Are you on the bus to Bitter Street or Grace Avenue?

The story of the lost son is one of three stories Jesus uses to address the religious leaders’ accusation that he is a friend of sinners. We generally focus on the prodigal (younger) son as the lost son, but he eventually embraces the father’s grace. The real lost son is the older brother, who takes the bus to Bitter Street rather than Grace Avenue.

The older son had valid reasons to get mad when his dad offered grace to his younger brother. First, he would have shouldered his little brother’s disrespect towards his dad (Jewish culture expected older siblings to keep younger siblings in line). Recall that the little brother was essentially saying “Dad, you’re almost dead, give me my inheritance.”

Second, his kid brother stole part of his inheritance. In Jewish law (Deuteronomy 21:17), if a father gave his sons property before he died, it was for them to manage. Upon his death, the older son would inherit two-thirds of the property, leaving one-third for the younger son. However, when the father gave half to each son, the younger sold his half, resulting in an inheritance loss to the older brother.

Third, when the brother squandered the money (a sin Jesus spends Luke 16 addressing) on prostitutes and wild living, there was no way to get the money back. Fourth, when the father reinstated the younger son by giving him his robe, the family ring, sandals (something slaves didn’t wear), and a party, he was entitling him to one-third of the inheritance again.

The older brother had worked hard to earn his inheritance, so he wanted justice served to his brother. Earlier in the text, God disciplined the younger son for his actions: sending a famine, which represented God’s judgment in rabbinical teaching; humbling him with pig work, which was a terrible job for an Israelite (Leviticus 11:2–8; Deuteronomy 14:8); and having him eat pods, which was what God made the Israelites eat to bring them to repentance. Despite all this, the older brother was still angry when the little brother received grace.

Middle-class Canadian ideology resonates with this: you get what you deserve, you earn what you work for, criminals should be punished, and justice should be served. If you want good grades, you study hard. If you want to excel in athletics, you practice. If you want to move up the corporate ladder, you work long hours. The world shows us that nothing in life is free.

However, grace is the opposite of this: it’s undeserved merit or favour; you get what you don’t deserve. How wonderful that the father showed grace to the younger son! But for the older son it was difficult. He had been working hard to earn his inheritance, the younger son stole it, squandered it, and now the father was giving the younger son part of his inheritance again. But is getting on the bus to Bitter Street the answer?

Stuff happens sometimes, difficult stuff. People hurt people, intentionally or not, but when it happens we have a choice. When we choose bitterness, it’s the same as drinking poison and expecting someone else to die. It never really hurts them, but destroys us from the inside out. It really doesn’t matter what they’ve done. We need to forgive them for ourselves.

To get on the bus to Grace Avenue, we must become like the father. The father let go of the hurt (love keeps no record of wrongs; 1 Corinthians 13:5) and humbled himself by running to his son to reconcile. The onus is on us to reconcile. “If it is possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).

The father likely understood the grace of God in his own life, so he was able to give it away. Love causes us to radically forgive because we are forgiven ourselves (Romans 5:8). Jesus taught that we can’t understand or receive God’s grace until we can forgive people who are unworthy of forgiveness (Matthew 5:24; Luke 6:37).

Finally, there were no conditions on the father’s love and acceptance; he fully restored his son. Paul taught us not to repay evil for evil (Romans 12:17), but to ensure everyone receives grace (Hebrews 12:14–15).

The question remains: will we get on the bus to Bitter Street or Grace Avenue?

Luke 15:25–32

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

Chris Stevens is lead pastor of The Gathering in Ottawa.