"The prodigal son in today’s Scripture passage returned to his father after squandering all his possessions. He said to his father, “I am not worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. Take me in as your servant.” Given the context of today’s Scripture passage, we can conjecture here that this prodigal son clearly became one of his father’s faithful workers when he returned home. I have no doubt that this prodigal son was diligent with his father’s work as if it were his own work, rather than living off his father and saying in arrogance, “I am the son of the landlord.” But how did the first son react? He got angry. His heart was filled with discontent, thinking to himself, “Even though I’ve served my father for so many years, and I’ve never disobeyed him, not even once did he give me a young goat to enjoy. How can he then hold such a feast for my brother, who had run away from home, just because he has returned?” He was so resentful that his face turned red in anger and looked at his brother with an evil eye. The father then said to the angry first son, “Why are you so resentful when all that I have is yours? Isn’t it right for us to rejoice and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found?” What does this mean? The older son here had worked in his father’s house all his life like a servant. Yet he was actually filled with his own righteousness. That he thought of all the things that he had done for his father means that he was too self-righteous. In other words, the first son was filled with his own virtues and rightfulness. That is why when his brother repented wholeheartedly and returned home ready to live a new life, far from being rejoiced by this, the older brother actually got angry. The First Son Was a Self-Righteous Man How would the father have felt when the first son got angry and tried to vent out his frustration at his younger brother? Would his mind have been at peace? Would the father have been happy? If the father is rejoiced, the son should be rejoiced with him. Wasn’t the second son lost but now found, dead but alive now? The first son should have been truly rejoiced at his brother’s return regardless of his past, since he had been dead but was now alive. But the older son wasn’t happy because he was too self-righteous. My fellow believers, we are all very happy now that we have received the remission of sins and we have been saved. But now that you and I have been saved, what kind of people should we become? If we had too many virtues of our own like the first son here, we would have run away from the house of God. This time it wouldn’t be the second son leaving but the first son. What’s the reason for this? It’s because the first son would be thinking that the father was not right. What God wants from you and me is for all of us, the saved people, to lose all our virtues, goodness, and righteousness. He wants us to confess, “I am completely devoid of any merit or righteousness. But if there is one thing that I am thankful for, one thing that I can exalt, it is that the Lord has completely blotted out my sins with His water and blood.” This is the confession that the Lord wants to hear from us. Do you grasp this?" Paul C Jong https://www.bjnewlife.org/en/biblestudy/sermonsDetail.php?idx=3404&findLang=English