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Dear Friends
Back in 2015, I wrote about ‘Love sick fathers” and in that article we followed the parable of the Prodigal son as told
by Jesus in Luke 15. In these verses we followed the rebellious behaviour of the younger son who pestered his
Father for an early inheritance only to leave home and waste it all on sinful living. Space in that article did not
allow us to explore the rebellious behaviour of the older son. In my Bible, this story is headed “the parable of the
lost son” perhaps it should have been headed “the parable of the lost sons”.
We pick-up the story in verse 25 the older son is in the field as he comes close to home he hears that there is a
celebration in the family home, he asks the servants “what’s going on”, they tell him that his father is
celebrating because the younger son has humbled himself confessed his wrong doing and returned home. At that the
older sons becomes angry and refuses to go into the family home and join in the celebration even though his father
comes out to plead with him to come in. Somewhere in here we see a bad attitude being manifest, was it that he
was angry because of the younger son’s wastefulness or the lack of honour for their father or could it be driven by
money, the younger son has already taken one third of the inheritance, now he’s back, will he have his hand out for
one third of the remaining wealth when the father passes away. I suspect that one of the main reasons for the older
son’s behaviour is his lack of intimate relationship with his father, the son’s response to his father, are driven by just
doing enough to keep his position in the inheritance line, legalism, life of good works or a religious spirit. The apostle
Paul gives us a list in 2Timothy 3:1-5 of the type of evil people we can expect to see in these last days, and in verse 5 he says
there will be those who have a form of Godliness (no intimacy) but they deny the power of God in their lives. We usually call
this “the religious spirit”. At the beginning of this chapter, look at who Jesus was
speaking to, tax collectors and sinners also present were Pharisee’s and teachers of the law. Put yourself in that crowd,
what group would you have been in, the tax collectors and sinners, those sincerely seeking answers to life’s problems, or
the Pharisees and teachers of the law, who obviously were upset with Jesus for mixing with sinners, these are those who
are driven by piousness, legalism, and a Judgmental spirit. According to James 2:13, mercy triumphs over judgement.
When the older son has finished explaining to his father, the reasons for his anger, we see the beautiful reply by his father in
verse 31 “ My son, you are always with me and all I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this
brother of yours was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found”.
God Bless,
Clive
C.S.Lewis. “only true Christianity dares to believe that God’s love is unconditional”.