5. The father says, “All that is mine is yours.”
Verse 31: “My child, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31).
There is a massive inheritance coming. And the father only hints at the condition: “Child … all that I have is yours.”
Jesus leaves unsaid the possibility that the elder son will remain forever on the porch with the slaves, rather than sit at the table of mercy as a grateful child, a son. He leaves unmentioned what he said in Matthew 15:11-12,
Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
Not here. Not in this parable.
Here it is all tenderness toward the Pharisees.
The message of the parable ends with tenderness to both brothers: Come in from the foreign country of misery, and come in from the porch of hard-earned merit. Both are deadly.
But inside is the banquet of grace and forgiveness and fellowship with an all-satisfying Father.
