As posted at The Christian Century Blog
I can’t stand the word “entitlement.” I use it sometimes, when people annoy me with their belief that the world owes them something or that their needs are more important than those of others. But when I do this, I’m guilty of the same thing they are: dismissing the importance of someone else’s desires and asserting the importance of my own. I get caught in an entitlement trap.
Looking at the story of the prodigal son in church, I found myself focusing on the theme of entitlement. The story is one of those passages that reveals something different each time I encounter it. What struck me this time was how each brother thinks the world owes him something.
The younger brother’s sense of entitlement is obvious: he demands his inheritance so he can live as he pleases. But the older brother displays a similar sense of entitlement in his condemnation and rejection of his brother. He believes that his hard work and good behavior entitle him to the economic benefits and stability of his father’s love. Each brother is deeply flawed, yet the father graciously extends mercy to both.