Today I woke up thinking about a biblical story that is very well known. In Sunday schools we have met her more than once and also in our Bible studies and preaching. It is the parable of the prodigal son that appears in the book of Luke, chapter 15: 11-32.
This story tells the adventures (and misadventures) of the youngest son of a father who asks for his inheritance in advance and goes to live the "crazy life" while his older brother stays at home. After doing everything he wanted to do, this youngest son realizes that what he did did not benefit him totally and he decides to return home. When the father sees him approaching, he runs to meet him and makes a party. We have heard many times about this prodigal son, but what about his brother? Who remembers him?
I try to imagine the time and the scenario. While the youngest son was partying at a party and from woman to wife, the eldest son worked with his father, was available to him, to accompany him and help him. For him as a brother it must have been devastating everything that happened and thinking about remaining on his tasks and those of his brother must have been so much worse. I imagine that every day when he heard rumors of his brother he felt anger and helplessness, he did not understand what was happening and he just wanted to be able to accompany his father enough. When I imagine this scenario, it is easier for me to understand his attitude towards the return of this crazy brother of his.
In the following verses of Luke 15 we find the following: "The older brother got angry and did not want to enter. His father came out and begged him to come in, but he replied: "All these years, I worked for you like a donkey and I never refused to do anything you asked me to do. And, in all that time, you did not give me a kid to celebrate with my friends. However, when this son of yours returns after having squandered your money on prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf to celebrate! "(Verses 28-31 NLT). Of course, when we read it without taking history seriously, we find its behavior totally reprehensible, but let me be "advocate for the poor" and intercede for it.
This older son believed that he was doing everything right, it is very likely that many times he wanted to run away and he must have felt that the rest expected much less from him. Staying defined him as someone persevering and loyal, adjectives that at times must have weighed heavily. I'm sure that at times he must have wanted to run away, but he did not do it out of love for his father. But also out of pride, he did not want to be like his brother, he did not want to be compared to him. I did not want to be the one to leave, I wanted to be the one to stay. However, he never expressed his disappointment in the face of his father's lack of attention. He locked himself in and when the younger brother returned to the scene, the internal conflicts that he worked so hard to lock up again surfaced.
I understand the brother, I am able to empathize with him. I am able to feel your discomfort physically and I know that you too, because you and I have once been the brother of the prodigal son. Sometimes we have felt that they do not recognize our efforts or that finally it is not worth doing things well, they do not fully highlight them as they are highlighted to others who have tried less. It is horrible to say, but we have all been the older brother who has claimed because "someone" has not valued our delivery or difference enough.
The father who was wiser than you and I answered him in verse 31 and 32: »" Look, dear son, you have always been by my side and all I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. Well, your brother was dead and has come back to life! I was lost and now it has been found! "». The subtlety of the language I love because it says ALL that the eldest son needed to hear. In the first place, the father says "beloved" treating him with tenderness and affection, making him special, different. Secondly, he recognizes that he has ALWAYS been by his side and declares that everything he has is also his, that is, recognizes his inheritance. Third, when he talks about celebrating the return of the youngest son he says "we had", in the plural, including him in his joy, in his special moment. And in fourth place, he shares with him the joy of recovering from death someone important to both of them.
The next time you feel like the brother of the prodigal son, let God whisper in your ear what this father said to his son. It is very likely that many who read this writing have not even noticed if this has happened to them or not, but I believe that our (sometimes horrible) human nature inclines us to this, but God who is INFINITE love reminds us that for We are "dear" ALWAYS, that everything about Him is ours and in everything that is celebrated He includes us because he knows that when He is happy, our heart beats a thousand an hour.
Do not feel bad or ashamed, we will all touch at some point to be in any of these positions and the total guarantee is that God will be willing to accompany us and teach us whatever the circumstances.