part 1 of the “Cactus” series
Have you ever held onto a cactus?
Now that may seem like a crazy question to be asking because why would anyone in their right mind grab ahold of a cactus. But what if I told you in a way we have all held on to a cactus in a different way.
I want to start by telling you a story from Luke 15. I sometimes refer to Luke 15 as the “lost” chapter because the parables told within the chapter are about lost things. There is a parable about a lost sheep, a coin, and a son. For this post, I want to look at the story of the lost son or Prodigal Son. But I want to look at a character of the story that is sometimes just looked past because a small part of the story is about him. The character is the older brother. But first, let’s look at the whole story.
The story begins with the younger son asking for his share of his father’s wealth. He was basically asking for his portion of his father’s will. This was usually done before or after the death of the father, but it was customary to do it after [1]. There is also a possibility of a father offering his sons their inheritance if he could no longer manage it [2]. So in this case, the younger son blatantly asking for his share could be considered disrespectful and rude. But the father obliges his younger son and gives him his share. The younger then quickly packs his bags and leaves.
We then follow the younger son to a distant land. He spends all of the money on wild living and had nothing left. Then a great famine gripped the land and made his situation so much worse. He begged a local farmer for a job and was hired to feed the pigs. He was in such bad shape and very hungry that the pig’s food even looked good to him.
As his situation got worse and worse he realized that even the servants on his father’s farm had more than he does at this moment. He finally came to his senses and decided to go home to his father and ask for forgiveness. He even prepared a speech: “I will go home to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.’”
The father sees his son coming down the road and runs to meet him. The younger son doesn’t get much of his speech out and his father starts yelling to the servants to let the party begin. The father kills a fattened calf and gives his son a robe.
The older son, however, is out in the field working hard and comes back to the house. As he approaches the house he hears music, sees dancing in the house, and probably smells the food. He wonders what could possibly be going on. He is told by a servant that his younger brother was back and that the party was for him. This news made him very angry. The father came out and begged his older son to come and join the party. But he wouldn’t go in the house. He told his father:
“‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’”
Luke 15:29-30 NLT
The father explains that his brother had returned and it was a call for a celebration. He also tells his older son that everything will be his because he has always been by his side.
The majority of the time when this story is looked at or read, the focus is on the younger son. How he ran and away, lost all of his inheritance, and made a mess of himself. But little focus is typically put on the older son and how he handled himself. There is a lesson to be learned from the older brother as well.
The older brother was holding on to a cactus and was refusing to let it go. Of course, this cactus is often called a grudge. He was mad at his brother for asking for his part of the inheritance before it was time. He was mad at his brother for running off. He was mad at his brother for disrespecting their father. He was mad that his brother left him to do all of the work and care for their dad. He was mad that his brother came back and received a party for all of the stuff he had done. He was just all around mad and let that anger turn into a grudge that he refused to let go of. But the grudge started to hurt him more than anyone else.
Isn’t that the way it works when you hold onto a cactus? If you squeeze it long and hard enough, eventually it starts to hurt you more than anyone else. In fact, other people may not even know you are squeezing a cactus in your hand. This is true for our story as well. The younger brother had no clue his brother was holding a grudge against him and to be honest he probably did not care anyway. He was having fun at the party and the older brother was outside holding onto the cactus.
I have found (and this will come as no surprise) that the only way for the cactus to stop hurting you is to - let the cactus go! I am in no way making light of any troubles or situations that have come into your life. When things happen in life they can really hurt and leave you in pain and upset. But I have also found that carrying around things for a long period of time begins to hurt you way more than they should. Letting go of the cactus does not mean that everything is a-ok, but you will feel a lot better when you let the cactus go.
Are you holding onto a cactus? Maybe 2 or 3? If so, maybe it is time to let them go.
[2] The Bible Knowledge Commentary Vol. 2
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