The elder brother Luke 15:25-32
A Sunday school teacher was telling his class the story of the Prodigal Son and after describing how the household was rejoicing over his return the teacher wondered if they were following the story and so he asked, “Who can tell me, who wasn’t very happy when the prodigal son came home? And a young girl raised her hand and said, “The fatted calf." Well, that was true but there was also the elder brother and that’s who we’re going to focus on today.
“Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him.
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: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.’
And he said unto him, ‘son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.’”
Now, let me give you my version of what’s happening here. The scripture says the elder brother came in from the field and I think we can all assume that he had been busy working all day and now he came home tired and he just wanted to sit down and have some supper. And as he got near the house he could hear some music and maybe he saw a few people dancing in the courtyard and he automatically wondered what was going on? And rather than going in the house to find out, he called one of the servants and asked him what’s going on? And the servant explained that his brother had come home and his father was in such high spirits that he threw a party for the entire town and right now there’s a huge barbecue in the yard for anyone and everyone because he killed the fatted calf.
Well, when the son heard that he was fuming mad and he wouldn’t even go in the house, and then it says that the father came out and tried to try to reason with him but when he does he couldn’t seem to get a word in edgewise; because his son started telling him what a lousy father he was. And he started by saying to his father, ‘look” and when he said that, everybody who was sitting there listening to the story would have reacted with an expression of shock on their face. I mean, even when the prodigal came back home he said, “Father” so the older brother was being totally disrespectful. And then he said, “I’ve always worked for you and I never did the kind of stuff he did but you never threw any parties for me. And yet, as soon as he came home after blowing every penny he had on filthy hookers and who knows what, you pull out your wallet and celebrate like he’s the best thing that ever happened. It’s just not fair! He’s gets the fatted calf and I don’t even get a goat. And do you know what he’s really saying? He’s saying, “I’m not like him and I don’t need anybodies forgiveness because I’ve never done anything wrong, but you have. You’ve accepted someone into our family that you should have been ashamed of.”
And in spite of his awful attitude we see his father expressing a selfless kind of love toward him the same way that he did to the younger son. I mean, he reached out in compassion to the hypocrite in the same way he extended a hand of mercy to the rebel. And then his father said, you’ve always been here and I’ve always been glad to have you and everything I’ve got belongs to you, but being happy and having a good time because your brother came home is the right thing to do because we thought he was dead but then we found out he’s alive, I mean, he was lost but now he’s found.
And that’s the end of the story. And it doesn’t tell us if the younger son went back to work and had a whole new appreciation for the family and the business or if the elder brother learned to love his brother or always resented his presence or if they all lived happily ever after. The story just ends with the father’s words that his son was dead and now he’s alive and he was lost but now he’s been found.
The strange thing about this story is that these two sons were really very much alike. I mean, neither one of them really seems to have loved or appreciated their father, even though it’s obvious that he loved both of them. The younger son just wanted to have fun, so he packed up his stuff, took his inheritance and left and then we see that the older brother didn’t leave but it seems obvious that he wasn’t all that close to his father even though he stayed home. And when the father said, “My child, you have always been with me,” the older son could have easily said, “So what?” or, “Big deal!” You see, he treated his father so cold when he talked to him that nothing he could say would surprise us.
And then we also notice that both of these ‘sons’ were both very materialistic. The younger son wanted his share of the money to spend right now but the older son wanted his money but I think he wanted it to save. You see, they both wanted the same thing and the only difference was why they wanted it.
And remember who Jesus is talking to here. There are the tax collectors and sinners which as I said would all be considered to be the immoral people of the streets and there were also the scribes and Pharisees and these were the upper crust religious crowd.
And we saw how Jesus dealt with the first group as He told the story of the prodigal son because that’s exactly what they were like. These people all had the same opportunities in life as everyone else and they could of either lived a life that pleased and honored God or they could have decided to enjoy themselves at everyone else’s expense and now that they saw the end result of living for themselves Jesus is telling them the Father wants you to come home and when you do you’ll not only be welcomed but you’ll enjoy the magnificent feast He’s put on just for you. Listen, this is His invitation to all the materialistic and immoral people of this world. He says, come home because you’re not only welcome but I really love you and I want to take care of you.
And here, He’s trying to reach the hard-hearted Pharisees and I think that was even tougher than the immoral crowd because, as far as the Pharisees were concerned, they had no needs. They saw themselves as being better than everyone else.
