Choosing Between Judgment and Joy

Reflect on the story of the Prodigal Son (found in Luke 15) and imagine the son who deserved nothing coming home to his father, covered in filth and shivering in his rags. He knows he doesn’t deserve his father’s love, and yet his father loves him. And the love of the father is not merely adequate but abundant.

The father throws a lavish party for his returned son, full of good food and dancing and music. And the story of the younger brother ends here. He was accepted and loved by his father although he deserved nothing.

Now the story shifts away from the party and goes outside. There we find the older brother, the loyal one who has always done what his father wanted him too. Now his little screw-up brother has returned and is instantly loved and accepted by his father. So the older brother sits outside, fuming and pouting because the younger brother got more than he “deserved” and the older brother got less than he “deserved.”

Photo Credit: Patricia Ann McNair, Creative Commons

The father comes to the older brother and tries to console him. He tells his son that he loves him and invites him into the party. The story ends there. No resolution for the older brother. We never discover what he decides to do.

The way I see it, he has two options:

1. He could let go of his obsession with fairness and join the party that everyone is invited too, enjoy himself, and forgive his brother.

OR

2. He could remain outside, freezing with pride and starving for fairness.

What did he choose? What did he hold on to? His bitterness or his love for his lost brother?

What do you hold on to? What do you have a white-knuckle grip on? Is it your idea of justice? Is it the memory of past pains? Is it the bitterness and anger still harbored against an old enemy? 

Or is it something else?

What if we had a white-knuckle grip on love? Or on forgiveness? How would that change the way you live your life? How would it change the way you think of people?

I think this choice is the reason the older brother was included in this story Jesus told.

I don’t know who goes to heaven and who doesn’t. I don’t know what sins God will look past and what sins He won’t. It’s not for me to decide. But it is clear to me from reading the Scriptures and the teachings of Jesus that there will be people there in heaven that “don’t deserve it.” There will be "younger brothers" there, prodigal sons and daughters and I think the older brother’s choice is important because I think it is our choice.

I think that maybe God offers us the same choice the father in the story offered his son. We can either let go of all our expectations and lines on who is "in" and who is "out" and enjoy the party or we can stay outside. Maybe we'll stand at the doorway to the party, the gates of heaven, and decide whether to abandon our boundaries and continue on or to stay back. 

At some point, we must choose between judgment and joy.

I believe with all my heart that God’s grace is abundant enough for all to accept, and that He desires for all to come in to the party with him. I truly believe this with all my heart. This is evident to me through a passage in Romans 5:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11 ESV, emphasis added)

The passage does not say that "while they were still weak" it says "while we were still weak." We. Everybody, everywhere, forever. 

The truth of justice is that nobody deserves the reconciliation of Jesus. 
The beauty of grace is that everyone can receive Him. 

Rather than making lists in your head of who is “in” and who is “out,” may you offer to others the same grace that Christ offers you. Forgive. Let go of judgment and hold onto joy, the joy of reconciliation through Jesus. Have a white-knuckle grip on love. 

Choose Joy.