When the Prodigal Son left home, I wonder what his brother’s feelings were. He may have thought ‘Good riddance, he never did any work.’ Any day when the work was particularly heavy or things went wrong he had more bitter thoughts about his brother who was probably having a ‘whale of a time.’ Money to spend on the farm would not have been plentiful as one share had been taken out.
This resentment would have been a daily occurrence as he had also lost his father. Every day the old man was out scanning the horizon. ‘When was his son coming home?’ No longer would there be cozy evenings round the fire, the three men discussing the business of the day. The band of friendship had been broken. Even his mother would be heart-broken at losing a son and the companionship of a husband.
The bitterness was growing day by day and erupted on the day of the lad’s return. ‘You never even gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.’ Luke 15:29. One could almost feel sympathy for the older brother!. But bitterness and resentment are insidious traits, they build up to a boiling point. Could we gradually be having these feelings, bit by bit, without realising it. Resentment is a bitter enemy.