No wonder we read in James 4:6 where it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” And it’s interesting to see that God doesn’t resist a drunkard, a thief or even a murderer but it says He resists or opposes the proud. Why is He so opposed to them? I think the stench of pride they leave in God’s nostrils reminds Him of the sin of Satan who rocked heaven itself and caused a rebellion among the angelic host. Listen, every kind of sin can be cleansed and forgiven if we’re willing to confess them to the Lord but pride has a devilish quality that keeps us from sensing our need of God’s grace. And what it does is to blinds us to who we really are.
And I believe that pride is the key to understanding these Pharisees. I think they were so removed in their minds from the rest of the world that they became a culture unto themselves. They thought of themselves as the ‘in’ crowd. And just to give you some insight into who these people were William Barclay says the Talmud, that’s the book of Jewish traditions, teaches there were seven kinds of Pharisees. In other words, they were all part of the same group and they all believed the same things but at the same time they all expressed their beliefs in different ways.
First, there was what was known the shoulder Pharisees. And they said that he was the kind of person that wore his good deeds on his shoulder so everyone could recognize how good and pure he was. And everything they did was done so everyone could witness how good they really were. For instance, whenever they would pray they’d put ashes on their heads as an act of humility and they wore sad expressions so everyone could see how much they were suffering for God. And all their prayers were done in public so everyone could see how holy they really were.
It’s like all the rich people today giving money to a worthy cause and they all want their pictures in the paper so everyone can see them handing over the cheque. They always say they do it this way to inspire others to be generous or to raise awareness of their cause but everyone knows that’s not true because if they weren’t recognized they wouldn’t give. A couple of weeks ago there was an actor who bought a street person new clothes and gave him some money for food. That sounded like a great thing to do but there were reporters there watching and reporting every thing he did. Listen, no one could pay for the publicity he got. These are all shoulder Pharisees. And these men did what they did to be recognized and what they did was actually done for themselves and not for the people they did it for.
Second, there was what was known as the ‘wait a little’ Pharisee. And these men were people who could always come up with a good excuse about why he couldn’t do anything now but they intended to do it someday. And all you had to do was ‘wait a while.’
There used to be a lady who would call a pastor friend of mine every week or two and she told him that her mother died and they were in the process of settling the estate but as soon as it was settled she was going to give the church $25,000. Well, when you first get this kind of call and the church really needs the money you get pretty excited, right? The problem was, she called of and on for about six months, and then one day the pastor said, we’ll really look forward to that donation but do you think you could give $25 this week? And he never heard from her again. You see, she was like the ‘wait a little’ Pharisees. It’s like my grandmother used to say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And that was the road these Pharisees were on.
And then third, there was the bruised and bleeding Pharisee. Now, we know that women had very low status in Israel back then and it was also said that no orthodox teacher would ever be seen talking to a woman in public, not even his wife or sister but these particular Pharisees went even further than that. And to avoid lusting after a woman or even looking like they did, they would close their eyes whenever there were women around and they’d end up walking into walls, posts, people or whatever else was around. And then, get this, these people measured how good they were by the number and severity of their wounds.
And then the fourth group was known as the humpback tumbling Pharisee. And in order for these guys to show how humble they were, they always walked along slouched over and they refused to lift their feet as they walked and the end result was, they shuffled along tripping over all kinds of things. And somehow they thought this made them look humble.
And then the fifth group was known as the ever-seeking Pharisees and these men kept a very elaborate written record of all their good deeds and the reason they kept this was so they could present this to God and show Him how much of a reward they deserved.
When I heard that, I thought this has got to be the high point of arrogance for anyone to think they could appear before God and prove how good they were. I mean, first of all, God doesn’t need a record of what we did because He knows better than we do. And second, since even we don’t know the depth of our sinfulness then even our good works in essence are laden with sin because that’s simply who we are.
And sixth, there was the ever fearing Pharisee and everything they said or did was governed by their fear of hell. And needless to say, someone who was that introspective would hardly say or do anything at all.
And then seventh, there was the God-fearing Pharisee. And these were the few Pharisees whose lives were marked by a genuine love for God and a desire to please Him. We see Nicodemas and Joseph of Arimathea as two examples of this but other than these two who were involved with burying Jesus, there are no Pharisees who declared their faith in Jesus. (Some say, the apostle Paul, but that was after Jesus death and resurrection.)
So, there were six bad examples for every good one and throughout the New Testament we see that these men were the constant critics of Jesus and in the end they were also responsible for His death.
