What did it cost to bring the younger brother home? At first glance, it seems not to have cost anything. There is no punishment, he is just taken in. The father opens his arms, puts new clothes on him, and that’s that. It’s free.
However, this is a great mistake. The reconciliation is free to the younger brother. But it is very costly for someone else. The elder brother is furious with the father for receiving his younger brother back into the family. He alludes to it when he says, “you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But... you kill the fattened calf for him!” The elder brother is angry because of the cost of this reconciliation.
Remember, the father had given the younger brother his entire legal part of the inheritance. And it was all spent, all gone. Yet now the father is restoring him into the family. He has already put a robe on him, and given him a ring, which was probably the signet ring with which family members ratified contracts. The younger brother’s fair share of the wealth is all gone, but now he is back, and every robe, ring, fatted calf is coming out of someone else’s pocket.
Everything the father has, now is legally the elder brother’s. He is the only heir of all the father has left. So every robe, every ring, every fattened calf, every cent of the father’s, is ultimately the elder brother’s. When the father says to the elder brother, “everything I have is yours” in verse 31, he is speaking the literal truth.
So the salvation of the younger son is not free after all. It has already been extremely expensive. Look at the feast. The father cannot forgive the younger brother, except at the expense of the elder brother. He is the one who must bear the cost of the reconciliation. Forgiveness is not free. It always costs someone something.
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