Our true Elder Brother paid our debt – Tim Keller
How many siblings do you have? I have two–an older brother and an older sister–I’m the youngest.
Cameron has two as well, but he’s the eldest. Like me, he’s got a younger brother and a sister.
What about you?
Now… what would you say if I told you that you have an older brother you never knew about?! 😱
No, no… I’m not suggesting some family scandal. Calm down. 🤪
Jesus is the older brother you never knew you had. And to prove my point, let’s look at the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Jesus tells this parable as the third one in a series:
- The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7)
- The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10)
- The Lost Son(s) (Luke 15:11-32)
The stories are almost identical, as they revolve around something or someone being lost, with one significant difference. In the first two stories, someone goes out to look for the lost thing–the shepherd looks for his lost sheep and the woman looks for her lost coin. The ‘lookers’ stop at nothing until they’ve found what was lost.
Halfway through the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus’ audience would’ve been wondering, “Who is going to look for the lost son?”
But no one does.
Culturally, it was the elder brother's job to look for his younger brother; he was his brother’s keeper (Genesis 4:9).
A true elder brother would have said, “I will go look for my foolish younger brother and bring him home. If his money is gone, I will bring him back into the family at my own expense”
Why? Because welcoming him back into the family meant re-sharing the father’s inheritance–costly forgiveness on the elder brother’s part.
Start to sound familiar?
Unlike the younger son in the story, we do have a true elder brother who came looking for us–Jesus. He didn’t just travel to a far country—He came from heaven to earth to seek and save what was lost. And He paid a hefty price, not in money but with His life.
Jesus came to bring us back into God’s family.
Isn’t that amazing?
