Contentment #4 - The Damage of Discontent
| 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.' " (Luke15:25-31) |
Yesterday we looked at Asaph who "nearly lost his footing" due to discontent, but went to worship and found peace and contentment in his relationship with God.
Today we look at the older brother in Jesus' parable of the so-called "prodigal son."
The younger son was discontent, spent all his money, landed up in poverty and realised ("came to his senses") that true contentment could be found with his father.
While the younger brother's discontentment was explosive, expressive, and eventually short-lived, the older brother's discontent was of the festering kind. All looked well on the surface but underneath things were not good. He was going through the motions but was not really seeing how good he had it. He was like the nursery rhyme pussycat who went to London to see the queen and, instead of sitting on her lap and enjoying a bowl of royal cream, all he did was frighten a mouse from under her chair. The older brother had full access to his father and his father's blessings, but he chose to become miserable and it hardened his heart. Sadly he seems to have known what happened to the younger brother and just did not care.
Discontent made him bitter.
Discontent blinded him to the joy and privilege of his father's presence and goodness.
Discontent robbed him of the joy of his brother's return.
What is even more striking is that Jesus leaves the story open-ended.
We don't know if the older brother ever came around...
Discontent is a serious enemy.
It's subtle and steals our life and joy away from us.
Left unchecked it can make us as toxic and blind as it did the older brother in the story.
May we ensure that this does not happen to us!
