Parable of the Prodigal Son Why do you think the father said, "this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found" so...

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the older brother
becomes angered when he hears music and dancing when he comes from the field.  Seeing
that a feast with a fattened calf has been prepared for this wayward brother and that he
has been given a new robe, the older son tells his father that he has worked all the
years that the sibling has been gone.  Deeply hurt, he tells his father that he has
"been slaving and never disobeyed" any of the father's orders, yet he was never even
been given a goat for a celebratory feast.

The father
explains that the older son has always been with him as part of the family.  But, the
wayward son has been lost since he left and did not contact the father while he was
gone.  For, he only thinks of his father's place as he considers where he can find work
after the famine where he lives.  In the father's words he has been "dead," and when the
father sights the younger son coming a long ways off on the road, the father "is filled
with compassion," and he forgives his prodigal son whom he has not thought he would ever
see.  After having taken his inheritance, the younger brother severed all ties with his
family.  In this manner, the prodigal son has been "dead" and has now "been found" as
the father discovers him as he walks up the road.  Elated that he has returned, the
father calls for a feast.

Luke
15:11-32