I am sitting in the Dentist office right now waiting for Nancy. I wanted to briefly talk about a conversation I had following my sermon last Sunday. A person came up to me and even though I did not preach on the prodigal son I briefly mentioned the story. In the story this person felt I was being too harsh on the older son because of his unwillingness to forgive his brother. He agreed that the unforgiveness was wrong but felt that the brother had been dutiful all of his life and needed to be cut a break.
What I did not say at the time was the context of this story was when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees when they criticized him for eating with sinners. The Pharisees stated that they were dutiful and followed the law of Moses. In the story, there is no doubt that the older brother was to be an example of the Pharisee attitude. the lesson is that we all have at different times been a Pharisee in our lives.
1 comment:
I enjoy reading your blogs and wonderful insights....I too have been a so called older brother many times in my life. My flesh tends to want to be the older brother while my spirit has realized that this is not what Jesus was nor would he want me to live this way. When you are the older brother every thought and action comes from the source of self. When we turn from the older brother syndrome to God our thoughts and actions come from our only source of truth and love...God..and then we can see the younger brothers need of love, forgiveness and grace and offer it freely without envy or jealousy. How wonderful is our God!
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