God Wants Sons, Not Slaves (Part I)

Photo Credit: Ketut Subiyanto

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Recently, I sat with a well-known parable of Jesus for several days. And as the parable unfolded over that time, an important message became clear:

God wants sons (and daughters), not slaves.

To explore this statement, we’re going to dive into Jesus’ parable of the lost/prodigal son — because, as you’ll see, it has much to say on the subject.

Before we get going, I’d ask you to take five minutes and read Luke Chapter 15.

Setting Up the Story

First off, I need to say: I love the story of the lost son.

I love it because of all its layers. There’s so much to be gained from it from the variety of perspectives and interpersonal dynamics within the story. But, while there are a number of valuable messages within the story, there’s a primary message Jesus was communicating with it.

But, as can too often be the case, we (modern Christians) tend read this parable in isolation, separating it from the context in which it was originally delivered. We then treat it as if it is simply a random, standalone story to be consumed on its own.

And when we read the parable in isolation, we tend to gravitate to the portion of the parable that resonates most with our modern Christian philosophies — that being: personal redemption/salvation. What this means is that we tend to dwell on the incredible grace and forgiveness shown to the younger son (our younger son bias is further demonstrated by how we’ve gone so far as to name the entire parable after him — referring to it as “The parable of the prodigal son”).

Now don’t get me wrong, the lavish grace given to the younger son is certainly one of the major take-aways of the story, but I feel the need to emphasize the necessity of understanding the central point that Jesus was trying to make in telling the story originally (as well as who he was making that point to).

What we need to understand, is that Jesus is using this parable to highlight the heart of the older brother, not the younger. And I’ve found that understanding the story through that lens gives the story a whole ‘nother set of legs.

Allow me to explain…

Jesus’ Target Audience

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this parable[…]

Luke 15:1-3

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So, here we have Jesus hanging out with a variety of “undesirable” people — lost people, if you will — and almost as if on cue the religious leaders start complaining about it.

Jesus apparently hears them (or knows what they’re thinking) and responds. But being the master teacher that he is, he doesn’t address them directly, instead he addresses them by telling three parables. The first two of which are short stories that tell of individuals who went through the effort of intensely looking for a single lost item of value and the joy that they exhibited when their lost item was eventually found.

In telling these parables, Jesus was clearly making a point. And he was directing that point at the self-righteous religious leaders. His point was this:

You shouldn’t be repulsed by the lost, instead you should be seeking the lost (because they, too, are valuable).
And not only should you be looking for them — you should be joyful when they are recovered.

With this central point in mind — and who the point was being made to — let’s dive into the third, and final parable to see how Jesus would drive his point home.

The Story

I know you already read the entire chapter (Probably. Maybe. Hopefully), but I still think it’s valuable to quickly summarize the story of the lost/prodigal son:

• A father has two sons
• The younger son asks the father to give him his portion of the inheritance early
• The father obliges, and the younger son goes off to a distant place and quickly wastes his fortune
• The younger son, now poor and living in a land crippled by famine, takes on work feeding a man’s pigs out in his fields
• After a while of starving and living in abject poverty, he decides to go back home and beg his father to be a servant in his house — as that would be far better than his current situation
• As he approaches home, the father sees his son off in the distance, runs to him, and embraces him
• As the son delivers his prepared apology/speech (asking to be made a mere household servant) the father brushes it aside, and re-affirms his identity as “son”
• Then, the father immediately charges his servants with killing the prized fattened calf and throwing a massive celebration for his returned son
• The older son hears the celebration from the fields where he’s working and is told that his brother’s back and the fattened calf has been killed to celebrate his return
• The older brother is furious at the news and refuses to go in and celebrate
• The father comes out to speak to the older son and implores him to join in the celebration [end of story]

Before we really dig into some of the implications, let’s quickly call out the characters in this story and identify who they represent:

The father – God the Father
The younger son – lost people; anyone who has taken a detour in life away from the Father
The older son – the judgmental, self-righteous people who should be happy when the lost are returned but aren’t (just like the religious men listening to the story)

With the ground work (finally) fully laid, let’s dig into my point of this post.

The Father Wants Slaves Sons

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

Luke 15: 28-30 (emphasis mine)

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Look at the attitude of the older brother here (and remember who he represents).

