28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” Luke 15:28-32 (NLT)
In the story of the prodigal son, the son goes off on an adventure to basically please himself. He does whatever he wants, even things he knows are not in his best interest, until one day he wakes up and realizes he has nothing. He reaches rock bottom. At that point, he decides he needs to go home.
When he arrives, his father runs to him and embraces him and welcomes him home. He is restored as a son and the celebrations begins.
His older brother however, is not happy. He stays away from the celebration not willing to go in and embrace his returned brother. Why? He feels that all his years of service should have amounted to some sort of reward. He complained because he didn’t feel his commitment was recognized. And why in the world would the father welcome in the person who did all of those wrong things?
The sad thing is we often behave in this same way. We see ourselves as good Christians and we judge whoever wants to come in. Do they measure up? Have they behaved in a way that fits our standard? What about me? These are the questions we ask (even if we wouldn’t admit it.)
As Christ-followers, these are never question we should ask. Right? Shouldn’t we be standing out front of the celebration yelling “Come on in! You are welcome and loved! We want to get to know you!”
The really neat thing about this story is that the father says “All that I have is yours.” Jesus is saying that to us too. But unlike the limited inheritance of the father in the story, there is no limit to what Jesus has to share. There is plenty to go around. We can welcome in every single person that ever lived and our inheritance as children of God will never run out.
So get out there. Invite people in. Love on them like there is no limit. Because there isn’t.