Jesus Christ · The Two Great Parables
The Prodigal Son
It is probably the most famous story ever told, and it was told to answer a complaint. Tax collectors and sinners were crowding in to hear Jesus; the religious men muttered, “this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them” — and Jesus answered with a lost sheep, a lost coin, and then this: a son who wishes his father dead in the politest available way, a far country, a famine, a pig pen — and a father who has apparently been watching the road the whole time, and runs. The story’s common name follows the son who left. Its subject is the father.
Why It Was Told
— Luke 15:1-2 — a party complaint, answered with three storiesLuke gives the setting in two verses, and the parable cannot be heard rightly without them. The complaint is about table fellowship — Jesus eats with sinners — and His answer is three stories that each end with a feast: a shepherd calling his friends, a woman calling her neighbors, and a father calling for the fattened calf. The murmurers are not left out of the answer; they get their own character in act two.
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to listen to Jesus. So the Pharisees and scribes began to grumble: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”Luke carries the occasion of this parable still farther back, as having arisen from the murmurings of the Pharisees and scribes against our Lord, whom they saw conversing daily with sinners.
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554), on Luke 15
“Give Me” and the Far Country
— Luke 15:12-16 — the leaving, and where it landsThe demand that opens the story treats a living father as an estate to be divided — in that culture, a wish for his death spoken out loud. The father grants it, which is the story’s first portrait of him: this love does not imprison. Then the sequence every addict and every wanderer knows: the distance, the spending, the famine that always comes after the money, and the bottom — a Jewish boy feeding pigs, envying their pods, employed by the far country that promised him freedom.
The younger son said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.He took a journey into a far country - Far from God: God was not in all his thoughts: And squandered away his substance - All the grace he had received.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Luke 15:13
For it follows, And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country. For what is more afar off than to depart from one's self, to be separate not by country but by habits. For he who severs himself from Christ is an exile from his country, and a citizen of this world. Fitly then does he waste his patrimony who departs from the Church. Now there came to pass in that country a famine not of food but of good works and virtues, which is the more wretched fast.
Ambrose of Milan· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (397), on Luke 15:13-14
He Came to Himself
— Luke 15:17-19 — the turn, and the speech he wrote in the pig penThe turning point is four words, and the commentators from Ambrose to Barnes all stop at the same wonder in them: the far country was a kind of madness, and repentance begins as sanity — a man returning to himself on his way back to his father. He drafts a speech with three clauses: the confession, the forfeit, and the job application — “make me as one of thy hired servants.” Remember the third clause; it is about to go undelivered.
Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food? But here I am, starving to death! I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’And coming to himself - For till then he was beside himself, as all men are, so long as they are without God in the world.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Luke 15:17
He rightly returns to himself, because he departed from himself. For he who returns to God restores himself to himself, and he who departs from Christ rejects himself from himself.
Ambrose of Milan· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (397), on Luke 15:17
He came to himself - This is a very expressive phrase. It is commonly applied to one who has been deranged, and when he recovers we say he has come to himself. In this place it denotes that the folly of the young man was a kind of derangement - that he was insane. So it is of every sinner. Madness is in their hearts Ecc 9:3; they are estranged from God, and led, by the influence of evil passions, contrary to their better judgment and the decisions of a sound mind.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Luke 15:17
The Father Runs
— Luke 15:20-24 — the verse the whole Bible leans toward“When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him” — which means the father was looking. A dignified Middle Eastern landowner did not run; this one gathers his robes and runs, and the kiss lands before the speech does. The son gets out his confession and his forfeit — and the father talks over the third clause. No hired servant. A robe, a ring, shoes, a feast: every item a restoration of sonship the boy had just finished renouncing.
So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.the running — God's self-portrait in one verse.
The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.the speech, interrupted before its third clause.
16 . [3.] Here were feet of mercy, and those feet quick-paced: He ran. This denotes how swift God is to show mercy. The prodigal son came slowly, under a burden of shame and fear; but the tender father ran to meet him with his encouragements. [4.] Here were arms of mercy, and those arms stretched out to embrace him: He fell on his neck.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Luke 15:20
Christ chooses those who stand. Rise and run to the church. Here is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He who hears you pondering in the secret places of the mind runs to you. When you are still far away, he sees you and runs to you. He sees in your heart. He runs, perhaps someone may hinder, and he embraces you. His foreknowledge is in the running, his mercy in the embrace and the disposition of fatherly love.
Ambrose of Milan· Exposition of the Gospel of Luke (397), on Luke 15:20
"Our Father who art in heaven," is this Thy portraiture? It is even so (Jer 31:20). And because it is so, I wonder not that such incomparable teaching hath made the world new.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Luke 15:20
Then he shall get up, come to his father, and confess to him, "I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired servants."When he confesses like that, he will be considered worthy of more than that for which he prayed. His father neither takes him in like a hired servant nor treats him like a stranger. Oh no, he kisses him as a son. He accepts him as a dead man come back to life again.
Athanasius of Alexandria· Festal Letter 7 (373), on Luke 15:18-24
The Two Sons
— the parable's edge — and its open door
THE YOUNGER SON
THE ELDER SON
The dishonor
“give me the portion of goods that falleth to me” — the inheritance demanded from a living father
“neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment” — sonship recast as wage-earning; the father as employer
The distance
a far country, harlots, a famine, a pig pen
the field beside the house — near in miles, far in heart; “he was angry, and would not go in”
The father goes out
“when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran”
“therefore came his father out, and entreated him”
The father's word
“this my son was dead, and is alive again” — robe, ring, shoes, feast
“Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine”
The ending
inside, at the feast
unresolved — the story stops with the invitation open, because its first hearers were still deciding
He was angry - This refers to the indignation of the scribes and Pharisees, mentioned Luk 15:1, Luk 15:2. In every point of view, the anger of the older son was improper and unreasonable. He had already received his part of the inheritance, see Luk 15:12, and his profligate brother had received no more than what was his just dividend.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Luke 15:28
This thy brother - Or, This brother of Thine. To awaken this ill-natured, angry, inhumane man to a proper sense of his duty, both to his parent and brother, this amiable father returns him his own unkind words, but in a widely different spirit.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Luke 15:32
The older son became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.the second son the father goes out to.
‘Son, you are always with me,’ the father said, ‘and all that is mine is yours. But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”the story's last words — an invitation left open.
Where It Points
— the father is the storyJesus told this story to justify His own table — the God who receives sinners and eats with them is this father, and Jesus is the proof in the room. Every beat of the parable is a claim about God: He grants the freedom to leave, watches the road, runs, interrupts confessions with kisses, and comes out a second time for the resentful. The story stops mid-scene because its first hearers — and every reader since — are the elder brother, still deciding whether to go in.
Closing
A demand, a far country, a famine, four words of sanity, and a father running. The world calls it the parable of the prodigal son. Heaven, one suspects, files it under the father who watched the road.