Lost at Home

In Isaiah 30:21 we read, “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” Here is a promise of the Lord’s care for us. Man usually tends to go either to the right or to the left in life. That is why God doesn’t cease to warn us that we may walk in the way appointed by Him.

it had been the mission of Jesus to show the people the way to God. The gospel of Luke 15:1,2 says, “Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners, and eats with them.” All were coming to Jesus. His personality had a divine attraction. All loved Him, the children, poor, taxcollectors -because for Him, all were like one. He loved them with the same love. But there were also people who rebuked Him. Their pride was too big to let themselves be attracted by a carpenter. To them Jesus said three of his nicest object lessons. One of them was the parable of the Prodigal son. Fall and revival, repentance and acceptance are seen in this ancient story.

The younger son wasted everything with his riotous living, but nostalgia brought him back home. He had faith in the love of his father. He was sure that his father loved him. Ugly, dirty and discouraged he was coming home and his father accepted him without a word of reproach.

“And bring here the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found. And they begun to be merry.” Luke 15: 23, 24. And the feast began. Yet this is not the end of the story. On the next part of it I would like us to meditate more.

Luke 15:25 writes, “Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.” The elder son was not a drunkard. He was not going to pubs. He was a diligent son. He helped his father and was coming in from the field. But what kind of a man was he? What kind of a man was the one at home? “And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound, And he was angry and would not go in…” Luke 15:26-28.

The elder son was not happy to hear that his brother was home. He was angry. From the words in verse 29 and 30 we see that the reason he served his father was for wages. His spirit was of the hireling. Here is the elder brother, no less wretched than the younger, yet the younger saw the misery of life and came back. But what an attitude his brother had!

“By the elder son were represented the unrepenting Jews of Christ’s day and also the Pharisees of every age who look with contempt upon those whom they regard as publicans and sinners. It is because they themselves have not gone to great excesses in vice, they are filled with self-righteousness. Christ met these cavaliers on their own ground. Like the elder son in the parable, they had enjoyed special privileges from God. They claimed to be sons in God’s house, but they had the spirit of the hireling. They were working not from love, but from hope of reward. They saw Christ inviting publicans and sinners to receive freely the gift of His grace – the gift which the rabbis hoped to secure only by toil and penance – and they were offended. The prodigal’s return, which filled the father’s heart with joy, only stirred them to jealousy.”‘ COL 209.

Israel was brought unto captivity because of its idolatry and apostasy, seventy years in Babylon. After that time Israel began to look at all the nations as they were dogs. They went from one extreme to another. The majority kept the form of piety, but their hearts were far from God.

The heaviest words Jesus spoke to this ciass of people in Matthew 23:13, 14 “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widow’s houses and for a pretence make long prayer…” Matt. 23: 15,23.

Lost at home! Is there any danger for us to develop the traits of the character of the elder brother?:

1. When we are not happy with those who come to the church from the world and don’t thank God for them.

2. When we run every day after our own business and don’t even think about the ones who are perishing. The younger brother was far away and the older one didn’t care. He didn’t even think about him.

3. When we have envy and the spirit of strife, we carry in us the image of the older brother. James 3:14, “But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.”

4. When we speak about our own dignities we think: we are the ones who serve God as He wants; the others, who are not at home “are negligent, careless, not worthy of God’s love”. How much of the character of the father did the eider brother have?

5. When we judge. When we have the spirit of criticism. “Therefore thou are inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou are that judgest: for wherein thou judges! another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things…or despiseth thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” Rom. 2:1,4 It is true that not everything is o.k. in the church. The church is comprised of people not of angels. There are people who are always criticizing. Yet it is much better to help the weak and to pray for them than to speak about them. The elder brother condemned his father and brother.

6. When we complain and murmur, and we are not happy being in the church.
“Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against Thee? Ye have said, it is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?” Malachi 3:13, 14.

When we say, I’m tired with the regulations of the church. What do I profit in keeping God’s ordinances”. Then we have the same spirit as the elder brother. “He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now.” 1 John 2:9.

In this parable, Jesus shows us the danger to be lost at home. But it is interesting that Jesus did not speak about a third son! That is because in the world there is no third son.

Just as the younger son came back, so also the elder one needs to return to his father.
Praise the Lord that there is a loving father in this parable. He met both the younger and the elder son outside. He showed the same love to the prodigal son and to the one who was lost at home. This object lesson shows us that no matter who we are, we can come to our heavenly Father and find acceptance, tenderness and love.

May God help us to come back to Him.
Amen