Divine Dining April 10, 2026 Devotional

LUKE 15:25-32 | ²⁵ “Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷ He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ ³¹ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ “

If the younger son was lost in outward rebellion and sensuality, the older son was equally alienated from his father's heart. He hated his Father's merciful reception of his younger brother, and had no sense of his own spiritual sins of pride and self-righteousness. Bitter and unloving, he saw himself as the perfect son, yet he too humiliated his father by refusing to enter the celebration. He is ungrateful and resentful even though his father has made him head of the household, granting him control of the remaining property, when he sold one third to give to the younger son. The older son is farther from God than the younger, like the Pharisees were farther than the prostitutes and sinners, because he has not recognized his need to repent and change. His rebellion against his father and his father’s values was an inner one that emerges in his anger and     criticism.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost, reorienting them by His teaching and example, and by covering the penalty for their rebellion and pride through His sacrificial death.

We can be outwardly religious but inwardly rebellious, rejecting God's values and heart. Do you agree?

Gracious God,

Help my faith penetrate to my heart and attitudes, filling me with mercy and with love.

Amen.