The prodigal son story is about a rebellious and disobedient son who left home, wasted his life and money, experienced a total brokenness, and returned to his father for complete restoration. The story of Jesus has lots of similarities with this story but also opposites. For sure, he left his heavenly home and came down to earth where even His own people did not recognise Him. He suffered and died on the Calvary’s cross. In the course of returning to His heavenly home, He prayed to the Father, “my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He is the lamb of God who takes the sin of the world. He was innocent but bore our sins. He became sin for us. 

I am a prodigal son returning to God by faith alone. This return journey is almost like a combination of the prodigal son’s and Jesus’ stories. It is because I, a prodigal son, hold the hand of Jesus who returns to His heavenly glory. When Jesus was about to return to his heavenly home. He promised to His disciples that He was going to come back and to take them to where He will be. In this regard, we have the same return to the same home. This return must be only with Jesus, because there is no journey to God outside of the journey that Jesus made. Thus, He opened a new and living way to bring me to the Father (Hebrews 10:20). He is the only Way that leads me to the Father because no man can come to the Father but by Jesus (John 14:6). The returning prodigal son is not one, but all who come to the Father through Jesus Christ. The broken heart and spirit can be healed and restored only in Him. 

Though we are in the house of the Father and stay with Him, while we are on earth, the perfection of the Father’s glory is not shown to us fully. We believe and long for heaven, but we do not fully comprehend it yet. Apostle John says, “Behold, now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). 

Now we move from the prodigal son to the elder son. When the prodigal son returned home and his father welcomed his lost but now found son, he was not there at home yet. He found all things out only when he was returning home. No one informed him of the welcome-home party. Dutch priest Henri Nouwen says of the elder son as following: “Rembrandt is as much the elder son of the parable as he is the younger. When, during the last years of his life, he painted both sons in Return of the Prodigal Son, he had lived a life in which neither the ‘lostness’ of the younger son nor the ‘lostness’ of the elder son was alien to him. Both needed healing and forgiveness. Both needed to come home. Both needed the embrace of a forgiving father. But from the story itself, as well as from Rembrandt’s painting, it is clear that the hardest conversion to go through is the conversion of the one who stayed home” (pp. 65-66). Maybe it was the Rembrandt’s thought of the elder son, and he saw the elder son in himself. Gary Schwartz says of Rembrandt as a “bitter, revengeful person who used all permissible and impermissible weapons to attack those who came in his way.” He had lived with Geertje Dircx for six years. However, he used her brother who had been given the power of attorney by Geertje herself, to “collect testimony from neighbors against her, so that she could be sent away to an insane asylum.” As a result, she was sent to a mental institution. When she could have been released, “Rembrandt hired an agent to collect evidence against her, to make certain that she stay locked up.” In Rembrandt’s life, we see both the younger prodigal son and the elder son. Truly, both sons needed the embracing Father. 

Everyone knows who the prodigal son was like. At the end of his toils and pain, he was seeking for freedom from them by coming to the father. Everyone knows that he was lost for a while. In contrast, the elder son seemed to have done all the right and good things at home. He never left home and never drifted away from his father. He was a duty-bound son, and he had fulfilled all his obligations. He appeared to be a spiritual person in contrast with his younger lustful brother. However, though he was with the father and stayed home, he was not with the father and his mind did not stay home. He was a bitter, resentful and angry man. He refused to come into the house and join the party. The father had to come out to bring him in. The elder son said, “And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends” (15:30). He was an angry man. The Greek word for “served” in this verse literally means “to serve as a slave.” The NIV translates it, “I’ve been serving for you.” He also said that he had never disobeyed him. He felt that “his obedience and duty” were burdensome and he was like a slave to his father. It is a common attitude found in many serving people in church. They are giving themselves to serve and making them busily available to help people and to support the ministries. Once in a while, they see others who are not serving but taking all benefits only. These wandering worshippers in church are quick to criticize them. They become resentful and angry. They are lost as much as those carefree and undisciplined ones in different ways. Their anger manifests their own bondage. They become judgmental and condemn the prodigal sons. They are bitter and angry toward them. The prodigal son’s sin is obviously visible, but the elder son’s waywardness is internal and invisible. The prodigal son’s life is all clearly displayed before everyone’s eyes. He squandered his money and time. He abused his own body and wronged to his family and friends. He was immoral, and he suffered consequences of his lustful and sinful life. He came to his senses and came home and confessed his sins. However, the problem of the elder son is a lot harder to identify, because externally he did all right things. 

I can see why people praised this elder son. While his younger brother lived a self-destructive life, he was dutiful and obedient to his father. He worked hard, too. He was an ideal son to the father and to the community. I am sure that many parents used these two sons as examples for good and bad to teach their own children. But, until he was finally confronted by his father’s joy at the return of his younger brother, a prodigal one, no one knew that there was anger boiling in his heart, only waiting for its erupting moment. If the younger son’s problem was “lust,” then the elder son’s problem was “anger and resentment.” It is quite interesting to note that in general amongst the believers there is so much resentment and anger among the faithfully serving ones who strive to please God and to live a righteous living. They may not express it openly and easily, but they harbour judgments and condemnations in their hearts until they are finally revealed through unedifying exploding emotions. We must know the cause of their anger. Of course, it is not easy to find them out. However, what we know is that they desire to be good and righteous. They desire to be obedient to the Father’s will. They are hardworking people. They could be quoted as worthy examples before others. I could easily see that they make conscious efforts not to fall into sin and temptations. They are moral people. If I carefully listen to the elder son’s words, I can see him self-righteous and self-pity. If I see his complaint more, then I know that he is not pouring his resentment to his younger brother but to his father. He claims that he has never received what he deserved from his father. I’ll continue….

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