Blessings : perceiving leads to receiving
In the story of the prodigal son, there are actually two sons that we need to take valuable lessons from, not just one. We often focus on the prodigal son because we easily recognize this as a story of God's loving kindness and forgiveness but we often focus so much on this story being about God's giving of mercy and grace that we miss the fact that it is also a story about receiving.
I want to focus on the other brother for a moment, the one who didn't run away. The one who did everything he could possibly do to be pleasing to the father...or so he thought.
Luke 15:25 -31
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And
he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the
fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but
he answered his father, ‘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. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
Obviously this brother was furious at His father and probably even more so at his younger brother and honestly, when we read the story, don't we all kind of know deep down that we would have a pretty hard time not reacting the same way? The brother seems perfectly justified in his "righteous anger"! He lays the case out to his father like a seasoned prosecutor laying out the overwhelming evidence against a guilty defendant. He also points out to his father not only the younger brother's obvious faults but justifies himself in the process by reminding his father of just how faultless he has been compared to his younger brother.
However, there's something the older brother has missed entirely...
That is that the father already knows that he has been far more faithful than the older brother. The father knows that the older son has been far more just in his actions and righteous in his ways. The father also knows, however, that this isn't an issue of who has been faithful, who has been righteous, or who has been just in their actions. The father knows what the issue is really about -
The father knows that it's all about receiving!
You're probably thinking, "wait a minute- this has always been a story about forgiveness. This story is about the son screwing up royally and then the father showing unbelievable love and grace by completely forgiving him."
You're right! this is a story that demonstrates God's willingness to forgive us BUT it is not a story specifically about forgiveness. It is a story about being able to receive forgiveness among many other things. If it was only about forgiveness, then why is the second brother even part of the story? This story is about receiving. Let me show you!
We all know Jesus was a master teacher and the main way he taught was often through stories. This being said, Jesus would not just flippantly throw in the second brother and his dialogue with the father as meaningless filler to end the story. Jesus wanted us to focus on the second brother just as we focused on the first.
This is where we come to the issue of perceiving and receiving.
The older brother was furious at the father because he was throwing this huge party for his younger brother who had just returned from completely abandoning his father and squandering the inheritance that he had worked so hard to put aside for him. The older brother could not even begin to grasp how any of those actions were worthy of a celebration. In his mind, I'm sure he was wondering how the father even wanted this son back in the first place.
The real issue the son has, however, is not so much the fact that the party is being thrown for his prodigal brother, but the fact that a party was never thrown for him! In verse 29, the older son tells the father "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."
What we need to realize here is that the older brother is telling us in this very moment, the type of man he believes his father to be! He says that he has served him, and never disobeyed him. These are terms that a slave or servant would use regarding their master! Then the younger son tells the father that in spite of all his "loyal service" he never even once offered him a goat to cook that he might celebrate with his friends. This shows us that the older son viewed his father as a taskmaster whom he served and never received anything from in spite of his hard work and loyalty. His perception of the father couldn't have been more flawed. This is why he never received anything from the father.
His inability to correctly perceive kept him from being able to freely receive.
The older son couldn't make sense of what was happening and just how wronged he felt because he viewed his life and his relationship with his father as one of works, rewards, and consequences. He lived by the code of "do good get good, do bad get bad". So, in his eyes, he deserved good rewards which he wasn't getting and his brother deserved harshness and consequences which he clearly wasn't getting. You can see how this older brother's entire worldview was being rocked at this moment in time.
Then the father steps in and says this in verse 31...
"Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours."
The father was trying to get the son to realize two things. First, He calls him son, to remind him that he is his son, not his servant or his slave and he tells him "you are always with me." The older brother was trying to distinguish himself as better than the older brother because he had always been there with the father and had never ran away but the father was telling him "you are always with me". Notice the father didn't say "you WERE always with me". The father is letting him know that because you are my son, you will always be with me whether you're here physically or not. The father says this to show the older brother that even though his younger brother ran away, he is still my son just as much as you are and what he did or where he went doesn't change that.
The second thing the father wanted the son to realize is that it was never about doing and earning but about perceiving and receiving. The older brother never enjoyed the blessings available to him as the father's son because he wrongly perceived the father. He kept waiting and waiting for the father to come and acknowledge just how hard he had worked for him and what a great son he was and reward him for his faithfulness when all the son had to do was stop trying to earn rewards for perfection and start willingly receiving the benefits of being a son.
The father lets him know that because he was his son, he was entitled to all that the father had to offer, all he had to do was willingly receive it instead of breaking his back trying to earn it. All he was working so hard for was right there in front of him but he wouldn't stop trying to earn it long enough to simply set his tools down, open his hands and receive it.
We are the same way many times when it comes to God's blessings. The Bible is full of promises from God to us - blessings that he says are freely ours simply because we are His sons. Yet many times we are continually trying to work and earn just a little bit of blessing from God and when we don't get it, we think we need to work harder or live more perfectly as a Christian. I have come to learn this truth - If we are trying to earn God's blessings by how we live and what we do, we will never receive what we are hoping for because we're really not trying to receive it in the first place, we're trying to earn it.
our problem is not perfection, it's perception.
We are perceiving God and who He is incorrectly and it is completely blocking our ability to freely receive His blessings. I've always said that a blessing is called a blessing because it's something that we don't deserve and couldn't earn. You don't receive your paycheck each week and burst into thanksgiving and elation and say "oh, what a blessing!" No, because that paycheck is your due wages according to what you have earned.
Romans 4:4&5 "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."
God is our father and Jesus paid the price for us to be perfected and to be in perfect relationship with Him thereby allowing us to simply open our hands and freely receive all that God has for each of His children. This is exactly why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that "all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus, yes, and Amen." Christ's death makes us eligible for every blessing God wants to give us! But as long as we spend our lives trying to live perfectly, trying to make ourselves eligible in our own strength, we are missing all that God has for us. We will never be able to receive from God until we correctly perceive God as the loving Father who longs to bless us and is just waiting for us to rest in Jesus' finished work so that we can simply receive all that He has for us.
The most ironic part of the story of the prodigal son is that the prodigal son had a more correct perception of his father than the older brother did. He was able to receive when the older brother wasn't. Think about it - The younger son, knew that his father would probably freely give him what was his, or he would have never even bothered asking for it. He knew that as his father's son, he was entitled to those things simply because he was his son. Even more revealing is the fact that after he had squandered all of the inheritance and was eating pig slop, he still knew deep down that his father was a truly loving father and wanted good for him. That's why he knew that his father would at least take him back as a servant. The normal protocol in that culture would have been for the son to be stoned to death! Yet this son knew deep down that His father was good and loving.
The most important truth we see in the prodigal son is that in spite of his sin and the hurt he had caused, he was still willing to simply receive all that his father wanted for him. He didn't demand to only be a servant and nothing more. He willingly accepted being treated once again as a son of the father.
Are we allowing God to treat us as His children and receive from Him simply because we're his sons and daughters? Or are we still trying to earn our way as perfect servants? Change the way you perceive God and open your hands to freely receive all that He has for you!
