I’m kind of sensitive about this whole Older Brother business. I’m an older brother myself, and I’ll confess a little bitterness about the way the Bible treats us in general. Whenever birth order or inheritance comes up as an issue in Scripture, it seems as if God always takes the side of the younger brothers. Abel over Cain. Jacob over Esau. Joseph over his 11 brothers. David over however many brothers he had.

Here, Jesus may have intended the last part to be the real point. He intended the Older Brother to represent the Scribes and Pharisees – and they understood that. And weren’t happy about it.

Psychologically, everyone who works with families know there’s something prissy and buttoned-up about us older brothers. We tend to be rule-followers. We side with authority. We draw prestige from toadying to the Establishment.

The Older Brother is appalled and offended by the mercy shown to his younger brother. “What is the point” he asks in so many words, “of my practicing personal discipline and keeping my nose clean and working 16-hour days, when this useless brother of mine gets the very same reward?”

It’s the same point as the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). Some workers put in a full day’s work in the hot sun, while others work just an hour – and the pay turns out to be the same. The long-timers are outraged. It’s not fair!

The vineyard owner has a simple answer – one we all struggle with – “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (verse 15, NIV). We older brothers have trouble with generosity. We prefer justice.

Justice is a fine thing, for human relations in this world.

But the Kingdom of God runs on a different economy. It’s easy to criticize the Scribes and Pharisees, but when we wrestle with these stories, we (most of us) find ourselves looking into a very high-resolution mirror.