Interesting question today! The parable of the Prodigal (Luke 15:11-32) tells the sinner who’s wandered away that God will take him back. But why does the elder brother need to repent?
When you read the whole chapter, this is one of several parables the Lord is telling, not to prodigals, but to members of the Pharisee party who are disrespecting the common sinners Jesus is serving (See v.1,2). The lost sheep; the lost coin; the lost son – all illustrate the point the Pharisees are missing.
In this parable the Lord is saying in effect “You Pharisees are the problem. Prodigals are returning to God the Father, while you selfishly, jealously guard the blessings you’ve received, and you begrudge the favor God is showing to these repentant ones.”
The elder brother in the story does not love the younger brother. Unlike the angels (v.7,10) the older brother does not rejoice when the lost one is found. The older brother measures his relationship to his father by his performance (“Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat”) as if every goat and everything else the father has were not already his as a member of the family.
Both brothers is the story need to learn to live as members of the household of their father, freely embraced because of his love, rather than trying to earn either pardon or reward. You are accepted because you are family; repentance is how that works out, not a precondition.
