The parable of the prodigal son
Two lost sons — and only one of them left home.
It is probably the best known story Jesus told, and it is nearly always told by halves. The son who asks for his inheritance, spends it all and comes back is only the first part. The second is about the brother who never left.
Luke says who it was told to: religious people complaining that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them. It comes straight after the lost sheep and the lost coin, and it is the third answer to the same complaint.
The story, step by step
- Luke 15:1–2The complaint: he welcomes sinners and eats with them
- Luke 15:11–13The younger son asks for his share and spends it in a far country
- Luke 15:14–19Famine, the pigs, and the speech he rehearses to come back as a hired hand
- Luke 15:20–24The father sees him far off, runs, and does not let him finish the speech
- Luke 15:25–30The older son hears the party and refuses to go in
- Luke 15:31–32The father goes out to him too
The line the story turns on
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.
Many commentators point out that a respectable man of that culture did not run in public — it was thought undignified. The father runs. And he runs before hearing any apology: the speech the son rehearsed among the pigs is cut off halfway, interrupted by orders to bring a robe, a ring and sandals. The forgiveness arrives before the confession is finished.
What it means
The older son is right about nearly everything he says. He worked for years, never disobeyed, and his brother spent his share. The problem is not the arithmetic; it is that he is doing it — and so he stands outside the party, a few steps from the house he has always lived in.
The parable ends without saying whether he goes in. The father goes out to him just as he ran to the other one, and the story stops there, with the door open. For the people listening — the ones complaining that Jesus ate with sinners — the open ending was the point: the question was never about the younger brother. It was about them.
One parable a day, with the question around it
Walking with Jesus has a collection called The Parables of Jesus that takes them one a day — each with the question he was answering, a short reflection, a prayer, and one thing to carry into the day.
It is a one-time purchase, about five minutes a morning, and it never asks you to catch up on days you missed.
Questions people ask
- Where is the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible?
- Luke 15:11–32. Only Luke records it, as the third of three parables about something lost and found — after the lost sheep and the lost coin.
- What does "prodigal" mean?
- Prodigal means wastefully extravagant. The word is not in the biblical text; it comes from tradition, because of the son who "wasted his property with riotous living" (Luke 15:13).
- What is the lesson of the prodigal son?
- That the father welcomes whoever comes back, before he has even heard the apology. But the parable was told to people who resembled the older brother, and its unanswered ending asks whether those who never left can rejoice over the one who returned.