If you ask me who is the most spiritually negative character in all the parables that Jesus told, my answer would be the 'older son' in the parable of the prodigal son. As I mentioned it the other day, the older son is the one who does not depart from his father's way. The one who follows all the rules. The one who works in his father's fields; the one who looks after his father's wealth. Is it fear that makes him do all that? Maybe it is also fear. Basically he's a legalist. All he's concerned about is functioning according to rules. It's not because he loves his father that he stays at home with his father and goes to work in the fields. He doesn't have love for anyone. He never loved his father. He never loved his brother. He has a kind of slave-like attitude towards rules and order. Therefore, he is not free.

He claims that he has friends. He has never asked his father for money or even a sheep to celebrate his friendship with those friends. There is no need to ask at all. He could have just taken what he needed. Yet, he did not. Because he is not free. In short, he is a negative character who does not use freedom and has never truly loved anyone.

Jesus tells this parable to the Pharisees and the Scribes who accused him of being in the company of tax collectors and sinners. It would be a complete mistake to see as the faithful body of the church or religion, those who out of love for property, structure, or the 'household', blow up even trivial issues and make angry shows.

The prodigal sons are those who, after first improperly using their freedom, slowly but surely come to true freedom. Those who reach real freedom after trial and error are not slaves. They are those who are on the search; they are those who go out of themselves. It is clear that they have a good deal of humility because they are ready to correct their mistakes. We realize that they remember, realize their mistakes, make a return journey, do apologize, and above all call their father "Father" because they have some love in them. They are the Church. They should be the Church. They should be the ones who move history and society forward!

Churches and religions should begin to give the returning prodigal children daughterhood and sonship, and to celebrate their return. All we have done so far is regard them as servants. If 'wealth' is considered the main value, the barren legalist will rule the house. And the family will end with them!