In the beloved Parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) we learn of the father’s extravagant forgiveness of his son, despite the prodigal’s terrible behavior. God forgives sins, even bad ones, if the sinner is willing to repent.
But the parable does not end there. There is also the part about the older brother. When he hears about the party the father throws upon the return of the younger brother, he sulks and complains that his father never threw a party for him.
I’m glad that the older brother was included in the parable. There’s a lot of people like him. He’s a sinner too, just of a different kind. And the father is just as willing to include him.
The parable shows us two big categories of sinners.
The younger brother was a ‘big ticket’ sinner. The sins of these people are obvious. They live for pleasure. Their crimes get reported in the newspaper. They cause scandal. They embarrass their families. We can call them the Libertines.
But the older brother represents a calmer kind of sinner. People like him don’t do the big-ticket sins (probably because of fear of the consequences). Instead, theirs are sins of attitude–pride, arrogance and superiority and all the while keeping up appearances of following the rules. We can call them Legalists.
Aside: I wonder, I might be wrong, but I think that many saved people, early in their Christian lives, go through two phases. First, an ‘end times phase’–where they obsess on the events of the end-times, like the mark of the beast, the order of last-day events, things like that. It’s innocent enough but distracts from more important things. Second, they go through a legalistic phase (not so innocent), where they mistake law-keeping with holy living.
If the person does not get over the end-times phase, there is no real harm done (it is, after all, biblical, just not the most important thing). But if they cling to that legalistic phase, they have a real problem.
The sins of the proud are quieter but more poisonous. They think they are good when they are not. They feel good about themselves by thinking they are better than others, and all the while they are in the worst shape of all.
Jesus spoke about these people. Luke 18:9-14, “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”
‘But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted’.”
For those with legalistic tendencies, how do we avoid being like that Pharisee? We need to know our tendencies and guard against them. Remembering these things will help:
1. Never forget that salvation comes by God’s grace and no way else. We receive it as a gift. That should move us to gratitude. Arrogance will have no place.
2. God expects and requires us to pass that grace along to others. After Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer, in the very next verse, he gave this command: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins,” Matthew 6:14-15. Forgiving others is not based on them deserving it, but on God’s previous forgiveness of our own sins. We have to pass along the forgiveness.
3. Realize that pride can blind us. It is the very nature of pride to tell us that there is nothing wrong. It makes one hardened to the guilt and conviction that we need as a first step to repentance and life.
The Parable of The Prodigal Son parable ends with the older brother still not repenting. But he could have. The father wanted him to.
Are you an ‘older brother’? Are you a Pharisee? The good news is that God reaches out for you too.