Prodigal Son Meaning: The Parable of Return

Have you ever felt far from home - not physically, but spiritually? The parable of the Prodigal Son speaks to something universal in human experience: the departure from our true home, the suffering that follows, and the possibility of return. It is perhaps the most beautiful story Jesus ever told.

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The Story

Jesus tells this parable in response to criticism that he welcomes sinners and eats with them. It is the third in a series of three parables about lostness and finding - the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. Each escalates in emotional intensity. The lost son is the climax.

A man has two sons. The younger says to his father: "Give me the share of the estate that falls to me." In the culture of the time, this request was shocking - essentially saying "I wish you were dead; give me what I would inherit." Yet the father divides his property between them.

The younger son converts everything to cash and leaves for a distant country. There he squanders his inheritance in dissolute living. When a famine strikes, he finds himself destitute. He takes a job feeding pigs - the ultimate degradation for a Jewish person. He is so hungry he would eat the pods he feeds the swine, but no one gives him anything.

Then comes the turning point: "He came to himself." He remembers who he is. He remembers his father's house, where even the hired servants have bread enough. He decides to return, not as a son but as a servant. He rehearses his speech: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."

But while he is still far off, his father sees him, is filled with compassion, runs to him, embraces him, and kisses him. Before the son can finish his rehearsed speech, the father calls for the best robe, a ring, sandals, and the fatted calf. "This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

The Father's Prodigal Love

The word "prodigal" means wastefully extravagant. It describes the son's squandering of his inheritance. But it equally describes the father's love - lavish, excessive, beyond all reasonable measure.

Consider the father's actions:

He sees the son while still far off. This means he was watching, waiting. Day after day, he scanned the horizon. His love never stopped looking for the one who left.

He runs to meet him. In the ancient Near East, older men did not run - it was considered undignified. The father abandons his dignity out of love.

He embraces and kisses the son before any confession is made. The welcome does not depend on the apology. Grace precedes repentance.

He restores the son's status completely. The robe signifies honour. The ring grants authority. The sandals distinguish family members from servants (who went barefoot). The fatted calf was reserved for the most special occasions. Nothing is held back.

The father does not lecture, punish, or place conditions on the return. He celebrates. The proper response to finding what was lost is joy, not recrimination.

The Older Brother

The story does not end with the celebration. The older brother returns from working in the fields. When he learns the reason for the music and dancing, he is angry and refuses to go in.

The father goes out to him - just as he went out to the younger son. He pleads with the elder to join the celebration. But the older brother protests: "All these years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me even a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!"

The elder brother's speech reveals much. He speaks of serving and obeying, not of love. He refers to "this son of yours," not "my brother." He knows about the prostitutes, suggesting he has followed his brother's journey with judgmental attention. His resentment shows he stayed home physically but was absent in heart.

The father's response is gentle: "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found."

The parable ends without telling us the elder brother's response. This is intentional. Jesus leaves the question open - for the Pharisees who criticized him, and for all who hear: Will you join the celebration, or will you stand outside in resentment?

Coming to Himself

The pivot of the entire story is one phrase: "He came to himself." The Greek is literally "coming into himself" - eis heauton de elthon. It describes a moment of awakening, of remembering who he truly is.

In the far country, the son had forgotten himself. He had become identified with his circumstances - the dissolute living, the poverty, the pig feeding. He had lost touch with his true identity as his father's son.

Coming to himself means breaking the spell of forgetfulness. It means remembering: "I am not this. I am my father's son. There is a home to which I can return."

The mystical traditions interpret this as the awakening from spiritual amnesia. The soul in exile forgets its divine origin. It becomes identified with the world of form, with the body, with circumstances. Coming to yourself means remembering what you have always been - a child of God, temporarily lost but never unloved.

This remembrance precedes the return. You cannot go home until you remember you have a home. The first step in spiritual awakening is recognizing that you are asleep.

The Distant Country

What is the "distant country" to which the son travels? On the surface, it is simply a foreign land where Jews lived among Gentiles. But symbolically, it represents the state of spiritual exile - separation from God and from one's true self.

The distant country is not necessarily a geographical place. It is a condition of consciousness. You can be in the distant country while sitting in church. You can be close to home while living on the other side of the world. The distance is spiritual, not physical.

In Neoplatonic thought, which influenced Christian mysticism, the soul descends from the divine realm into matter. This world is the "distant country" - beautiful in its own way, but not our true home. The soul's journey is always a journey of return.

The son squanders his inheritance in this distant country. What is the inheritance? It is everything we received from our divine origin - our spiritual faculties, our capacity for truth and goodness and beauty, our connection to the source. These can be squandered through misuse, through attachment to lesser goods, through the "dissolute living" of a life oriented away from God.

The Famine

It is significant that the son's crisis comes through famine. External circumstances force him to recognize his condition. Sometimes grace comes through suffering. The comfortable life in the distant country keeps us asleep. The famine wakes us up.

The famine represents the emptiness that comes from living apart from one's true source. The world's pleasures eventually fail to satisfy. The inheritance runs out. What seemed like freedom becomes bondage. This is not punishment but consequence - the natural result of spending what cannot be replenished.

The pig feeding represents the ultimate degradation. Pigs were unclean animals for Jews. To feed them, to want to eat their food, to be denied even that - this is the bottom. And yet the bottom is where awakening often happens. Only when we have exhausted all other options do we remember there is a home to which we can return.

The Return

The son's return begins with a decision: "I will arise and go to my father." The Greek word for arise (anastas) is the same root used for resurrection. To arise and go home is a kind of resurrection - a rising from spiritual death.

The son prepares a speech, hoping to negotiate terms. He will offer himself as a hired servant - at least that would provide bread. He has given up on being a son. He just wants to survive.

But the father's welcome shatters all calculations. Before the son can finish his speech, the father has already restored him. The return is not about earning back status through servitude. It is about receiving grace that was never withdrawn.

This is the scandal of the gospel. The son deserves nothing and receives everything. The elder brother deserves reward and receives only what he was already entitled to. Grace upends the economy of deserving.

The Spiritual Interpretation

The mystical tradition has always read this parable as describing the soul's journey. The father is God. The younger son is the soul that leaves its divine home to experience the world of form. The distant country is embodied existence apart from conscious connection to the divine. The famine is the inevitable emptiness of a life lived for finite goods. Coming to himself is the awakening of spiritual consciousness. The return is the journey of the soul back to God.

In this reading, the parable describes a universal pattern. All souls leave home. All souls squander their inheritance to some degree. All souls experience the famine of separation. And all souls have the possibility of return.

The father's constant watching represents divine love that never gives up, never stops waiting, never considers the separation permanent. This is grace - the love that precedes and enables our return, that comes running to meet us while we are still far off.

The elder brother represents a different spiritual danger - the danger of religious observance without love, of staying home in body while being absent in heart. His resentment reveals that he never understood the father's nature. He served as a slave, not as a son.

The Open Ending

The parable ends without resolution of the elder brother's situation. This is deliberate artistry. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, who are like the elder brother - scandalized that he welcomes sinners. The open ending is an invitation: Will you come inside and join the celebration? Or will you stand outside in self-righteous isolation?

The invitation remains open today. There are always two ways to miss the father's house - by leaving like the younger son, or by staying without love like the elder. Both need to come inside. Both are welcome. The door is open.

Perhaps the deepest teaching of the parable is that the father goes out to both sons. He runs to meet the returning prodigal. He goes out to plead with the resentful elder. Divine love pursues both the dissolute and the self-righteous, both the obviously lost and the subtly lost.

FAQ: Common Questions About the Prodigal Son