Children's Story: The Brothers

This story is meant to accompany tomorrow's sermon. Tomorrow, I'll be focusing on the value God places upon his children.

The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 doesn't give any reasons why the younger son got tired of living at home, tired of his father, and therefore chose to leave. As I was thinking about it this week, the attitude of the older son at the end of the story triggered the speculation that led to the following story.

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Children's Story - The Brothers

Once upon a time, in a land quite different from ours, there were two brothers, Gary and Ken. Gary was older than Ken by five years.

They lived with their father and mother on a large estate. This estate was surrounded by orchards, vineyards, gardens and trees. A river ran through the property on one of its boundaries. There were numerous animals and livestock as well. The estate was cared for by the numerous hired servants.

Although the servants took care of all necessary tasks, the father believed it best for the boys, Gary and Ken, to learn the tasks and duties associated with running the estate and caring for it. As each became old enough to handle certain tasks, the father assigned to each appropriate responsibilities. These tasks involved such things as feeding and cleaning their animals, weeding and caring for the garden, sprucing up the landscape, trimming the vines, and so on.

The boys, being typical kids, did not particularly enjoy these daily responsibilities. They would have rather spent all their time running through the fields in spring, swimming in the river during the hot summer days, climbing through the golden trees of autumn, and having snowball fights with their friends in the winter.

During one of these times when the boys were working alongside one another, Ken began to complain particularly vociferously about the work. Ken was about seven and Gary, twelve.

Gary glared at Ken and in a loud whisper admonished, "Shush! Don't let dad hear you."

"Why not?" asked Ken.

"Because if you continue to whine like that, you'll get dad angry, and who knows what'll happen then! Just do what dad tells us, and everything will be okay."

Gary and Ken were adopted. They both knew that. What Ken didn't know, because he was still an infant at the time of the adoption, was that their birth parents were short-tempered, demanding, alcoholics, and abusive. It was up to Gary to keep Ken quiet, for when baby Ken started to cry and scream, Gary would inevitably be on the receiving end of some kind of vicious beating. Gary learned that in order to keep from being beaten, from being yelled at, and just to survive, he had to control Ken and to meticulously obey every command of his parents, however illogical and ludicrous they might be.

Even after arriving at his new home, Gary never got over the fear that his new parents might somehow explode in anger if he or Ken did something wrong. So Gary made sure that he would always do exactly what his father and mother asked of him, and he took it upon himself to make sure that Ken did so, too.

As the years went by, Ken entered his teen years. His resentment of his brother, Gary, grew stronger with each passing day. His fear and disdain for his father also grew. It seemed to Ken that Gary actually enjoyed being so "perfect" and enjoyed telling Ken what to do.

"Is Gary right about our dad?" wondered Ken at times. Ken wasn't as "perfect" as Gary seemed to be, and every now and then his father would have words of correction for Ken. Each time it happened, Ken would cringe inwardly, wondering if this was time he crossed the line and his father would finally explode into rage. That never happened, however. But that didn't seem to make any difference in Ken's mind about whether or not his father might someday.

A number of years passed by. Ken was now in his late teens. Gary was a young adult, responsible for helping run part of the estate, which he did exceptionally well. Ken, however, had become tired of living in fear and resentment, of both his brother and father. He determined that he could no longer live with them. His only choice, he believed, was to leave his family and home. For once, he wanted to live life as he pleased, outside the control of others.

One afternoon, Ken approached his father with trepidation and trembling. He demanded, "Father, I want my share of your estate now before you die." Ken stood with his arms crossed across his chest and looked defiantly towards his father, awaiting the lightning and thunder from his father to strike. But there was none.

If Ken had been more observant, he would have seen an expression of sadness and dismay in his father's face. But Ken was too obsessed with himself, his fear, and his desires.

"Ken," his father said softly. "Are you sure about this? It will take a few days to divide up the estate between you and your brother. If you're determined to go, I can't stop you. But think about what you're doing, for my sake, okay?"

Ken was surprised that there was so little reaction from his father. There was no way he would reconsider, however. His mind was made up. As soon as he had the title to his portion of the estate, he would be on his way.

The rest of this story is in the Bible, Luke 15:13-32:

[Read Luke 15:13-32 in a modern, dynamic-equivalence translation, e.g., ICB, NLT, TMSG.]

Children [or kids, or boys and girls], don't ever believe it when someone tells you that God only loves and accepts you when you are good and behaving well. The truth is that God loves all of you, all of the time. We are told in the Bible that Jesus had to scold some people, who like the older brother, Gary in this story, gave a false picture of God to the children and got in their way. I'm going to talk more about this in just a few minutes.

Children, always remember that just as Jesus loved to have children come to him when he walked on this earth, God loves to have all his children come to him today. It doesn't matter if you've been good or bad, whether you're clean or dirty, or whether you think you're acceptable to him or not. God wants you to come to him. Don't let anyone, whether it's someone else your age, an older youth, or even an adult tell you that you're not welcome to come to God to be with him. Don't allow anyone or anything to come between you and God. You are just as much a part of God's family as anyone else. In fact, as far as God and Jesus are concerned, you are more precious to them than me and all the other adults here.