Which Brother Are YOU? (Part IV)

Here is a beautiful tie-in with the two brothers and with Easter.  Bear with me awhile. 

Do you remember David and his covenant with Jonathan? 

In Samuel 18:2-4, we read: From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt. (NIV)

Do you notice we have two sons here?  Saul is so amazed at this young David that he brought him into his household and wouldn’t allow him to go home.  Jonathan has such respect for him that they covenant together, and Jonathan gives him his royal attire. But note here:  Saul will soon raise this young David to be his successor, not his natural son Jonathan. 

Two sons, just like our parable.  Jesus knew His listeners would remember how David was treated by Jonathan, who could have been just as angry as the older brother was.  David is brought into the royal household and made an exalted member.  But did Jonathan react like the older brother when he saw the favor bestowed on David by Saul, Jonathan’s father?  No:  he is an exact opposite: He embraced him and supported him. 

Later on, Jonathan is killed.  David has not forgotten that covenant.  We read in 2 Samuel 9:1: "And David said, 'Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake?'"

David is informed that Jonathan left behind a crippled son.  He is living with Saul’s chief steward, Ziba.  This son inherited Saul’s estate. (NIV note on the text, p. 436) 

Let’s read this lovely story:

David said, “Is there yet any who is left of Saul’s house, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” There was of Saul’s house a servant whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David; and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”

He said, “I am your servant.”

The king said, “Is there not yet any of Saul’s house, that I may show the kindness of God to him?”

Ziba said to the king, “Jonathan still has a son, who is lame in his feet.”

The king said to him, “Where is he?”

Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lo Debar.”

Then king David sent, and brought him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar. Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, and fell on his face, and showed respect. David said, “Mephibosheth.”

He answered, “Behold, your servant!”

David said to him, “Don’t be afraid of him; for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your father. You will eat bread at my table continually.”

He bowed down, and said, “What is your servant, that you should look at such a dead dog as I am?” 

Then the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house have I given to your master’s son. Till the land for him, you, your sons, and your servants. Bring in the harvest, that your master’s son may have bread to eat; but Mephibosheth your master’s son will always eat bread at my table.”

Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so your servant will do.” So Mephibosheth ate at the king’s table, like one of the king’s sons. (2 Samuel 9:1-11 WEB)

Do you see?  This son of Jonathan comes to King David as a servant, and David accepts him as a son.  He restores what is rightfully his, and allows this son to dine at King David’s table. Mephibosheth sees himself as a “dead dog”—just as the younger son said that he was no worthy to be called a son.  Both these two young men saw themselves as deserving of nothing.  The King and the Father both saw these young men as sons. 

The covenant held, despite the one son’s crippled feet (which, in ancient times, would have been seen as a judgment) and an older son's behavior.  The covenant held.

In our parable, both sons failed to keep their end of the covenant with their father.  The older son, although he toiled for his father, did not do it out of love—he did not love his father with all of his heart, soul and mind.  He did it out of duty.  The older son inwardly rebelled, and then chose to live in way that denied his father’s provision and protection.  His heart had turned to stone, and only doing his duty mattered and not having a relationship with his father.  The younger son openly rebelled and walked away from his father’s provision and protection.  The son then chose to live in a way that repudiated all that his father stood for:  his beliefs, his love for his sons and his faith in God. 

But the father, in his lovingkindness (another word for “covenant” in Hebrew) upheld his part of the agreement:  He stayed their father, with his provision and protection still available when his sons turned from their ways and sought him. He cherished both and desperately wanted reconciliation with them both.  He wanted to bridge the gap created by their sinful attitudes and resulting behavior.

In the end, it was the father’s grace that prevailed and his love “covered a multitude of sins.”  He stood at the road each day, awaiting the return of the younger son, and I am sure he equally cast a glance over his shoulder to see his other son laboring in the field.  He loved both, honored both, but equally wanted them to share in his provision out of love for him. 

Jesus was saying that in the New Covenant, the dutiful son and the errant son are just that:  sons, not servants.  The older son acted like a servant—he toiled every day, but never got around to asking his father to have a party for him and his friends.  But he was a son, entitled to all the father had. 

Likewise, the younger son wanted to return into the household as a servant, and the father refused.  He welcomed the lad back with no change in status:  He was still and would always be, his son.

