The Younger Brother--by Linden Malki

Jesus told a story about a man who had two sons; one of whom asked for his inheritance and blew it; while his older brother stayed home, worked hard, and knew he was a better son than his brother.  Jesus was looking around at his older brothers as he told this story;  the people he had grown up with, who saw themselves as the good, obedient sons of God. In fact, these good guys kept reminding Jesus that they were the sons of Abraham and Moses.
The early Church had to deal with this attitude as well; many of the Jews who had followed Jesus also lived as the obedient brothers and looked down on the outsiders who pushed their way into the fellowship without bothering with the Law. They took seriously their position as God's chosen people, as it is written in the Torah: "You are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession." (Deuteronomy 14:2) They had been scandalized first by the casual way Jesus occasionally pushed the Law beyond what they saw as the limits, but when his followers welcomed not only Jews but Gentiles to have a relationship with God without any effort to observe the Law that they had lived by for generations. They remind me of the older brother in the parable; he did everything right, and is promised his inheritance--but he watched his younger brother, the one that blew his share of the inheritance, get the party and the fatted calf.
This was a problem in that original organization. When Jerusalem appeared to be on the crosshairs of the Roman army, the original church based in Jerusalem watched James, Jesus brother killed, and they fled across the Jordan into the hinterland.  Eventually, that church faded out, but its younger brother flourished all around the Mediterranean, and is now almost everywhere on earth. Paul used the metaphor of adoption to explain what had happened here; they were the other brothers that God reached out to and brought into His family even without the Law. It may sound easier, to not have to deal with the traditional Law, but it demands not just the superficial obedience that the Jews had finally figured out, but adoption also means that we are also given the gift of the Holy Spirit, who will live in us and keep us in the right relationship with God the Father.
Adoption is a very old practice; we see it as early as Moses, who was raised with advantages that his birth parents couldn't give him, but he ultimately was the redeemer of his original birth family (and incidentally, the younger son.) I have two grandchildren who are adopted children, and they are delightful young people who are greatly loved.  As adopted children of God, we are also greatly loved, and owe God our greatest thanks for bringing us into His family.