Wednesday, March 30

Wednesday

In Luke 15, Jesus told his listeners three parables together—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In each of the first two parables there is a lost object and someone who goes out, searches for it, and brings it home with joy. The shepherd searches until he finds the lost sheep. The woman searches until she finds the lost coin. So when we get to the parable of this lost son, we should fully expect that someone will set out to search for the lost brother and bring him home.

But…no one does. Jesus is leading us to ask the question, who should have gone out to search for this lost boy? And the answer would have been quite clear to 1st century listeners: it should have been the elder brother. That was the reason that the oldest son got the lion’s share of the estate.

It was his job to sustain the family’s unity and its place in the community. It is the elder brother in the parable who should have said something like this: “Father, my younger brother has been a fool, and now his life is in ruins. But I will go look for him and bring him home. And if the inheritance is gone—as I expect—I’ll bring him back into the family at my expense.” 

Jesus doesn’t put a brother like that into the story. Instead the younger son and the father have to deal with an arrogant, selfish, and self-righteous elder brother.

But we don’t!

The elder brother in the story is there to make us long for a true elder brother, one who, if we go astray, won’t hold it against us but seek us and bring us back at any risk and any cost to himself.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things and in him all things hold together.       – Colossians 1:15-17

Paul clearly asserts the truth of the Incarnation in Colossians 1, but his use of the word "firstborn" does not mean that there was a time when the Son of God wasn't (any more than John 3:16's use of "begotten" does - as the Nicene Creed insists, Jesus is "eternally begotten"). Paul's use of "firstborn" here holds such a wealth of meaning: namely, as it applies to Christ's sovereign authority and to his redemptive activity.

Biblically and culturally speaking, the firstborn son carried the weight of the family inheritance on his shoulders. The family name rested first with him. In the absence of the father, he is the head of the family. The firstborn son receives greater honor, more responsibility, and more authority.

This is Jesus, of course. The author of Hebrews tells us he is the radiance of God's glory. Romans 8 tells us that he is the heir of God. Inheritance talk is big in Galatians and Ephesians and Titus and Hebrews.  As our older brother, Jesus is due all of the authority and the honor of his position.

But unlike all other older brothers (and I am one, so I know) he lives in a way that is completely worthy of his honor, for our sake!

All through the Scriptures, from the murderous Cain to the hairy bumbling Esau, to the 11 sons of Jacob who sold their brother into slavery, to pompous prig in of Jesus' parable of the Lost Son, the older brother is consistently an utter and absolute failure. (So are most of the younger brothers actually, but God consistently chooses them to make a point, remember David was the youngest of 8 when he was anointed as King of Israel.)

But not Jesus, where disobedience and disregard ruled the roost of the firstborn, Jesus obeys the Father perfectly, submits to the eternal cause of the glory of the Father completely, and cares for and rescues and sacrifices his own well-being for his younger siblings to the utmost!  He is everything an older brother is supposed to be…and so much more!

Jesus is the older brother who delights in , rather than resents his younger siblings joy.

Jesus is the older brother who will not trade his birthright for a bowl of soup. Jesus is the older brother who will not trade his siblings into slavery.

Jesus is the older brother who leaves the comfort of his Father's estate to search for his lost brother among the brothels and pigsties and actually rescues him from the degradation of the mud and dresses him in the Father's robe of his own accord.

To borrow from author and theologian Sinclair Ferguson, Jesus is our "true and better" older brother!

Jeff Frazier