The most important thing you need to remember about the Pharisees is that even though they couldn’t stand Jesus they were all committed to the study of the Word of God. And they tell us that many of these men committed to memory every word of the Old Testament. Now, I know we have a hard time understanding this because we might find it difficult to memorize a handful of verses but listen, there were people like Nikita Krushev who was a devout atheistic communist and he memorized the entire book of John for the sole purpose of improving his English. So, it’s possible to know the Bible says but not have a clue as to what it means.
And despite all these people knew about God’s word, they didn’t have a clue as to who Jesus was when they met Him face to face. And you might wonder how this could happen, but these people were more committed to themselves and their own way of life, more than anything else. And because of this commitment which was more social than spiritual they were mean-spirited people who loved to give the impression that God couldn’t wait to rain down fire and brimstone on everyone outside of their social circle.
And as much as these Pharisees loved themselves Jesus certainly didn’t think too much of them and their religious outlook. As a matter of fact, in Matthew 23 Jesus took the whole chapter to show how they were wrong and He laid out seven areas where they had declared their faith while at the same time they had ignored the law of God. And in Matthew 23 He began in the first seven verses by saying they did everything they could to make everyone else’s life miserable while acting like they deserved all the praise and all the rewards of heaven.
And then starting in verse 13 of Matthew 23 there are eight woes that He declared against them. And you have to understand that the word ‘woe’ is more of an expression than it is a word. It’s like if you saw your 2 year old child with blood on their hands from playing with a razor blade you might react with a kind of anger and concern and you might say something like “Aaggh” and that’s not really a word but it’s an expression of frustration and that’s what “woe” is.
Here are the eight woes and they begin in verse 13 where Jesus began by saying these men had locked the doors to the kingdom of God. It says, “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” And the picture here is of the scribes and Pharisees standing outside the gates of the kingdom of heaven and they’ve slammed these gates in the face of anyone who wanted to go in.
And the biggest problem in their day was, that everyone saw these men as being the only source of spiritual help which is basically what they should have been but instead, they were telling everybody that they had to keep all of the 613 laws of the Old Testament as well as the thousands of rules and regulations that were constantly being added to them. And these men knew this was impossible. Besides, the scriptures taught that God’s grace and mercy were available to all who came to Him and they not only ignored this teaching for themselves but they also refused to tell others about it as well.
And then in verse 14 He said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”
And what He was saying was, this crowd pretended to be zealous about the things of God while at the same time all they really wanted was the money they could get from these people. And where it says, ‘ye devour widows houses’ the word ‘devour’ literally means to consume or to eat and when it talks about their prayer life it tells us they’re only pretending to be spiritual so they can hide the fact that their real goal was to get whatever they could. And in the end, Jesus says, they’ll reap the greater condemnation. In other words, they knew more so they’ll be judged by a higher standard.
And then in verse 15 He says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”
And here Jesus uses the term ‘proselyte’ and this word describes an outsider who was brought into the faith and many of these supposed converts became very extremely zealous for Judaism even more than their teachers were, but all that meant was they were twice as fanatical when it came to doing the wrong things.
And then in verses 16-22 He says, “Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
And here Jesus is referring to the Pharisees as blind guides and basically what He was saying was, they were giving others spiritual direction even though they didn’t know where they were going. And then He gave an example of how they did this in the area of taking oaths and these men had devised their own system where they could tell an absolute lie and then feel justified in doing it. For instance, if they made a promise and said, “I swear by the holy altar of God,” it didn’t mean anything, because they had a rule that no one could swear by the altar but if they said, “I swear by the sacrifice upon the altar,” then they had to stick to their word. It’s like when we were kids, if someone made a promise but they had their fingers crossed then it didn’t count. And Jesus’ point was, a godly person will always tell the truth not because he swore but because it’s the right thing to do.
And then in verses 23 and 24 He said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”
And here Jesus is talking how they felt they were so dedicated because of the absurd degrees of their giving and He went on to describe how they were bringing to the temple the tithe or 10% of the produce from their window boxes to show God how dedicated they were. Just to give you an example of what they were doing, imagine someone coming to church with a little bit of parsley in a baggie because that was 10% of what they grew. Well, that’s what these men were doing. And while they were bringing their little bags of produce they were all busy planning how they were going to kill God’s Son.
No wonder Jesus said, “They strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel.” The gnat and the camel stood for both the smallest and the largest unclean creatures that were mentioned in Leviticus 11. Historians tell us that many of these Pharisees would sip their tea through clenched teeth always being careful not to swallow a gnat by mistake and yet they missed the fact that their sin had so defiled them that they might have well have swallowed a camel.
