From Luke 15:28-30, the discourse of the older son after the father asks him to come in and join the party for the returned, younger son:
“But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you have killed the fatted calf for him.’”
The younger son who swallowed his pride to penitently returned home and the slighted older son — It is difficult (sometimes more than others) to pick a side here. But it occurs to me that perhaps that is the point of the parable, at least one of them — We don’t need to pick a side. The father didn’t. He did his best to make things work out in light of the facts presented. There is nothing to indicate that the father, hearing of the return of the prodigal son, let out a sigh and then grudgingly trudged down the road to meet him. No, Luke says he ran down the road to meet him and welcomed the younger son back. Likewise, when a servant reports that the older son is not joining the party, the father doesn’t throw his hands up in frustration, he goes out to meet his elder son and get him to join the party.
Often, I am faced with what seems like “either/or” situations that might well be “both” situations if I am willing to put the time in. It is, most often, just easier to pick a side, and most often, I pick mine!
It occurs to me... 