Luke 15:25-32

25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ 28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ 31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

While the first part of the story gives us encouragement and hope, the rest of the story provides a warning, which is that sometimes when we are feeling the best about ourselves, we may actually be at our worst. The older son was like this. I think he honestly believed he had not transgressed his father's commandment at any time, even as he was doing so right then by not joining the party.

While the younger son, finally in touch with reality, said "I am no longer worthy to be called your son", the older son, so self-absorbed he could no longer see reality, seemed to be saying, "You are no longer worthy to be called my father". While the younger son was seeing his own sin and the benefits offered by his father clearly for the first time, the older son was still completely blind to both. The scary part here is that he was 100% sure of just the opposite, that he was the only one aware of what was going on, when in reality he may have been the only one who wasn't.