The heroes of the parable are clear: the wandering, wastrel son and the kind, compassionate father. The parable could almost have finished at verse 24 with the words, ‘So they began to celebrate.‘ Except it doesn’t end there, does it? The remaining eight verses explore the anti-hero of the parable: the crotchety, cantankerous and rather callous older brother.
Now here is the crunch question: of the three characters who do you most relate to: the prodigal, his benevolent father or the complaining elder brother? The truth is, most of us identify with the repentant younger son and the caring father. Few if any identify with the elder brother. This is understandable: he is not very pleasant by any stretch of the imagination. He is moody, self-righteous, indignant, resentful and angry. He is constrained and limited by his own sense of propriety and a festering sense of self-righteousness. A parable is not an allegory: in other words there doesn’t have to be a direct correlation between each character and one single idea or interpretation. Perhaps there is a bit of all three characters – the younger son, the father and the elder brother — in us all.
What is striking is how lost the ‘righteous’ son is, as well as the unrighteous son, and how loving the father is to both his offspring. The father does not rebuke him or treat him harshly but rather affirms his love for him and appeals to his heart in a touching and moving appeal, ‘we had to celebrate and be glad.‘