“But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”
In the Name, etc.
Our translation titles the story as, The Parable of the Prodigal Son and His Brother. I prefer to call it the Parable of the Two Brothers. However we title it, we mustn’t leave the older brother out of the story. He has as much to say to us as the prodigal does. But let’s look at the prodigal first.
The prodigal is the younger of two sons, that is, he’s the kid brother, not as mature as the older, perhaps not feeling secure in his situation, since the older brother might inherit everything --- the Scripture doesn’t say that, but it’s a reasonable conjecture, when we speculate about the motives of the younger brother. Now, we don’t know how old the brothers are. I like to think of them as quite young, the younger as a teenager, the older in his twenties, perhaps. This allows me to think that the younger is still getting to know himself, still forming his own individuality, creating his own identity. Like most adolescents, he wants to leave parental authority behind, and to be on his own. The older brother is perhaps more settled, more sure of his identity and role in the family.
So the father “divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all that he had and traveled to a distant country.” It strikes me as odd that the father does this so readily. Perhaps he understands that this is the only way to help his son become the person he is meant to be, by not withholding resources to make that possible. We know what happens next. The younger “squandered his property in dissolute living.” This can’t be what either of them intended at the beginning, [but temptation lubricated by money is often irresistible]. And the prodigal, being very young, doesn’t know how to change course. It takes near-starvation, the starvation of worthless distraction, to wake him up to reality. And he returns to reality, in the form of his family.
Father is happy to see him, as we know. But big brother is not. And the story we know, so I won’t recite any more of it.
“This brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” This concluding verse of the reading is a slightly varied repeat of verse 24, which says “this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” These lines can guide us in understanding what the Gospel writer is telling us in this story. It is not just a family drama, although it certainly is that. Luke is telling us that the story can be understood as a teaching about the search for reality and where it can be found, and about life, death, and resurrection.
The younger son “traveled to a distant country.” Where? What does this mean? In search of himself, perhaps, or of truth, or of a fuller life, the younger son thinks he has to go far away. Is he looking merely for physical pleasure, or something more? Does he really have to go to a distant country? It seems to me that the “distant country” represents all the things we don’t know and would like to explore: knowledge, talents, ideas, experiences. The prodigal goes no further than exploring physical pleasure, or “dissolute living” as the text says. But he has at least begun his journey to discover himself, life, and truth.
When he has gone through all his resources, he recognizes that he can return to his starting point. He realizes that he’s come to a dead end. So he returns to his starting point. And the starting point is where the truth is found. But it’s not exactly the same place that he left.
Father is happy to see him, but big brother is not. Father accepts that the journey and return is something that the younger son has to go through, to become the person he is meant to be. Although there’s no hint of it in the text, perhaps the father had a similar experience in his youth. That would make his acceptance of his son understandable. In any case, the return is the next stage in his son’s journey. It’s not merely a return to where he was before, but a return from death to life. The experience has been apparently harrowing enough, that the “distant country” has been a place of loss, a place of death, as the father says. The prodigal’s return is a foreshadowing of the resurrection.
Big brother isn’t happy about the return. After all, he’s stuck to the straight and narrow, done the right thing, hasn’t squandered his share of the property, so what’s with the party for the young wastrel? Not fair at all. His resentment is understandable, and perhaps we’ve all felt the same way in the presence of people who’ve done better than they apparently deserve. But father reminds him what is really going on here.
The story is a metaphor for a spiritual journey, a journey which the older brother has not taken. He’s stayed at home, not ventured far, probably, and so hasn’t known the highs and lows that his younger brother has. Older brother can learn from the prodigal. The father is pointing out the meaning of the prodigal’s journey, a journey which perhaps the older brother needs to take, a journey from a place where he is comfortable and safe, to a place of loss, a place of a kind of death, and a return to a life, a resurrection in fact, where he knows himself better and has a wider view of reality, a view that his father and younger brother have. It’s not the old life that the prodigal returns to, the life of his adolescence, but a new, awakened life, enlightened we could say, seeing himself and the family and the world as they really are. The prodigal is no longer greedy for sensation, and the older brother has a glimpse of what a life without resentment, without an oppressive sense of duty, can look like. The prodigal, and the father, are showing the older brother what the liberated, resurrected life looks like.
It is striking that there is no mention of God or religion in this story. The prodigal briefly alludes to them when he says, “I have sinned against heaven”, but that is the end of it. In this story, there is no appeal to religious authority as a basis for action. The impetus, if that is the right word, for action, is an awareness of the attraction, the power, of resurrected life, on its own, so to speak, without any call on higher authority to back it up. That is what the father knows, that is what he waits for his prodigal son to perceive, that is what the older brother needs to experience. And that is what the party is for, the celebration of the experience of resurrected life, a life to which we are all called, when we return from the “distant country” where we go looking for we know not what.
“But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life, he was lost and has been found.”
In the Name, etc..
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