In the New Covenant, we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.  We enter His kingdom only through the shed blood of His Son.  Our dutiful behavior is just as useless as our errant behavior.  It’s not our behavior, it is His blood that swings open the doors of heaven, and into the arms of our Father we go!    

Romans 8:14-17 says, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."

The two brothers also represent the New Covenant in how they are to be reconciled:  the older, dutiful son is the Jew and the errant son is the Gentile.  Jew and Gentile are no longer divided, but are brought together in Christ.  In fact, all of us, whatever kind of "brother" we are, come together:  

But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. (Eph. 2:4-10)

What the Father has is now ours through His Son.  We are no longer outcasts, but sons and daughters.  He has already done His part of the covenant—He sent His Son to die upon a cross.

He rose again.  He desires to live in us.  

Are we willing to do our part?  Are we willing to lay down our attitudes, good works, self-righteousness, pride, sin and anger and walk into our Father’s house?  I hear there’s a wonderful party going on… But, we must take a moment of self-reflection:  Which brother are you? 

Are you the older brother?  Are you out in the field every day, doing what you believe is right and then finding that at the end of the day are you worn and weary?  Is being “good” or “good enough” wearing you down?  Are you so busy at tilling the earth under your feet that you don’t look up at the stars in the sky?  

Do you shrink back into the shadows, hearing the joy and music of others, wanting to be a part of it, yet feeling somehow you are less deserving to partake?  Do you feel that your Heavenly Father is just too busy to notice you, or that no matter how hard you strive, you don’t feel at all blessed with the Father’s abundance?

Let’s apply how the older brother reacted and follow his lead back to the father:

·       “And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him.”  Admit you are tired/angry/disappointed/weary…Notice how the father came out and talked to his son.  Your Heavenly Father is waiting to hear you spill out your hurting heart. 

·       “And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.”  Admit you are tired of leading a life that bears little or no fruit.  You have served God but you feel that little has been offered in return.  Ask the Father to be attentive to how you have served and how isolated from His love you feel.

·       “But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.”  Admit that others seemed more blessed than you and you feel that somehow you deserved to be blessed as well. 

·       “And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”  Search your heart now…in the light of the Father’s love, do you feel a hidden shame, a hidden sin, a hidden something…Were you out in the fields to get away from your Father, hiding behind duty because your love had grown cold?  See His response:  He is ever with you and all His has is yours.  He has covenanted with you:  His resources are yours:  His love, His power, His strength.  What He has called you to do, He will empower you to do.  Renew your relationship with Him and know that His love wants to cleanse you and crown you as the son or daughter that you are.  You’ll want to be obedient now, not because you have to, but because His love causes your heart to overflow.  You will want to be with your Father and make Him smile.  Listen:  He’s welcoming you back.

Are you the younger brother?

 
Have you travelled to a distant country of sin, and despite its allure at first, you’re now wallowing around in the muck, with lots of bridges burned and doors that are perpetually closed? Were you once loved and you walked away, somehow knowing that such love isn’t meant for people like you?
Are you eating pig food, wanting desperately to go back to a good place, but don’t know how to start, or where to start? Do you feel beyond the reach of our Heavenly Father? That His arms can’t reach you and even if they did, instead of an embrace, you’d receive a slap? Are you sick of those for whom obedience seems to come easily, and you’re always struggling to figure out who you are?
Let’s apply how the younger son reacted, and follow his lead back to the father:

• “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.’” Confess your sin. God the Father is already aware of your state. You can’t surprise Him with what you have done. He wants you to utter what you have done to own its reality and no longer deny where you are and what you have been doing. He wants you to know that whomever you have hurt, you have hurt Him first, and He longs to restore the relationship.

• “And he arose, and came to his father.” No wallowing in self-pity or such self-abasement that you see yourself as a “dead dog.” Go. Move towards God and you will find that the Father has been waiting and is already moving towards you.

• “But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither 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 began to be merry.” Accept the robe. Accept the ring. Accept the shoes. Enjoy the barbeque. Be merry. The Father has forgiven you.

Now walk in the beauty of holiness. No longer dwell on what you were. Dwell on whose household you are now a member of: You are now dining at the King’s table.

"carried to the table leeland lyrics"  is a beautiful meditation on this theme on Youtube.