While the younger brother was off living wild and squandering his fathers wealth, the older brother never left his father’s side; He dutifully (and pridefully) obeyed the commands of his father. And because of that, he thought he was better than his lost little brother. But, while he never left home physically and had remained obedient to his father’s commands, the reality is his heart was as far away from his father as his younger brother was when he was broke and hungry feeding some guy’s pigs in a far off land.

Now look at the father’s response to his older son…

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“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Luke 15: 31-32

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Wow….what a response! This older brother probably deserved to be slapped, if we’re being honest. Instead, the father responds with a statement that is so loving and gracious it stings. Especially this part…

“My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

You see, the entire time the older brother was with the father he wasn’t really with him.

When it came down to it, the older brother was just as self-absorbed as his little brother was, it just manifested differently.

You see, the older brother was focused on obedience to commands (with the belief that his obedience would earn him something), while not being truly concerned with what his father wanted…which was presence and relationship with his son.

As a son of his father, the older brother had literally everything his father owned at his fingertips — but instead of living in sonship he chose to live in slavery (see verse 29). He worked obediently, all the while wanting a simple goat to share with his friends. But he wasn’t present enough with his father as a treasured son to let him know that. Rather than interacting with his father as a close ally and friend, he instead regarded his father as an employer.

And over time, the older son’s simmering slave mentality developed a bitterness in him. He was bitter at his loving father for not reading his mind and rewarding him for “slaving” for him for years. He was bitter at his wayward brother for squandering a large chunk of the family’s wealth, damaging the family’s reputation, and then daring to show his face again. Then he was bitter at his father again for being willing to welcome the little squanderer back!

And despite all this, the father remained gracious to his knucklehead of an older son and the contrast that Jesus draws between the heart of the older son and the heart of the father — the heart that we, too, should have — is clear.

What the Older Son Teaches Us

Let’s quickly reflect on some of the key effects of religious, effort-minded living as Jesus was highlighting through the older brother in the story:

• Self-centeredness & relational disconnect
  • When you’re working to earn something from God, you’re not truly focused on Him or the hearts of those around you. Instead, you’re focused on your reward. This way of living results in a disconnect between yourself, God and others.
• Self-righteousness
  • When others make mistakes or don’t live up to your level of obedience, you will tend to look down on them, and think of yourself as better than them.
• Bitterness
  • If your effort doesn’t seem to be working out the way you think it should you end up bitter at God, bitter at others, and bitter at life.

The Takeaway

As I sat with this parable, I put myself in the place of the older brother and asked myself some questions that I think will be valuable for you, as well:

• In my heart, have I been slaving for God, trying to earn some kind of status or reward? Or have I been working with Him, loving Him and learning Him as I partner with Him in forwarding His mission for this world?
• Have I been appreciating the gift that closeness to the Father is in right now? Or have I been working to try and earn something from Him later (like access to heaven)?
• Have I been sharing the desires of my heart with my Father (whether large or small things)? Have there been any “young goats I’ve wanted to share with my friends” moments that I’ve wanted but haven’t been present and open enough with Him to share?

You see, we’ve been taught that Christianity is a religion (spoiler: it’s not), and likewise, we’ve been taught that it’s good to be religious. All-the-while scripture shows us time and again that religious living (meaning: living as if it’s up to us to diligently adhere to a rigid list of practices or traditions in order to earn God’s favor/grace/blessing) actually pushes us further from God. This parable is just another piece of evidence making that case.

Making the shift from working for God to living with Him is one that takes time and effort when that’s all you’ve known. It’s a shift that I’m working through every day at this point. But it’s worth it.

I’d ask that whenever you’re tempted to slave for God to earn something from him, remember this:

Living in a religious mindset will only make a slave out of you.
But God neither wants, nor needs, slaves. Instead, what He wants — what He has always wanted — is sons and daughters to live with Him, walk with Him, laugh with Him, love Him and learn from Him. Simple as that.

If we are to have a healthy existence as God’s people, then we need to truly understand this. We need to stop trying to earn his stuff and start realizing that we have Him.

Your brother,
Alex

In PART TWO of this post we’ll examine the story from the perspective of the younger brother.