The Prodigal Son's Brother

For those of you that do not know, The Prodigal Son, was a parable told by Jesus.  A parable is a method of story telling that helps to explain an idea or a concept, and in this case the parable is set out to explain what God is like. Or at least that is the traditional view held in relation to this story.  However, I believe that while the story does indeed provide us with a picture of a loving and caring father, it was mainly Jesus' objective to concentrate our minds on the prodigal son's brother's reaction. After all, there was no need whatsoever to include him in the story.  None.

The story as a metaphor goes like this: There is a farmer who has two sons. The farmer symbolises God.  The youngest wishes to have his inheritance, whereby, as a young man he leaves his father's house and spends the money on drink and loose women (Jesus words, not mine!). Alas, after a short while he goes broke and has to eat pig food. After a while he decides that he'll go back with his tail between his legs and ask his father for a job as a servant.  Before he even arrives at the house, his father sees him and orders that a calf be killed and a feast be prepared for his son.  He embraces his son and without question welcomes him back to his home, not as a servant but as a loved son.

The Prodigal son's brother is furious.  After all, he has remained loyal to his father and has not lived immorally and there has never been a party prepared for him.  The apparent injustice of it all. And there the story ends but where discussion should begin.

Anytime I teach this parable my students are usually up in arms.  'It is so unfair'; their empathy for the other brother is overwhelming. How can God be so stupid?  So unfair? The reaction of my students is healthy, expected and DESIGNED.  The great parable maker struck gold with this story, using the brothers reaction to touch on his central message.
The message and truth in this parable is both obvious and concealed; concealed not because Jesus wants to be purposely cryptic but because people still chose to look objectively at the obvious (in this case that God is loving, non-judgemental- note how he makes no comment on the behaviour of his son- and forgiving) while failing to look subjectively at themselves which appears to be never obvious. In this case if the brother had the same attributes as God we would not be having this discussion, but like us and my students we only want the nice comforting characteristics of Gods presence, yet we don't want to be nice and comforting, or at least we do not want to acknowledge that we are not.

This story, therefore, is not about God choosing one son over the other but is instead an acknowledgement of how goodness lies not in what we do or don't do but in our desire for people to be comforted by love and goodness. In other words, we should always be delighted when somebody arrives home irrespective of what they have done.  The fathers silence and lack of judgement speaks volumes about the younger sons behaviour.  He doesn't have to give him a lecture because he knows that if the son was truly fulfilled by the empty path that he chose, he would never have returned to the hands of a loving parent in the first place. Hedonism as his father knows often creates more problems than it solves and is obviously aware that it doesn't lead to enlightenment.  Only authentic love can do that. The son, by acknowledging that the lifestyle he chose for a while lead to nothing but misery is evidence that he has searched subjectively and has owned up to his authentic needs and limitations.

The other son, however, often like the rest of us, has put God in his box.  God in his box is the same as anything we put into boxes to make our lives easier to manage and explain. It unwittingly makes claims about the people, or God for that matter, that exist in these boxes that have been created in our minds. The box or stereotype and the one we like about God is that He is loving and forgiving. Although true from a Christian perspective we often just leave it at that. In His box.

The biggest problem for us and the brother regarding this perception of God is that implies that love and forgiveness have to be earned. It's a functional approach to God.  If I do x,y, and z and if I don't do a, b, and c, all will be well. It is a scorecard approach to God.  However, it is not an accurate portrayal as laid down by Jesus disputes with the Pharisees and Jews over the Torah or Jewish laws.  Jesus desires that we not measure our life's on what we do or fail to do.

Instead, Jesus throughout this parable, reminds us about God's Universal love and forgiveness 'always' and that we are all his children. (Both brothers in this case) He does not Judge us harshly, if at all, as He knows that only true joy can be ascertained by returning to Him. It is darkness otherwise.

God then, like any father, does not want his child in darkness. We, therefore, with this knowledge should rejoice when somebody changes their life for the better and returns home.  Unfortunately, the brother does not and what makes this story all the more tragic is that the brother was always at Home with his father, or in this case with God.  He was actually at  Home with all the comfort and love that a person could receive. Yet it wasn't enough because his father was going to share this love with another.  It wasn't enough because he thought he had God all to himself and had him sussed - In his box.

If only he wasn't so judgemental he could have joined in and enjoyed the party too, safe in the knowledge that he doesn't have to try and please God by his actions and deeds.  As good actions and deeds are joyful in themselves, which is why God recommends this way of life. If only he realised that it was in fact him, the person, him as God's son, that pleased God the most.