The stunning painting by Rembrandt on this parable in St Petersburg's beautiful art gallery, the Hermitage, consists of a lightened area where the father embraces the kneeling son who has returned from the faraway country. The father's hands are on his son's back. There is reconciliation. There is peace. In the darker area of the picture you can see the older brother.

In the beautiful book of Henri Nouwen, "The Return of the Prodigal Son", reflects on this painting and parable (free translation): "There is return, but also anger. There is the warmth of restoration, but also the coldness of a critical eye. There is free grace, but also the enormous opposition against the acceptance of this grace. It was not long before I discovered the older brother in myself"

Reading this passage, which is three parts of one parable confronted and challenged me with very important questions for my Christian life and conduct: Do I hear the beating of God's heart? Is my heart beating like God’s heart? Am I just as concerned about the world as God is? Do I share the vision of God for this world? Or do I show the mentality of the older brother?

What is the mentality and attitude of the older brother? Seemingly the older son is a model of obedience:  ^"Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders." He gets upset about his father’s attitude:  The older brother became angry and refused to go in. He is like Cain, who could not see that his brother received God’s attention. He is like Jonah, sitting on the hill, annoyed with God because he spared Nineveh. He is like the people working in the vineyard in the parable in Matthew 20 who could not live with the goodness of the farmer who paid everybody the same, irrespective of the hours they spent working.

When he is confronted with the joy of his father, it becomes clear that he had no relationship with his father or his brother. He said to his father, "Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you (The older son sees himself as a slave) and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of your who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!" His younger brother is useless. His father is unfair! His father is taking it too far! "DAD!!! If there is one person who deserves a party… well, you know, it MUST be me!" It makes me think about the movie "Amadeus." Sallieri is annoyed with God because the morally "useless" Mozart seemingly has more gifts than Sallieri, who served God all his life.

Why does the older brother react in this way? The parable reflects on the attitude of the religious leaders during the days of Jesus: (15:1, 2) Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Jesus not only eats with them, but welcomes them (15: 2). This is one of the important characteristics of Jesus’ ministry. He socializes with the religiously and socially unacceptable people, the so-called "improper" people.

A South African theologian, Dirkie Smit wrote: "the sinners and tax collectors represent the socially marginalized: the poor, the shepherds, the women, the prostitutes, those with whom no decent person would associate. And to eat signifies close association, acceptance, forgiveness, mercy and solidarity."

To answer the question why the older brother responds this way, we must understand the theology of the religious leaders. It was a theology of exclusion! Yes, God is merciful, but the mercy must be restricted! The religious leaders understood that God is gracious, that he is merciful, but only to decent people. God's grace has limitations. God's mercy is limited to religious and pious people. The religious leaders acted in this way because they do not understand the mercy of God. They do not understand the beating of God's heart.

These three stories, which are actually only one parable, convey an alternative perspective. All three stories emphasize the relative value of the object that was missing. The objects that must be found are almost insignificant when compared to what is left! One sheep out of 100 – who would really care? One silver coin from 10 – that is not such a big loss! An utterly useless son – a washout! He deserves to be where he is. He chose that lifestyle. He must bear the responsibility for his state. No Jew could go lower than feeding pigs. He wasted his life on wine, women, and song. Or in the idiom of Richard Foster, "money, sex and power."

What does God do with people like the prodigal son? Who cares about one sheep from a hundred, one silver coin from 10, about a grown-up who has chosen to throw away his life …? God! He cares! Three words stand out in these three stories: lost (verses 4, 6, 8, 9, 24, 32); found (verses 5, 6, 8, 9, 24); joy (verses 5, 6, 7, 9, 24, 32). This is the overwhelming atmosphere in all three stories: joy about something, someone that has been found! When God finds people, he rejoices!

Luke 15:20 is the gripping climax of these three stories: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The kiss and embracing signify forgiveness and the healing of a broken relationship. Henri Nouwen writes (free translation): "God takes the initiative every time. He leaves his home, forgets about his reputation, and does not listen to excuses or promises of change. He just brings us to the table of joy! The father forgives even before any confession can be made. The story of the prodigal son is a story that tells about love that existed before any rejection, and which will exist after all the rejection. I've committed my life to serve God, to love him and to find him. Now I wonder if I really realised that God tried to find me all the time."

