Pride's Pigpen

Following the morning message on the prodigal son, this message takes up the second half of Jesus' story in Luke 15. When the elder son heard that his brother had come home and the fatted calf had been killed, he was angry and refused to join the feast, dishonoring his father, who came out to plead with him. His complaint revealed a heart full of unrighteous anger, jealousy, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, disrespect, selfishness, and self-righteousness. Like the Pharisees and scribes who murmured against Christ for receiving sinners, he was outwardly moral yet just as estranged from the father as his younger brother had been. Both sons wanted what the father had rather than the father himself; one went about it by being very bad and the other by appearing very good. The message draws out lessons for saved and lost alike: we see others' sins more easily than our own, external religion can hide a sinful heart, love for God is shown in love for our brother, and an elder brother heart serves God to get. It also explains the structure of the parable and its abrupt ending, which leaves the elder son's answer to be written by those who heard it.