By Archim. Vassilios Bakoyannis
There are various and hopeful messages that Christ sends through the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Thus, each action of the prodigal son, the older son, and the affectionate father is important, because those were the actions of Jesus Christ! To put it short, our analysis will concentrate in two or three points, by focusing on the role of the older son.
He wants to enjoy his life without having the control of his father. This is why the younger son asks the father for his inheritance to leave his home.
It is the same reason that makes the people inclined to their carnal desires to move away from our faith or resort to religions that say “yes” to their passions and to their sinful pleasures.
The question is if they find happiness in their new religion. “Those who say they are happy in their lives are stupid!” said Umberto Eco, a denier of Christianity (Eleftherotypia 9.4.2008).
What made the Prodigal Son to return to his home was the hunger, but repleteness made him go away from his Father’s home. Finally, he returned to his home, from where he wanted desperately to go away. The hunger led him to his father’s home, and his sensuality made him go away! Something that speaks volumes.
When his father saw him coming, he ran to his son, threw his arms around him, kissed him, and had a feast for his returning.
At that moment the older son, who was in the fields, arrived. He became angry. His good father gave him a heartfelt advice, “We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke15:32).
He neither scolded nor condemned him as a heartless man, as He condemned the heartless slave from the Parable of the Talents, who hid the talent in the Earth: “And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:30).
The older son was not worthy of condemnation. Otherwise, Jesus Christ would make him an example of us by condemning him. His attitude is an example to follow.
He was always beside his father. “My son, you are always with me” (Luke 15:31). And what did he do next to his father? “All these years I’ve been slaving for you” (Luke15:29). Indeed! He was slaving for his father, and not for his own profit. He was working hard, with axes and with all the primitive means of that time, and without ever thinking of fleeing to enjoy his life!
“Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends,” he told his father (Luke15:29). For what he is worth of our admiration? As the older son, he never disobeyed his father’s orders! (Luke 15:29). How then, his father could ever condemn such a decent, laborious and obedient child?
The older son is neither the Pharisees, nor the Jews, nor the heartless brothers, but he is like the great fighters, the righteous, the saints of our Church. And how is their anger justified for the feast for the sake of their brother?
They may be saints, but they are not perfect. And such a flaw is the sinless anger (they are angry like the children) when they see that Christ is giving a wave of grace to the sinners who return in repentance whereas they receive nothing on earth.
And the reason why Christ mentions the older son’s attitude is because he wants to show how caring He is to prodigal sons turning in repentance so that even the most righteous children envy this embrace!
“Everything I have is yours,” (Luke15:31), the father consoled the older son. Like he was saying to him: “What are you complaining about? All that I have, the sheep, the houses, the fields, is yours, and you deserve them, for “always being next to me” (Luke15:31). It means the great glory that awaits those who work hard and with effort for their heavenly Father without ever breaking His commandments.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, as the end approached, begged his children to read the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Crying, he said, “This parable is the summary of the Gospel.” It shows the infinite mercy of the Lord, His infinite forgiveness. The best medicine for the desperate one.
