Luk 15:29 | KingComments | STEP | The father also has another son. While his brother comes home and is warmly welcomed by his father, that son is busy in the field. When his work is done, he goes home. When he is close to the house, he hears music and dance. The house is a place of joy. When we come together as an assembly, we experience what it is like to be in the ‘house of God’. There the Word of God is ministered by slaves of God. What we hear in the house when we hear God’s Word sounds like the melodious music of grace. The reaction to this will be the joyous dance of the members of the household. The Lord has reproached His contemporaries for not having responded to the tones of the music of His grace with expressions of joy in a dance ( ). He brought heavenly music to earth in the melodious words of grace, but there was no answer. The house of God is a place where servants play the flute and where those present react with joy. How often, however, is there only criticism. That resembles the remarks of the older son. The older son needs to know what is going on. Instead of going inside, to his father, he asks one of the servants outside what that music and dance can mean. He understands nothing of the manifestations of grace. He is a tightened man who knows no joy in the Lord. He abhors cheerfulness. That is the mind of the Pharisees and the scribes who see how the Lord Jesus eats with sinners. The servant knows exactly what the reason of the joy is. His brother has come back safe and sound. His father is so happy about this that he has killed the fattened calf. The servant draws attention to the fattened calf as the center of the feast. The younger son is inside, the older son is outside. There he stays because he doesn’t want to go inside. He is outside and stays outside because his heart is outside his father’s house. The older son is a type of religious man who does not grant the grace to others. The older son becomes angry, while the father celebrates. There was and is no fellowship between the father and this son. He does not breathe the spirit of love shown to the returned prodigal son. Grace is something strange to him and so he does not share in its joy. He pursued his own interests. He was undoubtedly zealous and intelligent ‘in the field’, in the world, far away from the scene of Divine mercy and spiritual joy. Yet the father, in his love for him, goes outside to encourage him to also come inside. The father’s love also goes out to him. But the older son repulses his father and his love for him with heavy accusations. He is brutal enough to condemn his father, just as the self-righteous man does not hesitate to judge God. In the thoughts of the unbelieving, but very religious, legal man, God is hard and demanding. He is completely blind to all the favors of God; his heart and conscience are totally insensitive. With all was joy, except for man in his own righteousness, the Jew, of whom the older son is a picture. People who live in their own righteousness, legal people, can’t tolerate the fact that God is good to sinners, because if God is good to sinners, what then benefits their righteousness? The older son accuses his father of never giving him a young goat to celebrate with his friends, even though he has served his father for so long and flawlessly. With these statements, the older son shows that he has no affection for his father. He has only acted out of duty, as a servant. He has lived according to the rules, leading him to judge of himself that he has done so blamelessly. His self-righteousness is obvious. The fact that he has no affection for his father is also evident from his accusation that he would have liked to celebrate with his friends at times, but that his father never provided him with a young goat for that. He wanted to celebrate with his friends, but without his father. He has no eye for the fact that a young goat can only be enjoyed in the father’s house and together with the father. It is clear what an aversion he has to grace and the way grace works. He does not call the prodigal son his brother, as the servant he had addressed did, but speaks scornful of “this son of yours”. He also makes it seem as if his brother has consumed all his father’s wealth, while it was the part that the father had given him. He also knows how that wealth was consumed, namely with prostitutes. The father’s conduct in grace for his younger brother brings out the worst side in the older brother in every respect.

‏ Luke 15:29

The Older Son

The father also has another son. While his brother comes home and is warmly welcomed by his father, that son is busy in the field. When his work is done, he goes home. When he is close to the house, he hears music and dance. The house is a place of joy.

When we come together as an assembly, we experience what it is like to be in the ‘house of God’. There the Word of God is ministered by slaves of God. What we hear in the house when we hear God’s Word sounds like the melodious music of grace. The reaction to this will be the joyous dance of the members of the household. The Lord has reproached His contemporaries for not having responded to the tones of the music of His grace with expressions of joy in a dance (Lk 7:31-32). He brought heavenly music to earth in the melodious words of grace, but there was no answer. The house of God is a place where servants play the flute and where those present react with joy. How often, however, is there only criticism.

That resembles the remarks of the older son. The older son needs to know what is going on. Instead of going inside, to his father, he asks one of the servants outside what that music and dance can mean. He understands nothing of the manifestations of grace. He is a tightened man who knows no joy in the Lord. He abhors cheerfulness. That is the mind of the Pharisees and the scribes who see how the Lord Jesus eats with sinners. The servant knows exactly what the reason of the joy is. His brother has come back safe and sound. His father is so happy about this that he has killed the fattened calf. The servant draws attention to the fattened calf as the center of the feast.

The younger son is inside, the older son is outside. There he stays because he doesn’t want to go inside. He is outside and stays outside because his heart is outside his father’s house. The older son is a type of religious man who does not grant the grace to others. The older son becomes angry, while the father celebrates. There was and is no fellowship between the father and this son. He does not breathe the spirit of love shown to the returned prodigal son. Grace is something strange to him and so he does not share in its joy. He pursued his own interests.

He was undoubtedly zealous and intelligent ‘in the field’, in the world, far away from the scene of Divine mercy and spiritual joy. Yet the father, in his love for him, goes outside to encourage him to also come inside. The father’s love also goes out to him. But the older son repulses his father and his love for him with heavy accusations. He is brutal enough to condemn his father, just as the self-righteous man does not hesitate to judge God.

In the thoughts of the unbelieving, but very religious, legal man, God is hard and demanding. He is completely blind to all the favors of God; his heart and conscience are totally insensitive. With all was joy, except for man in his own righteousness, the Jew, of whom the older son is a picture. People who live in their own righteousness, legal people, can’t tolerate the fact that God is good to sinners, because if God is good to sinners, what then benefits their righteousness?

The older son accuses his father of never giving him a young goat to celebrate with his friends, even though he has served his father for so long and flawlessly. With these statements, the older son shows that he has no affection for his father. He has only acted out of duty, as a servant. He has lived according to the rules, leading him to judge of himself that he has done so blamelessly. His self-righteousness is obvious.

The fact that he has no affection for his father is also evident from his accusation that he would have liked to celebrate with his friends at times, but that his father never provided him with a young goat for that. He wanted to celebrate with his friends, but without his father. He has no eye for the fact that a young goat can only be enjoyed in the father’s house and together with the father.

It is clear what an aversion he has to grace and the way grace works. He does not call the prodigal son his brother, as the servant he had addressed did, but speaks scornful of “this son of yours”. He also makes it seem as if his brother has consumed all his father’s wealth, while it was the part that the father had given him. He also knows how that wealth was consumed, namely with prostitutes. The father’s conduct in grace for his younger brother brings out the worst side in the older brother in every respect.