The Prodigal's Elder Brother - Luke 15:22-32

We all like celebrations except, of course, for those times when we don’t – those times when we’re not in the mood, those times when we feel left out, those times when we’d rather be doing something else. That’s how it was for the elder brother in Jesus’ famous parable of the prodigal son.

That is especially so in verse 25 and verse 28: "In the meantime the elder son was out in the field. On his way back, when he came close to the house, he heard the music and dancing. .... The elder brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in."

The story is well known. It is one of the all-time favourite parables. It’s a vivid account of a wayward son. But I’m not going to explore the whole story – because my interest at the moment is simply in the reaction of the elder son.

His father was quite clear. This was party-time. It didn’t matter what the younger son had done. I am sure that the father no more wanted to commend that than did his big brother. This isn’t about saying to him: what you’ve done doesn’t really matter. This about saying: you’re back. This is the joy of reunion. This is the joy of having the family complete again. For the time being, what has happened is irrelevant. What matters is to celebrate the moment. The party must have been thrown together pretty quickly, but then I suppose that’s what happens in such a situation. It is simply not relevant to plan and to wait.

And so, by the time big brother gets home from the day’s work, ready to watch the television, or whatever the first century equivalent was, the thing is in full swing. What’s happening? A natural question. But when he gets the answer it doesn’t provoke in him the remotest desire to join in. He is furious. He wants none of it. All his years of hard work have gone without any such reward. But now his waster of a young brother is back and the red carpet is rolled out. And the celebration is lavish. You don’t kill a calf unless you are throwing a big party!

This is the backdrop to a conversation between the father and his older son. The dilemma is that they are operating on different value systems. Of course, the father values all that the older son has contributed to the family business. Who wouldn’t? Of course, he recognises his commitment and loyalty. But he can’t help himself from jumping for joy because the younger son is back, This was a day that he had longed for, a day that he may well have thought would never come – we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.

In many ways I think that the challenge of this parable, and especially this last bit of it, is to recognise that God sees things differently from us.

I think there is an interesting parallel with another parable, that of the workers in the vineyard recorded in Matthew 20. That’s the one in which the vineyard owner progressively hired more and more workers through the day. Then, at the end of the day, he paid them all the same, giving rise to the inevitable view from those who had worked the longest that it wasn’t fair. They needed to learn: don’t I have the right to do as I wish with my own money? Or are you jealous because I am generous? Actually, it is pretty clear that they were jealous.

This story, like that one, almost invites our jealousy. Surely the father has been over-extravagant. Is it really necessary to offer such a lavish response to the younger son’s return? No wonder the older brother is angry.

I think, in the end, we are left with two key questions. The first question for me is about how the story ends. What happened? We’re not actually told whether the older son was persuaded by his father or not. Did he go in to the party or did he stick it out? We simply don’t know. We might like to think that the father’s happiness was made complete by some kind of reconciliation between the two brothers. That is certainly perfectly possible. There’s nothing that says it didn’t happen. But somehow, and in a sense I wish it were otherwise, that’s not the feeling comes over. The older son seems pretty dug in. As one of the commentators puts it: “The uncomfortable feeling lingers that perhaps there is still one lost son.”

The other question moves it on to the personal level. Where do we fit in to the story? What would we have done? It’s about our feelings now, our response. As one commentator puts it: “Well, where are you in the end? Inside, joining in the celebration, or stuck outside, hearing the music and dancing but too angry to go in?”