Did you know -- prable of the Prodigal Son

Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them … The younger son returned. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.’ Luke 15:11–32

Jesus’ ‘parable of the prodigal son’ is one of his longest in the Gospels, but possibly also the easiest to misunderstand.

The word ‘prodigal’ means the younger son was prodigiously wasteful. The parable’s old title of ‘prodigal’ son is therefore misleading because the real force of the story centres around the father figure.

The story starts when one son asks to receive his portion of the inheritance early, before his father had died. To a Middle-Eastern audience, this son was saying that he wished his father was already dead.

Near the end of the same parable, Jesus describes the father running toward the son when he decided to return. In fact, any respectable first-century man would never even think of running in public: it showed a state of being unprepared, fright, or merely poor morals. It meant shame. That the father ran toward his son therefore emphasises the father’s complete and urgent desire to re-establish the bond of love.
Jesus told the parable to ordinary people, and it’s quite likely it could apply to us. Its message is that we, too, can behave and live as though God was dead, not wanting to wait for Heaven but preferring to living in a state of ‘here and now’. But, Jesus assures us, even if we do live that way, God desires us, yearns for us, and looks for us. At the first hint of our returning to Him, He will meet us more than half way: He will do any-
thing to demonstrate His overwhelming live.