“The Blind Brother”
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Luke 15: 13, 11b-32  

Let us pray.

             The story of the Prodigal Son that we just heard read is one of, if not, the best known of Jesus’ parables. It is a most vivid account of a wayward son’s journey to a foreign land, his descent into hedonism, the dissipation of his inheritance, his life as a homeless man living with pigs and his ultimate return home – impoverished, hat in hand -- to his father who unreservedly forgives him. This story has been the subject of various paintings, plays and movies – most recently loosely retold in the movie, A River Runs Through It. The parable has two main characters the returning son and the loving, forgiving father. In “A River Runs Through It” -- not surprisingly, the wayward son is played by Brad Pitt while the father is played by Tom Skerritt (the actor known for playing the head of the fighter pilot school in the movie Top Gun. (His code name “Viper”).  Every preacher has written and prepared at least one sermon on the interplay of this son and father.   The parable is a masterful literary vehicle to portray the depth and breadth of divine forgiveness. 

            But let’s not forget the other character in the story -- the older brother. If you look at any medieval painting depicting this story, the older brother will be found in the background of the painting -- clearly just an afterthought. And does anyone know the name of the actor playing the other brother in A River Runs Through It?   Certainly, the father is a character we can relate to. Most of us have been in situations in which we have been so overjoyed at the return of a loved one that we have forgiven trivial and not so trivial indiscretions. On the other hand the wayward son is just too wayward. Of course, we have all made our share of bad choices, done foolish things but seldom as profound or pervasive as the prodigal’s exploits here.   There is, however, something familiar about the older brother – personally, I see myself in the older brother every time I hear this parable.

            Who is he? His bio might read like this. Jeffrey Jones, oldest son of Mary and Edgar Jones. Jeff, to his friends, has always been a solid and responsible young man. From his earliest days -- you could depend on Jeff. He was a friendly, pleasant guy – he never got into trouble and worked diligently in school. The only real knock on him in high school was that he got annoyed when others cut corners, flaunted the rules and didn’t ever seem to have to pay the consequences for their behavior. Jeff preferred to live by the rules. When he graduated from college he came home and joined his father’s plumbing supply company and has worked hard at the company over the years. His father relies on him and knows he will always do the right thing. Ultimately, Jeff will take over the plumbing business. To be fair, however, sometimes his Dad takes Jeff for granted – he’s just so reliable and solid. Jeff also has a younger brother, Bill. Bill is lively, bright, irresponsible and everyone’s friend and favorite. Bill’s the one who stays out late after Jeff has gone home to bed so he can get up early for work.  There are a lot of “Jeffs” in the world and it is a better place because of them.

            So what’s the problem with Jeff? Why does he -- to use the vernacular -- “get so bent out of shape” when his father -- greets his brother joyfully and with open arms after Bill’s most colossal acts of irresponsibility?  Jeff – the older brother -- is the poster child for fairness. His life has been defined by getting what you have earned. He has worked like a dog for years. His brother, however, has never settled down. Time and again he has taken from their father – some of his inheritance – blown it and then come back for more. And what happens to him now? He returns from his worst episode of self indulgence   – essentially penniless – having been relegated to the lowest job possible for a Jew -- working with pigs. What happens then?  Their father kills the fatted calf and gives him a banquet. And Jeff has never even gotten a lousy chicken dinner from Dad.  Isn’t the older son right to be angry?

            In our world isn’t that what we strive for? We work for what we earn and the harder we work the more we deserve. When I was involved in helping to set my law partner’s compensation, we looked at all kinds of data trying to be fair in allocating the firms revenues among the partners. The objections to our decisions rarely turned on the absolute amount of money one received (as they were all well compensated), but it turned more on perceived fairness. The objections were always –“I deserved more than Harry and Barbara, I worked more hours and had more billings.” In a way the glue that holds our society together is some reasonable expectation that fairness is the norm within our social and business relationships and in our system of justice.

            The parable of the Prodigal Son is not primarily about fairness and justice. The crucial point is that in God’s eyes life is not predicated entirely or finally on fairness. Truth be told the older son never gets treated unfairly. Indeed the father says, “Son you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”  He will get the plumbing business one day.  No, the problem is that the older son cannot understand how to move beyond fairness to mercy.  Most often fairness and justice start and end with us. It is our work that should be fairly compensated. I should get that promotion because “I have earned it -- not the bozo, who happens to play golf with boss, but can’t analyze his way out of a paper bag.” Justice too often is viewed from our own self-interested perspective.

I have always thought that among the most difficult legal issues in the last 30 years were questions of affirmative action. Take the qualified young man who got rejected by the medical school at the University of California so a minority student with weaker academic credentials could be admitted.  There are difficult issues of justice and fairness present in such a case.  On one level affirmative action is unfair to the qualified non-minority. And yet on another level if we understood this as a way to ameliorate past discrimination toward a minority group, then perhaps it is fair. How we see the issue turns in great measure on whose fairness we understand to be paramount. If you are the minority you have one view, if you are the non-minority you have a different one. The difficulty has been for us as a society to figure out -- not who is right --but what is right for society as a whole.

            In his refusal to embrace his younger brother, the older one focused on whether or not he thought he had been treated fairly by his father;

[L]isten for all these years I have been working like a
            slave for you, and I never disobeyed your command,
            yet you have never given me even a young goat so that
            I might celebrate with my friends.

His sense of justice and fairness cause him to be angry at his brother’s return. It is not by accident that the older brother, when arguing with his father, does not call his brother by his name or even refer to him as “my brother” but calls him “this son of yours.” The older brother is blinded by his need to be treated fairly. He does not truly see that his brother was lost and has been found. His love for his brother has evaporated in his self-centered focus on fairness.

Of course, the wonderful message of the parable is the God’s justice is always tempered or even expanded by mercy. Open you hymn book to hymn number 73, “There’s A Wideness in God’s Mercy”. Read with me aloud the first verse

There’s a wideness to God’s mercy like the wideness
            of the sea; there’s a kindness in God’s justice which is more than liberty.

We don’t earn God’s mercy.  It’s simply an extension of God’s unending love. Mercy should be an extension of our love of others. As the father and the youngest son learned there is more to life than justice and fairness. Created in God’s image we are made, not simply, to pursue fairness and justice but even more to be in a loving and merciful relationship with each other. We are left in this passage not knowing if the older son ever learns that and joins the celebration. What do you think? Amen