Only in Luke’s Gospel do we find this, the longest of Jesus’ parables. The parable is easily divided around the characters who appear in the story. The youngest son (the prodigal) is featured in Luke 15:12–19; the father comes to the fore in Luke 15:20–24; and the elder son has his close-up in Luke 15:25–32.

The word prodigal appears only once in the New King James Version of the Bible. We are told that the younger son “wasted his possessions with prodigal living” (Luke 15:13). From this verse, many have come to associate the word prodigal with the idea of licentiousness and rebellion. However, the word does not mean “wayward” but “recklessly spendthrift.” It means to spend until you have nothing left.

Surprisingly, we can use that same word to describe the father. He not only gives the departing son everything he asks for, but showers him with gifts when he returns. And to the older son he says, “All that I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). The father’s treatment of his two sons is literally reckless. He keeps back nothing, but pours everything out for his two boys. There is, of course, an enormous difference in the prodigality of the father and the son. The son’s is wayward and self-centered. The father’s is loving and selfless.

It helps to understand the context of this story. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables that make a single point: God loves the lost. We find lost sheep, a lost silver coin, and finally a lost son—a trilogy of increasing preciousness of value. The lost sheep is one of a hundred, the lost coin is one of ten, and the lost son is one of two. In the first story, Jesus is the good shepherd. In the second, He is the good woman. In the third, He is the father who seeks his lost sons. Yes, sons—plural. While only one son is called the prodigal, as we will see, both sons were lost. One was lost in a distant land and the other at home.

As we move through these verses and retell this riveting story, don’t forget why it was told. Don’t miss the picture of God’s prodigal, pursuing love as seen in the heart of the father.

God Loves You When You’re Wounding His Heart

Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.”

—LUKE 15:11–12

As Jesus’ story begins, the younger son grows impatient to get out from under authority at home. Kenneth Bailey, an authority on Middle Eastern customs, spent years talking to people from all walks of life, “from Morocco to India, and from Turkey to the Sudan,” about what it would mean for a son to ask for his inheritance from a living father. Everywhere he went, he heard the same: