”

“Why would he do that?” Big brother asked, outraged? The informant concluded, “He said the boy was dead but is now alive. That he was lost and now is found.” “Alive?” Screamed big brother, “Is this being alive – coming home destitute? What is the meaning of ‘found’ for someone who squandered everything?” Enraged, he refused to be caught alive under the same roof with his horrible brother. Neither would he support his father in committing such sacrilegious injustice. Celebrants heard the whispers of what was going on outside, some set aside their drinks, brought out their paraphernalia for the breaking news they have been expecting.

The happy father marched outside, full of compassion for his older son. The father who was offended began pleading with a son who preferred that the father forgave not his brother. Big brother was mad because father forgave someone he felt did not deserve mercy or grace. Not only that, he added, “I’ve been the good one, making sure everything is working well here. Yet, never for once did you give me a baby goat to celebrate with my friends. And this wasteful scoundrel comes back and the whole neighborhood is enjoying a feast of fatted calf, how is that fair?”

This reminds me of the landowner who went out to hire laborers at different times and paid everybody the same at the end of the day (Matt 20.) Those who started earlier were angry, not that he did not pay them as agreed, but that he paid those who started late the full wage. How many of us are like these early starters and big brother? You get angry that God does not crush those you think deserve punishment. You feel bad that others are being blessed while you are still waiting and serving God? You have never missed at anything and here you are wanting, how can He bless those who keep missing the mark? But is He not God? Can He not do with His wealth as He pleases? This is chunky food for thought.

Blessings
Glory!