Servants or Sons?

Written by Fount Shultz http://www.onword.org/

“Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.” (Lk. 15:29)

Jesus said, “When you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’” (Lk. 17:10). The word ‘unworthy’ means: ‘without merit or unprofitable’. As long as we think of ourselves as servants our focus will be on keeping commandments. No intimacy with the Master will come to obedient servants. Intimacy with Father is for sons and daughters.

But there is another more significant element in the elder brother’s response. It’s true that he thought his faithful service to his father gave him merit. He thought his father owed him at least a small celebration because of his many years of service. The problem is that he wanted to celebrate with his friends, not with his father. He only wanted the use of the house for a party.

He probably would not have wanted his father in the house while he enjoyed his friends. Like the prodigal, he only valued his father for what his father could give him. He only wanted father’s place. And he obviously thought his years of faithful service had earned him that place in father’s house. He was waiting for his father to recognize his merit and offer the kid and the house.

The elder probably thought his father’s presence in the house would put a damper on the party. How can you have fun with your friends when Dad is watching? Perhaps this is why many people are satisfied with ‘church’ without the presence of Father. I can enjoy worship with my friends as long as God doesn’t show up to expose my private attitudes. I can hide those from my friends.

The Father is serious about only one command: the command to love, to be open to your fellowman. That command is really an invitation to the celebration, to enter into the joy of the Father. Paul said, “…the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 12:8). The elder did not love his father or his brother. Even though he had obeyed all of father’s commands, he was still without merit.

Since the elder thought of himself as a faithful servant rather than a son, all his obedience was unprofitable to him. It’s not that the father received no benefit from the son’s obedient service. The farm was profitable. The son’s efforts were not profitable to him. He had no time with his friends. His father was also lacking in the one thing he wanted: an intimate relationship with his son.

A focus of our relationship as sons of the Father will bring more joy than many years of faithful work as servants.

Father, help us learn to put our relationship as sons above our service to you. May we give you joy by responding to your invitation to enter celebration.