I recall one point in my life where I knew a man who was opposed to just about everything I stood for. He didn’t like the church, he had little use for God’s Word, and he lived a life that reflected his rejection of Jesus Christ. When circumstances forced me to be with him for extended periods of time, it was uncomfortable, as we had so little in common.
As time went on, though, he eventually began to attend a church just down the street from his house. I have no idea why . . . I suppose that he began to feel the weight of sin that his lifestyle was causing in him. I suppose he wanted some answers. God knows he never listened to mine. But there he was anyway, in a church. I wondered if he’d get anything out of it.
And then one day something strange happened. He called me up and told me that he had gotten baptized. Baptized, of all things! Of all the things in the world that I expected, this was the last of them! And then he said to me, “I just thought you might like to know.”
Now at that exact moment in time, I had two choices before me: I could rejoice with him over what God had worked in his life . . . or I could scorn him for his lifestyle marking him as someone not worthy of being in the Kingdom of God.
Maybe you’ve been in a similar situation yourself. Before you deny it, think about this: Is there anyone who, if they showed up in church today, you would say to yourself, “Well, they don’t belong here.” You know the type: if they offered to shake your hand you’d be sure to check the other one first to make sure they didn’t have a knife to stab you in the back. “Oh . . . you mean that kind of person. Well that’s not the same, pastor, because you see . . . well, it’s just not the same.”
When we get into that mode of thinking, when we doubt that a person we know has a place in God’s Kingdom because of what they’ve done in the past, then we have fallen into the older brother syndrome.
Jesus tells three parables in Luke chapter fifteen that we all love to see ourselves in. He tells a parable about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. We all love to see ourselves as the lost sheep. We’ve wondered away from the fold, and Jesus Christ himself leaves behind the entire flock to look just for us, searching high and low until He finds us. We love to be the lost coin, where God searches and searches until He finds us. We like feeling that although we’re the prodigal son, God waits each and every day for us on His front porch. And when He finds us, He calls all of creation together and throws a party, saying, “Rejoice with me! For this poor sinner, this poor sheep, was dead and is now alive again. He was lost, but now has been found.” We love the notion that God searches and searches for us, and that’s certainly true and right and it’s a good thing . . . but that’s not really the point of the story.
Listen again to Luke’s words in chapter fifteen: Luke 15:1-2, “Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
Jesus has a reputation for being a guy that hangs around with the riff-raff. He has a reputation for hanging out with the type of folks that good religious people wouldn’t even be caught in the same room with. The tax collectors had betrayed their own country, their own people, and were working for the oppressive, pagan, Roman government. The “sinners” that Jesus was routinely seen in the company of included prostitutes and other less savory members of the population: the barflys. The outcasts. The rejects. Not the type of folks you’d want your pastor to be seen with.
And so the religious people—the Pharisees and the men who taught God’s law in the synagogues—, they’re scandalized! They were saying, “These people don’t have a place in God’s Kingdom, because they don’t follow His laws like we do! They’re not good people. If Jesus is really a rabbi, he shouldn’t be hanging out with people like that.. It’s just not . . . nice.”
And then Luke continues, Luke 15:3, “3 Then Jesus told them this parable.” Jesus told them this parable. He’s not speaking to the “sinners”, but to the Pharisees, to the religious people. The people that worked extra hard at following every one of God’s laws. The people who looked at the “sinners” and deemed them unworthy of God’s Kingdom.
You know the story Jesus told. He told of a selfish son that demanded his inheritance and then squandered it on high living. He had it all . . . friends, girls, cars, drinks and drugs. But when the money ran out, his rock star life faded pretty quickly. It took him hitting rock bottom for him to become convinced what an idiot he had been, and so he headed back home with his tail between his legs.
But while he was yet a long way off, his father saw him and ran to him! The son tried to speak, he tried to apologize, but the father just said, “Shh! You and you . . . go get my best robe! Get some good clothes and shoes for my son! My son has returned, let’s throw a party!”
So far, so good. The Pharisees are listening and nodding patiently . . . but then Jesus gets to the real meat of the story.
Luke 15:25-28, “25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' 28 "The older brother became angry and refused to go in.”
“All my life I’ve been slaving away for you! I’ve never disobeyed your orders! I’ve followed your every command! And when this . . . this sinner comes home looking like something the cat dragged in, you throw a party! I deserve a party! I deserve some recognition! This so-called “son” of yours doesn’t even deserve to be in this house!”
Do you suppose that at this point Jesus really has the attention of the religious people? Now they’re listening! And they’re getting mad, because they see themselves in the older brother. They didn’t want these prodigal “sinners” to be included in God’s Kingdom, and yet here Jesus was, talking with them, laughing with them, eating . . . with . . . them.
The last thing the Pharisees wanted was a bunch of riff-raff smelling up their nice little religious ideas. If you didn’t measure up to their standards, you were on the outside. If you weren’t as righteous as they were, you weren’t to be included in the Kingdom. To the Pharisees, there were only two classes of people: the people who were in good with God—that’s themselves, by the way—and everybody else, and there was no way on God’s green earth that God would ever pay any attention to them.
And yet what does Jesus say? Speaking through the father’s words, he tells the Pharisees, “My son . . . you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours (oh, I just bet that chapped the Pharisees’ hides!) this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and now is found.” Jesus tells the Pharisees that one sinner who repents is worthy of a greater heavenly party than ninety-nine “righteous” religious people who don’t need to repent.
“We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” How does that play out in your life?
Are you guilty of having Older Brother Syndrome? Are there people you would be unwilling to rejoice with, if they were to repent?
When you refuse to come to the altar because some “sinner” might be next to you . . .someone who clearly doesn’t deserve to receive the same Sacrament as you . . . does that make God’s heart proud? Or do you break the heart of the Father by having the arrogant attitude of the older brother?
That attitude says, “Those sinners might fit in with the rest of the world, but here in the church we have different standards. Here in the church we don’t hold with any of that sin nonsense. No . . . we’re better here.”
Do you suppose that God classifies people according to our system? Does He group people into “us good religious folks” and “those ugly sinners”?
For God there is just one group: the people for whom He sent His Son to die. And He loves all the people in that one group with a deep, abiding love. Who is it that Jesus came for? Luke 19:10, “10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 5:31, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus’ heart beats passionately for the lost, the sinners. A group, by the way, that you once belonged to. And when you were yet dead in your sins, God made you alive with Christ, forgiving you. There was a celebration in Heaven that day for you. This is what He does over every . . . single . . . sinner who repents. Think of that! One party right after another! The angels just finish cleaning up after one bash and then they get the call: “Wait! There’s another one! Set everything back up!” And they never get tired of it! God never gets tired over celebrating over another soul that He’s brought into His family. He never gets tired of saving one more person from Hell.
Can you imagine the impact that our church could have on Hudson . . . on the world . . . if it became known that we were a church that threw parties over repentant sinners? If every time a sinner walked in through that door we all moved over in our pews and said, “C’mon in! There’s always room for one more!”? If we all left the older brother syndrome outside because we knew Who had saved us and that His party was big enough for everybody? One big happy family, all forgiven in Jesus Christ, all celebrating.
When you see a “sinner” that comes to repentance, don’t look down; look back. Look back to your own baptism, to your own conversion. Look back to the time when God made you His own, to the time when all of Heaven shouted with joy over what Christ had accomplished in your life: the saving of one more sinner. Feel the joy that filled God’s heart on that day . . . and enter into the celebration over what Christ has done for one more lost sheep. Join the celebration that the Father throws over His lost son that finally came home. Leave the older brother syndrome outside where it belongs, and come in and join the party!
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