<p>15:28 <i>But he was angry and would not go in; and his father came out and encouraged him</i>- The elder son would not 'go in' to the wedding (Lk. 15:28); and the Lord surely constructed that story to use a word which so often is used about going in to the Kingdom (in Matthew alone: 5:20; 7:21; 18:3,9; 19:17,23,24; 25:21). His point clearly is that those who don't enter into His Kingdom <i>chose themselves not to do </i>so, they keep themselves out of the Kingdom, because they cannot bring themselves to show a true love to their brother. In the end, the very end, we receive our dominant desire.</p><p>To refuse a father&rsquo;s invitation to a family celebration was seen as totally unacceptable, rude, and a rejection of one&rsquo;s father. Hence the rudeness of the guests refusing the King&rsquo;s invitations. The older brother would usually have played a prominent role in such feasts. But this son refuses to attend. This would&rsquo;ve struck the Lord&rsquo;s initial audience as incredibly rude. Remember how Vashti&rsquo;s refusal to attend her husband&rsquo;s feast resulted in her being rejected (Esther 1). What the older son did would&rsquo;ve been seen as an insult to all the guests; and many fathers would simply have rejected and disowned their son for this, or at least, expressed significant disapproval. Indeed, this was expected of him by society and the other guests. But yet again, the father humiliates himself and breaks all Jewish norms and expectations of correctness and decency. He leaves the feast For the host to walk out was yet again seen as totally rude to the other guests- it of course echoes the shepherd leaving the 99 sheep and going off after the one lost sheep. &nbsp;The father doesn&rsquo;t go out and giving the arrogant, unloving, disobedient son a good talking to, as the audience would expect. Again, as so often, the Lord&rsquo;s parables set up an expectation- and then dash it. The father goes out into the darkness of the courtyard, and &ldquo;entreats&rdquo; his son (Lk. 15:28). The Greek <i>parakaleo</i> means literally to come alongside, as if the father is inviting the son to stand alongside him in his extension of grace. Perhaps Paul is making one of his many allusions to the Lord&rsquo;s parables when he uses the same word to speak of how he &lsquo;beseeches&rsquo; his legalistic brethren (2 Cor. 5:20). &nbsp;</p><p>But all this grace is ignored by the elder son. He insults his father. It may not be so apparent to us, but it would&rsquo;ve been picked up by the Lord&rsquo;s first hearers. A son should always address his father in this context with the term &ldquo;O Father&rdquo;. But he doesn&rsquo;t. He speaks of his brother as &ldquo;Your son&rdquo; rather than his brother. He speaks of how the prodigal &ldquo;devoured <i>your</i> living&rdquo;. And he speaks of how he has faithfully served his father <i>as a servant</i>- like his younger brother, he failed to perceive the wonder of <i>sonship</i>. His awful outburst is doing in essence what his younger brother had done some time before. He was saying that he didn&rsquo;t want a part in his father&rsquo;s family. The &ldquo;living&rdquo; or wealth of the family was no longer <i>his</i>. He wasn&rsquo;t going to respect his father as his father any more. He didn&rsquo;t want to be in the family, so he wouldn&rsquo;t go to the family reunion. That poor, dear father. And what is the father&rsquo;s response? He calls him his <i>teknon</i>, his dearly loved son. Notice how the more common <i>huios</i> is used for &ldquo;son&rdquo; throughout the story (Lk. 15:11,13,19,21,24,25,30). In the face of such awful rejection, he shows his special love. It&rsquo;s like the Lord giving &ldquo;the sop&rdquo;, the sign of special love and favouritism, to Judas- as he betrays Him. There&rsquo;s a powerful lesson here for those of us who find ourselves irked and angered by legalistic, arrogant brethren who refuse to fellowship with the rest of us. There was no anger and irksomeness in the father&rsquo;s attitude. He was only deeply sorry, hurt, cut up&hellip; but he <i>so</i> loved that arrogant elder brother. He goes on to say that he gives that son all that he has. But he could only actually do that through being dead The father is willing to die for that arrogant older brother, whose pride and anger stops him wanting anything to do with his father, whom he has just openly shamed and rejected. And the father wants to die for him. This is to be our attitude to the self-righteous, the divisive, those who reject their brethren. &nbsp;</p><p>But of course, there&rsquo;s a real and obvious warning not to be like the older brother. It worries me, it turns me, right in my very gut, when I see so many refusing to fellowship with their brethren because &lsquo;He&rsquo;s in that church&hellip; they&rsquo;ve had her back&hellip; she&rsquo;s divorced and remarried&hellip; he&rsquo;s never said sorry, his motives aren&rsquo;t right, she only said those words&hellip;&rsquo;. And those attitudes are made out to be expressions of righteousness. It is not for me to judge anyone; I seek to love those who act like this with the love and grief of the father for the elder son. But they must be gently warned as to the implications of their position. By refusing to fellowship with the rest of the family, by making such a fuss about the return of the prodigals, they fail to realize that they are in essence doing what the prodigals have done; and they are de facto signing themselves out of the Father&rsquo;s family. The issues are that serious. The parable isn&rsquo;t just a story with a possible interpretation which we can shrug our shoulders at and get on with life. The Lord&rsquo;s teaching, His &lsquo;doctrine&rsquo;, was and is in these parables. &nbsp;</p><p>The lost son story finishes, as do the other stories, with a banquet of rejoicing- rejoicing in the father&rsquo;s love. But it&rsquo;s no accident that Luke 15 is preceded by the parable of Lk. 14:15-24, where we have another great banquet- symbolic of our communion in the future Kingdom of God. The connection is clear. We will &ldquo;eat bread in the Kingdom of God&rdquo; if we eat bread with the Lord in the banquets of this life. And yet <i>so, so often</i> it is said amongst us: &lsquo;I won&rsquo;t break bread there. They have X or Z&hellip; who is divorced&hellip; who&rsquo;s not repentant&hellip; they have Q from that fellowship attending there&hellip; I&rsquo;m not going in there&rsquo;. It is not for us to judge. And I do not do so in what I write here. But it is the fairly obvious teaching of the Lord here that if we won&rsquo;t eat bread with Him in joy now, if we won&rsquo;t celebrate His grace and love for the lost in this life, then we will not in the future banquet. His grace is likely large enough to cover even the self-righteous; but we need to realize the eternal gravity of our decisions and feelings about our brethren in this life. Especially must we come to see ourselves as the prodigal. If we plan on being in the Kingdom, we must identify ourselves with the prodigal, and not with the self-righteous elder son who is left outside of the Father&rsquo;s fellowship, because he placed himself there.&nbsp; <br />&nbsp;</p>