Actually it’s the brother of the prodigal son . . . can’t you just see him with his arms crossed, wondering if his dad has gone crazy? In his book, End of Religion, Bruxy Cavey points out the older brother mentality as being like the person who depends on his good works to save him. What does the brother say? “Look, all these years I’ve been slaving and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never even gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.”Growing up in the church, I thought that this brother had it together and he was the good guy. But now, it appears he thought his father owed him something and he could not even rejoice that his brother who had been lost had come home.
Cavey says, “When faith becomes religion, people on the inside of the group begin to focus their attention on the perimeter, patrolling the boundaries to regulate who’s in and who’s out.”
That is why we are challenged to fix our eyes on Jesus as the only source and goal of our faith. When we fix our eyes on Jesus and realize how much we’ve been forgiven, we will be more forgiving of others too.
7 comments:
Anneliese, when I heard Jeff speak on this not that long ago, I was very challenged in my thinking on this subject. I suddenly realized .. I was wrong. . just as you said, I was busy watching the perimeter ..oh that i would be like Jesus. Thank you for this wonderful reminder.
OH ..and I never said the other day, your header is perfect for your blog .. .it is just lovely.
I like the 'perimeter' analogy. I agree, I think the point of this whole 'story' was lost on most of us church goers when we were younger...not realizing exactly what you said Anneliese....NOT that there was any wrong doing of the older brother who DID do the things that were right and honorable...but that it lost its purpose when he began to 'practice' his responsiblities rather than to 'live' them.
Thank you Anneliese...how I want that to be true of me. Fixing my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. Kathy
Yesterday I too was reminded of the only thing that matters in this life is faith expressing itself in love. Thank you for the morning devotional blog, Mom. Love Jules
Your header is beautiful, Anneliese.
And thank you for this devotional. Jesus said in Joh 7:24 "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
The older brother was too focused on his own self-righteousness (easy to do when you haven't grievously sinned!) and missed the righteous judgment!
oh boy can i ever relate to the "good brother"...but over the years i no longer am worried about the "good works" so to speak, it is striving to be more like Jesus that matters and we need those reminders....thankyou anneliese.
Mom, I love your new graphics at the top of your blog! So cute! PS. It was great to treat YOU to dinner for a change last night!
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