‘And he was angry, and would not go in’

And they began to celebrate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXXIGiuK308

Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 

He asked what was going on. Then he became angry and refused to go in.

This was very displeasing to him, and he became angry. He went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there.

His father came out and began to plead with him. “Is it right for you to be angry?”

And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.”

I’ve “harmonized” two stories there — or, rather, two versions of the same story.

And I’ve ended where they end, just as abruptly, short of anything like resolution for the bitter, resentful characters who refuse to celebrate. Neither version of the story tells us what happens next for them as they sulk, stubbornly clinging to their angry resentment and ingratitude because they prefer that to any celebration that would include all those others in the city and in the house.

One version of that story is at least 2,500 years old and the other is nearly 2,000, and those bitter fools are still sitting there, sulking, all these centuries later. In all that time, no one has figured out how to get them to come inside and join the party.