The Baptist preacher from the 19th century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon writes that the third story cannot be understood without the first and the second. We can misunderstand this third story, and can overemphasize the fact that the prodigal son returned, but forget that the first two stories place all the emphasis on the seeking figure. We belong to God because we were found. When the prodigal son starts to confess, his father interrupts him. ²¹ The son said to him,"‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." ²² But the father said to his servants, "Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." So they began to celebrate. The shoes, the robe, the ring are symbols of the restoration of the status as a child. He's not a slave anymore, but a child.

Gunter Bornkamm wrote: "conversion is not a human achievement that opens the way to grace. It must be placed on the same level as being found. The Father’s action is that of unconditional acceptance. God is the forgiving, the seeking, the inclusive God."

Is it possible that there may be people who feel unhappy about this God? Yes, it is true. One of my seminary professors, who was called "Holy David," once said: "the salvation of sinners brings joy to the church and the heaven. Or maybe it brings joy only to the heaven." They are all the brothers in our churches saying: if they are there, I'm not going to the party. Like the older brother they would rather stand outside, than to share in the joy of God. These people became the Pharisees of our contemporary churches. They think that they are better than the tax collectors of our society and in other churches.

Luke tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in 18: 9 – 14: To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ^{10 "}Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’" ¹⁴ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

It has been true through the centuries. It has been the history of many churches in southern Africa. I will tell you something about the history in the Adult Study. Exclusion was the name of the game, politically, economically and theologically. Sometimes people tell jokes to make serious points. During the time of racially segregated churches, the story was told that an elder of a white church entered the church on a Monday morning. A black man was cleaning the floor in front of the pulpit, kneeling on his knees. The elder asked: "What are you doing?" The black man answered" "I am cleaning the floor." "Oh!" replied the elder. "That’s OK! I thought you were praying!"

Like the older brother there are even churches looking down on other churches, disqualifying them from the grace of God. They believe that they alone possess the truth. There are many people who claimed Jesus only for themselves in such a way that the contemporary "sinners and the tax collectors" do not have the courage or confidence to go to Jesus anymore. The gospel is not good news anymore, because there are so many conditions to receive this gospel that no one can see the merciful God anymore.

There are those people who think that the proclamation of the free grace of God makes the gospel cheap. But cheap grace occurs when you can buy the gospel, when you can pay for it, when you think that your pious lifestyle, your conversion or confession can deserve the grace of God. Grace cannot be bought. You cannot pay for it. Grace can only be received, never deserved.

It is also true that we can be like the older brother because we think that we have discovered the truth and that other people must still grow to become like us. I have experienced this in San Francisco. As long as you think as progressive as we do, you are fine; otherwise you are labeled as conservative, fundamentalist, rigid, etc. The challenge to the church is to be inclusive, even if people do not agree with what we say, even if they do not share our views.

Sometimes we have the mentality of the older brother because we have lost touch with the passion of God's heart for this world. Therefore we start to accept the brokenness of the world and those things that break people. We have gone astray, because we do not think about the world the way God thinks about the world.

There were two sons in this parable. Both were lost. Maybe you are like the younger son today. You have wasted your life, but do not have the courage to return home. You have dishonored God’s name and are a disgrace to yourself and everybody around you. This story says there is a place in the heart of God for you. This parable says that there is a place in the heart of God for everyone. It does not matter if you've gone astray, if you became a bad person in the eyes of other people. God embraces us, does not ask questions, does not reproach us, but restores our status. We are God’s children, even if people gave up on us and our lives came to a cul-de-sac. He loves people who cannot help themselves!

But maybe you are like the older son. It is possible to be lost while you are in your Father’s home. It is possible to be lost even if you are very religious, because your heart is far away from God, because your heart is not beating the way God’s heart is beating. But God never stops seeking. Although the older brother was actually the prodigal son, the father couldn’t take it that his older son stood outside. The older son was a stranger to his father. He was a rebel, a terrorist who was trying to undermine the joy of his father. His father was going out to him. His father pleaded with him to become part of his joy!

Manson says that what is outstanding in these three stories is not the joy when the sinner converts, but the love of the seeking shepherds, women and prostitutes.

The strange part of this story is that we do not read what happened after that. The story has an open ending, like the book of Jonah. The church, you and me, are challenged to finish the story. Are we going to share in the joy of the father who includes those who are lost in our own eyes?