From Jim McGuiggan... Luke 15 and 20/20 Vision

Luke 15 and 20/20 Vision

Then there’s Luke 15. How is it that the father of the prodigal received the young man with such joy and the older brother couldn’t bear to be in his younger brother’s presence? Clearly there was more than one reason for it; but was it that the father took the young man’s sins less seriously than the brother? Was that it, the father was soft on sin? Since he didn’t take sin so seriously he was able to forgive more easily?

One thing’s for sure, the older brother had the younger man‘s moral number. He saw him as a waster, immoral and with little commitment to the family. It’s true the older brother had his own faults but that doesn’t change the fact that the younger boy was one bratty, selfish clod. See? That’s why the older brother couldn’t bear the welcome the young fellow received—he saw his sin for what it was!

But the father saw the young man’s sin also. When he spoke of him he said, “He was lost!” When he spoke of him he said, “He was dead!” He didn’t deny the reality or ugliness of his sins but he put the stress on their destructive nature. It’s clear the older brother, who thought of himself more highly than he should have, hated the young man’s sin but he had no longing for his return, he didn’t miss him while he was gone, there was nothing about him of the shepherd that lost a sheep or an anxious woman that lost a coin. He felt no loss at his missing brother and he felt no sense of mourning at his death. And there lay the difference between him and his father; he had his eye only on sin and the father had his heart on the sinner.

We mustn’t think that love of the boy blinded the father to the son’s great wrong because, ultimately, only lovers with great hearts can see sin for what it is. Their view of it is nothing as shallow as mere moral legality—it is moral destruction. To them sin is not an abstraction talked about between strangers but a moral reality that is unravelling a relationship between family members.

Is it not at this point that the difference between God and us, between Jesus Christ and us becomes painfully apparent? Who do we miss? Who do we mourn over? Whose return fills us with sheer joy?

 ©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.