What is the parable of the prodigal son about?

Why Jesus told it

The setting matters. Tax collectors and sinners crowd in to hear Jesus, and some Pharisees and scribes grumble: “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). In that world, sharing a table meant sharing a life. So Jesus answers with three stories about lost things, each a little more precious than the last: a sheep, one in a hundred; a coin, one in ten; and a son, one in two.

The story

“A certain man had two sons.” The younger asks for his share of the property, now. Scholars of village life note that asking for an inheritance early comes close to wishing your father dead. By the law of Deuteronomy 21:17 the firstborn got a double portion, so the younger son’s share would be a third. The father divides it anyway.

The son travels to a far country and “wasted his property with riotous living.” That is what prodigal means: wasteful, not returning. Then famine. He ends up feeding pigs, animals no Jew would keep, and longing for the pods they eat. Then, Luke says, “he came to himself.” He rehearses a speech: I have sinned. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired servants.

He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.

A dignified old man did not run; he would have to hitch up his robe and bare his legs. This one runs. He cuts the speech short: the best robe, a ring, sandals, and the fattened calf. “For this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.”

The other brother

The parable is often called the prodigal son, but it has two sons, and the story ends with the second. The older brother hears the music and refuses to go in. He has served for years and never got so much as a goat to celebrate with his friends. The father comes out to him too, and pleads.

Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.

Then the story stops. Does the older brother go in? Jesus never says. The grumblers who started the conversation are left to finish it themselves.

What it means

Read in its setting, the parable is about welcome. The father stands for God, who runs to meet the one who comes home, and the older brother stands for the respectable people who resent the party. That is why many readers say it could be called the parable of the running father. Rembrandt painted the return near the end of his life, the father’s two hands on his son’s back, one broad, one gentle. And English kept the phrases: the prodigal son, and killing the fatted calf.