Not Willing To Go In

 

“But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him.” Luke 15:28

 

Why is it that we are not willing to go in and eat the fattened calf?  Why is it that we become angry at the thought of anyone eating this calf? Why is it that we become angry at the Father when those who have eaten pigs’ food are sitting at the Father’s Table?  

 

What would have happened had the older son gone into the feast with his angry attitude? How would he have affected the joyous atmosphere of music and dancing? Would he have started shouting to stop the nonsense? Would he have sneered at everyone? Would he have shouted, “Get away! Leave the table! The fattened calf is not for you!”

 

Or perhaps he would have been subtle and hatched a plan to set things right. Perhaps the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that he said to his younger brother, “Father made a mistake. He got carried away. He should not have slain the fattened calf, you are not really worthy of it. All the music and dancing was nonsense. Don’t you agree?”

 

“Don’t you agree that we really should lament you wasting your inheritance, your service with the swine, you eating hogs’ food, your sexual promiscuity? Don’t you agree that you were really right when you asked our father to treat you as a slave? Don’t you agree that from this point on that you should really eat outside the family dining room with the slaves?”

 

A variation of the older brother might be, “Well, it’s great you’ve come back and we’ve had the big party, but now let’s look at reality because we don’t want to get carried away. Look at what you’ve done! Do you really think you ought to be treated as if nothing sinful and wicked and evil has happened? Do you really think it is right for you to eat in the family dining room? Do you really think you should be treated as our father’s son?”

 

How is it that we can read, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us,” (Romans 8:37) and yet not believe it?

 

How can we read, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the law but under grace,” (Romans 6:14) and not believe it? And please note the words, “for you are not under the law.” How foolish to think the Law can produce obedience.

 

As a friend of mine recently wrote me:

 

“Justification is described in Romans 3, celebrated in Romans 5, and meant to be lived outwardly in joyful sacrificial Spirit-filled obedience among the nations in Romans 6 – 16!!!! GLORY!

 

How have we missed the weight of this?”

 

How indeed?

 

How have we rejected the fattened calf that our Father has prepared for us? Why have we done so?

 

How have we rejected our Father’s desire to live in intimacy with Him as His sons and daughters in our Lord Jesus Christ (see Hebrews 2; John 17)?

 

Why have we rejected our inheritance in Christ as overcomers?

 

Why will we not go into the family dinning room and enjoy the fattened calf and the music and dancing…even as our Father pleads with us to do so?

 

Why are we not willing to go in?

 

O how glorious to begin every day in the Father’s Presence. To begin every day in anticipation of koinonia with the Trinity, a koinonia of joyful obedience, of pleasing our Father and Lord Jesus as we live in the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God – as the Trinity lives in us and we live in the Trinity.

 

O that we would expect and anticipate and look forward to living in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we would realize that in Christ obedience is normative and disobedience is not normative – and that all the promises of God, in Christ, are “AMEN!”

 

If we are to teach others to obey all that Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:20), does it not follow that we must teach by example? How shall we teach by example of we are not obeying our Lord Jesus Christ?

 

“Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?” (Romans 6:1)

 

“May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2)

 

Well maybe Paul had it wrong? Maybe Jesus had it wrong in John chapters 13 – 17?

 

Maybe the older brother had it right?

 

Do we really want to mimic the older brother, and not be willing to go in and enjoy the music and dancing?