I have been thinking of the character of the older brother from the parable of the prodigal son a lot lately. I am not sure why but his character has come and gone in my mind numerous times over the past year. The older brother is ironically often eclipsed by the characters of the father and the younger prodigal in people’s analysis. It is ironic because the older brother a vision of frustration and anger at the loving and forgiving response of the father to the return of the younger brother.
The text from Luke 15 reads as follows:
"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ " ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ "
It is important to note that the parable ends with a conversation between the father and the older brother. It is significant that Jesus is leaving his audience not with the celebration of the younger son’s return (as important as that is) but with the resentment and jealousy of the older brother. In many ways the parable could be called the parable of the prodigal sons because although by worldly standards the younger brother seems to have fallen farthest it is the older brother who seems most distant from his father in the end (and in fact may never have been as close as he thought).
To best understand why Jesus puts the emphasis on the older brother in the end when you would expect it to be on the younger you need to go to the beginning of the chapter and see who Jesus is actually speaking to:
Really a brilliant lesson with new facets every time it is read.
Harnessing Chaos 