And then He said in verses 25 and 26, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also.”
And here He’s pointing out how they would extort others to satisfy their sense of self-indulgence and He does this by describing a meal that’s been served on a beautiful platter and wine in an ornamental cup but the insides of these dishes are so dirty that the food was spoiled. And what He was saying was, these people had such a selfish attitude that everybody was evaluated by what they could get from them.
And then verses 27 and 28 He says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
And here He’s speaking about their contaminating influence when He calls them whitewashed tombs. And since a person was ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body or a grave, the people in Jesus’ day whitewashed the grave markers every spring so people wouldn’t touch them by mistake. And what He was saying was, all the graveyards looked neat, clean and attractive but they were still filled with dead bodies. And He was saying that even though the Pharisees had the appearance of people who were clean and holy they had the power to defile anybody by their ungodly influence.
And then He concludes in verses 29-33 by saying, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
And what He was saying was, these very men had claimed to be better than their forefathers who murdered the prophets while they themselves were plotting and planning the death of God’s own Son. And then Jesus finished His denunciations with a simple question when He called them serpents and vipers and asked them, “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
The word for vipers describes a small poisonous snake that lived in the desert region of the Middle East. And these little snakes looked like a dried twig and when someone was collecting sticks to start a fire they could easily pick one up by mistake and be bitten and die. We see this very thing happened to the apostle Paul when he was on the island of Malta. These vipers had a reputation for looking harmless but being deadly and deceitful and Jesus says the Pharisees were just like them and when He warned them that the end of their lives would be hell itself He’s suggesting the common practice of the farmer burning the stubble in his field before planting because as the flames approached, the vipers would try to get away but eventually they be engulfed in the flames.
Now listen or you’ll miss this completely, Jesus was pointing out their hypocrisy not so He could gloat over their impending doom but so they would turn and repent of their sin.
Now going back to Luke 15 we see in verse 31 where it says of the father, “He said to him, (That’s the older brother) ‘My child, you’ve always been with me, all that’s mine is yours.’” And when he says “My child,” He’s speaking to him in warm and compassionate terms and listen, that’s the heart of God speaking to a wretched hypocrite. And here we see the patience of God not only with sinners but even the hypocrites.
I think there are times when it’s easier to be patient with the prodigals of this world than it is with hypocrites. We all love to hear a testimony by a wicked or outrageous sinner who was converted but very few of us get all that excited when a religious hypocrite comes to Jesus and maybe that’s because they’re so rare.
And all Jesus wanted from these Pharisees is what He wants from you and I and that’s honesty. He wants us to be honest about our condition and to see ourselves as sinners in need of saving. And once we’ve experienced His saving He wants us to express the same love and compassion of God to the rest of the world.
This parable has kind of a strange ending in that it doesn’t really have one. And from a technical standpoint this story is divided into two halves. It’s like a poem in the Greek and the first half has eight stanzas about the younger brother and then the second half only has seven stanzas and they feature the older brother. It should be eight and eight, but it’s eight and seven. And if we were in the Middle East and reading the story you would say there’s something missing because the end isn’t there.
Now, listen very carefully because I want you to see something that’s very important here. There’s a very good reason why there’s no end to this story and that’s because all of the elder brothers were sitting right in front of Jesus. The elder brother was the Pharisee and as much as they all felt good about themselves they hated everyone else in the crowd because the crowd weren’t part of what they were all about. After all, these people didn’t belong to the synagogue, these people didn’t read their Bibles day and night, these people didn’t give ten per cent of everything they earned to the temple, these people didn’t take a stand against the godless Romans and these people weren’t as committed to the nation of Israel as these men were. As a matter of fact, the rest of this crowd were nothing but tax collectors and sinners that hung around the streets. And as far as the Pharisees were concerned they were all like trash on the side of the road that you simply ignored as you walked along.
So, when the father told the older brother that he loved the younger son because that was the right thing to do there’s no response because that’s where the story ends. And I think if we were writing this story a good ending might be, “And the elder son fell on his knees before his father saying, ‘You’re right and I’m wrong, now excuse me while I go make things right with my brother.’ And then it would say, “The father hugged and kissed him, all they went in to the feast and the whole town rejoiced when they saw both sons reconciled to their father.” Or another might say, “The son seeing his father’s love, compassion and grace came to his senses about his wicked heart, and he repented of his sin and was reconciled.” I mean, both of those would be nice endings but you know what? The end of this story was actually written by the Pharisees and here’s what it is, “And the older son being outraged at his father, picked up a piece of wood and beat him to death in front of everyone.”
