It Was Fitting to Celebrate

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:25-32)

The parable of the prodigal son continues and now we get to see the older son’s perspective. Now the older son’s perspective seems understandable from a human only perspective, but that is the point; we shouldn’t be looking at things from a human only perspective, we should be looking at things from God’s perspective.

The Older Son’s Anger

The older son was in the field as his younger brother came home. This was undoubtedly because he was serving in the field, and as he approached home, he heard music and dancing and obviously there was some kind of celebration going on. Totally understandable to wonder what’s happening but he ended up angry at the reason.

The older son heard the words of the servant, but did he truly hear the heart of his father in what the servant relayed? By what we read, it seems that he didn’t. Instead of hearing the father’s heart that his younger brother has been found and everyone was celebrating that he was now home, the older son heard it through a jealous and selfish lens – that his reckless, disobedient brother was getting rewarded after blowing his half of their dad’s money. His thoughts were instantly on himself. In that moment of selfishness, he felt it unfair that he never got even so much as a young goat to celebrate with his friends, but his dad just killed the fattened calf for his dumb little brother who had messed up. The older son missed the big picture and the purpose of the celebration altogether.

James tells us for good reason to “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20).

The Father’s Entreat

In the older son’s anger, he refused to even go inside where the celebration was happening, yet his father came and met him where he was at and entreated him. How often do we get angry over something and decide to self-isolate and stew in our anger? It doesn’t ever help, yet in our flesh that’s a go to. However, our heavenly Father also meets us where we’re at, even in our anger, and entreats us to come into his home and see things from His perspective, in which our anger would fade away in as we align ourselves with God.

And even when the older son snaps back with his argument of fairness, the father spoke kindly to him, reminding him that he is always with him and shares in what he has always. Then his father spoke words to right that wrong perspective – the right perspective being that the celebration going on in the father’s house was indeed fitting because the big picture was that his brother was alive and found. The focus was on celebrating where his brother was at currently, not condemning where he had blown it previously.

Notice that even in the older son’s anger, he tried to diminished his relationship when talking to his father when he said, “But when that son of yours came…” He didn’t say his brother, he put space between him, which would make it easier to stay angry. It’s much easier to try to justify our sin when we rationalize things, stay in our very narrowly selfish perspective, and create space and divide between us and other people we’re angry at. But is that what God does? No, God does quite the opposite - while we were sinners, Christ came as one of us and dwelt among us and died for us. Instead of creating a divide, He bridged the gap between us that our sin had created.

How We Respond

The question we need to ask ourselves here is, do we respond like the older brother or like the father?

Of course, our initial reaction is going to be to say we respond like the father, but it’s worth taking the time to really think about this and be honest with ourselves because this type of thinking goes beyond this application and into other areas of our life. Are we joyful over things that the Father is joyful over? Or do others bring him joy while we scoff and get angry at what we deem unfair to us?

Because if we can’t be joyful over the smaller things that bring God joy in other people’s lives, then the ultimate joy of the much larger thing of a person repenting isn’t going to be any easier for us to share in the celebration of. When the older brother should have been joyful over his younger brother’s return, he was jealous of the celebration. The older son didn’t even stop long enough to realize that his father was already joyful in his obedience and being with him day in and day out. What a shame it would be to miss out on the joy our Father has in us if we’re blinded by our anger and jealousy of His joy in one of our siblings in Christ’s lives.

Our heavenly Father wants to rejoice and celebrate WITH us over the good things in life. Even if that happens to be in the life of someone we have been hurt by, feel wronged by, or feel doesn’t deserve God’s warm welcome and celebration. Let’s take our cues from our Father and rejoice WITH Him and the angels.