The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J.M. Nouwen
Week 3: Part Two — The Elder Son (Chapters 4–6)
Read Part Two of The Return of the Prodigal Son (the section focused on the elder son). Primary Scripture: Luke 15:25–32.
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The elder son is the character Nouwen found hardest to face — because he found him closest to the mirror. These chapters are a courageous and uncomfortable examination of the resentment, self-righteousness, and hidden lostness that can live inside a life of faithful religious duty.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Nouwen describes the elder son's complaint — "these many years I have served you" — as the language of a slave, not a son. The elder son has been in the father's house all along but has never claimed his sonship. Does that distinction between being a slave and being a son resonate with how you have sometimes related to God or to your faith community?
2.Nouwen identifies several characteristics of the elder son's lostness: resentment, the need for reward, the inability to celebrate another's restoration, and a cold obedience that has crowded out joy. Which of these do you find most convicting in your own life — and which do you find hardest to admit?
3.He argues that the elder son's anger is not simply about his brother; it is about a life of service that he never truly chose in freedom — a life lived in duty rather than in love. How does a life of external obedience without internal freedom become its own kind of far country?
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