Now, I know when you heard that you probably thought, “Man, that’s a really sick end to the story.” And you’re right, but that was what really happened because just a few months later these very Pharisees had Jesus nailed to the cross of Calvary. And, listen, then they congratulated themselves for preserving the honor of Israel and the true religion of God.
Now, when we hear this we think, how can people who claimed to be religious possibly act like that? And yet, we all know people who have hard hearts today and even though they would profess to be believers in Jesus Christ they’re still filled with bitterness and hatred.
Conclusion
I’ve seen a few strange people since I’ve been saved. When we lived in Ontario, two or three times a year my father in law and I would go down to Grand Rapids to buy books because there were several large Christian bookstores that either carried second hand books or books that were known as ‘seconds’ which meant they were factory rejects. And they might’ve had some little problem like the cover had been put on upside down or the glue didn’t hold right or some of them were cut wrong and because of this the books would be marked down from $20 to $2 or $3.
And then quite often we’d go to one bookstore on the far side of town that specialized in used books and this store had a basement that was as big as a library. I mean, there must have been 100,000 books down there. But, the problem in this place was finding what you were looking for. The interesting thing was, they had a man who worked in this basement and he wore very thick glasses and he literally knew where every book was, on what shelf, how many copies they had of that particular title and what shape they were all in. He was the most knowledgeable person I have ever met when it came to Christian literature. You could ask him anything about any book and he’d tell you exactly where it was and what condition it was in.
The only problem was, he was a nasty, miserable individual and because of his temperament everybody hated to talk to him. I mean, if you even tried to make small talk he’d just look at you as much as to say, why don’t you just eat dirt and die you miserable piece of scum. (Which was unusual, considering the fact that he was working in a Christian bookstore.) I mean, his job was to help people find books they could use to prepare messages to preach the gospel and he acted like he couldn’t stand the people who were preaching the messages he was helping them preach.
And then before I was saved, I used to hang around a place called Yorkville and that’s where all the hippies stood on the sidewalk watching all the people go by who came to watch them. And every Friday night an old man came down the street handing out gospel tracts. He’d have a couple of hundred tracts and everyone had to get two. One was about how to get saved and the other was about how to find a good church. He’d give you your tracts but you dare not say anything to him because he had let it be known that he wasn’t there to talk to anyone he was just there to hand out tracts. He was busy giving invitations to the kingdom of heaven but he was too busy to actually tell anyone how to get there.
Both men were involved in the work of the kingdom and both of them seemed to hate everyone who was going there. But listen, the apostle Paul said, “If we don’t have love, we’ve got nothing.” If I say I love God but this love for Him doesn’t motivate me to love my fellow man than it’s useless and I’ve been deceived. I’m no different than these Pharisees.
So, let’s say we took up an offering this morning and someone put a crisp $50 bill into the plate. And then at the end of the service, there was someone at the door looking for a handout and the pastor asked the treasurer if there was any cash and he said, “Here’s a fifty dollar bill.” And they gave that to the person who had a need. And then that person took that $50 and went to the grocery store and bought some food and a few things to live on for the next couple of days. Then the owner of the grocery store wrote a letter to his son in university and at the last minute he decided to drop some money in the envelope and he reached in the till took the $50 and put it in the envelope and sent it along. His son got the money and thought this is great because now I can take my girlfriend out for pizza and he did. The next day the owner of the pizza place took all of his cash to the bank and the teller put all the money through a machine and then she discovered that the $50 bill was phony. It was counterfeit.
We might say, but a lot of good was done with that $50 bill. It went to church, helped a needy person, paid for groceries and bought a pizza. But, in spite of the good it did, it was worthless.
And that describes the Pharisees. You see, the basic problem was, they were too good for their own good. They saw everyone else as sinners but not themselves. They believed that they had earned God’s favor because they kept the law but that everyone else would be condemned to hell. You see, they didn’t see themselves as unworthy sinners like the prodigal did and not only did they reject God’s grace but they couldn’t stand the very idea of God accepting anyone but them.
And there are many people like the Pharisees who seem to have it all together and yet only God knows if they really do. And that puts the ball back in our court, because every one of us has to do what Paul says and ‘to examine ourselves to see whether or not we are in the faith.’
