NOTES for Лк 15:31
In the parable of the prodigal son, the reader's attention is usually focused on the younger son, which is not surprising: he really is the main character of the story, around him the plot unfolds and with him the meaning of the parable is connected. The elder son remains in the background; at first glance he only forms the backdrop on which the action unfolds. Meanwhile, in reality the elder son plays no smaller a role in the parable than the younger. He simply appears on the stage at the very end, after the resolution, when the younger is already home and his father joyfully welcomes him. Readers and listeners often pay almost no attention to the short epilogue involving the elder son, and if they do pay attention, they perceive it as a kind of marginal note shading the main story.
Meanwhile, the elder son in reality does not differ from the younger all that essentially. In essence, neither one nor the other knows what shared life with the father is. The younger son does not want to live one life with the father; he takes what is his and leaves. But the elder remains in the house only out of obligation, from a sense of duty, while deep in his soul he too, like the younger, wants a life of his own, separate and special; he wants a celebration for himself, with friends and apart from the father.
And the father says to him: all that is mine is also yours; the whole meaning of our life under one roof consists only in its truly becoming common, one. Otherwise, your staying in the same house with me will change nothing for you: I will only be a burden to you, and deep in your soul you will still strive to get rid of me, like your younger brother. This is how it turns out, and the difference consists only in this: the younger demands his share and leaves, while the elder tries to make an arrangement with the father, so to speak, amicably, to set things up so that he can live with him and at the same time live his own separate life.
The father tells the son directly that this will not work: life can either be one and shared, or separate, and then it is more honest to leave than to pretend that one is remaining in the father's house. In the parable, as is evident, there is no contrast between the bad younger son and the good and obedient elder. There is only a description of one and the same spiritual problem, manifested differently in the lives of the two sons. What appeared openly and with complete clarity in the younger son's life does not appear so brightly and openly in the elder's life; and it is not yet known what is better and what is worse.