The Parable of the Prodigal Son

The story in 6 steps

1. Why Jesus told the story

   Luke 15:1–10

   Tax collectors and people seen as sinners were gathering to hear Jesus, and some Pharisees and teachers of the law grumbled that he welcomed and ate with them. Jesus replies with three stories about something lost and found: a sheep, a coin and a son.

2. The younger son leaves

   Luke 15:11–16

   A man has two sons. The younger asks for his share of the estate while his father is still alive, then travels to a distant country and wastes it all on reckless living. When famine comes, he takes a job feeding pigs and is so hungry he wants to eat their food, but no one gives him anything.

3. He comes to his senses

   Luke 15:17–20

   He remembers that even his father's hired workers have plenty of food. He plans a speech: he has sinned against heaven and his father and no longer deserves to be treated as a son, so he will ask to be taken on as a worker. Then he starts for home.

4. The father runs

   Luke 15:20–24

   While the son is still far away, the father sees him, is filled with compassion, runs to him, hugs and kisses him. The son starts his speech, but the father interrupts by calling for the best robe, a ring and sandals, and a fattened calf for a feast. The son he had given up for dead has come back to life for him, he says, and that is worth a party.

5. The older brother's anger

   Luke 15:25–30

   The older son comes in from the fields, hears music and dancing, and learns why. He is angry and refuses to go in. When his father comes out, he complains that he has served for years and never disobeyed, yet never got even a young goat to celebrate with his friends.

6. The father's answer, and an open ending

   Luke 15:31–32

   The father tells the older son that he is always with him and everything the father has is his. But it was right to celebrate, because the brother who had gone missing has come home. Jesus ends there, without saying whether the older brother goes in.

The retelling above is our own summary, not Bible text. Read the full passage in Luke 15:11–32.

Key verses

Verse text: Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain.

Who is in the story

• The father — Gives his son the inheritance, waits, runs to welcome him and pleads with the older son
• The younger son — Leaves home, wastes everything and returns hoping to be a hired worker
• The older son — Stays and works faithfully but resents the celebration
• Jesus — Tells the parable to his critics and to the crowd
• Pharisees and teachers of the law — The listeners who complained that Jesus welcomed sinners

What the story teaches

Luke places the parable as an answer to a complaint: Jesus is eating with people the religious leaders considered unclean. Read that way, the younger son stands for those who have wandered and come back, and the older son for those who resent the welcome they receive. The father is usually understood as a picture of God's attitude toward both.

The word prodigal means wastefully extravagant, and it fits the younger son. Many readers have pointed out that it fits the father too, in a different way: he gives away his property, runs in public, and throws an expensive feast. For this reason some prefer to call it the parable of the loving father or of the two sons.

The father's response comes before the son can finish his apology. Christian traditions widely use the story to describe grace and forgiveness, and some also see repentance in the son's turn toward home. The story does not try to answer every question; its focus is on the joy of the return.

The open ending is deliberate. The older brother is invited in, and the reader is left to wonder how he answers. Many teachers note that the parable speaks as much to people who have always stayed close as to those who have wandered.

Coming home is possible

The younger son's return is met with welcome, not a list of conditions.

Grace can feel unfair

The older brother's anger shows how hard it can be to celebrate someone else's undeserved second chance.

Joy over the found

All three stories in Luke 15 end with a party; finding the lost is a reason to rejoice.

Details listeners would have noticed

Several details likely struck Jesus' first audience. Asking for an inheritance early could seem like treating a father as already dead. Working with pigs was a sign of how far a Jewish young man had fallen, since pigs were unclean under the law of Moses. And many commentators note that an older man running in public would have been seen as undignified.

The robe, ring and sandals signal that the son is received back as a son, not as a hired worker. The fattened calf was meat for a special occasion, enough to feed a large gathering.

The Prodigal Son for kids

Questions for discussion

1. Which character do you relate to most: the younger son, the older son or the father? Why?
2. Why do you think the father ran instead of waiting for his son to reach the house?
3. Is the older brother's complaint fair? What does the father's answer suggest?
4. Why might Jesus have left the ending open?
5. What would it look like to welcome someone the way the father did?

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