“Has anyone ever made such a request in your village?”

“Never!”

“Could anyone ever make such a request?”

“Impossible!”

“If anyone ever did, what would happen?”

“His father would beat him, of course!”

“Why?”

“This request means—he wants his father to die!”3

Here in essence is what the young boy was saying: “Dad, I wish you were dead. You are in the way of my plans. You are a barrier. I want my freedom. I want my fulfillment. And I want out of this family now. I have other plans that don’t involve you; they don’t involve this family; they don’t involve this estate; they don’t even involve this village. I want nothing to do with any of you. Give me my inheritance now, and I am out of here.”4

While such behavior on the part of a son toward his father would be egregious in our culture, it was one hundred times more insulting for a Jewish family. The fact that after his son left, the father referred to him as “dead,” is mentioned twice in Luke’s account (15:24, 32).

The Jewish laws of inheritance worked this way: When a father died with two sons, the estate would be divided between them, with two-thirds going to the oldest son and one-third to the youngest.

In order for the prodigal to receive his inheritance, the portion of the father’s property and holdings equal to the son’s share would have had to be liquidated—turned into cash. While it was common for a Jewish father to divide the family inheritance as he approached the end of his life, Jewish law did not permit the inherited land to be sold until after his death. But the prodigal wanted what he wanted, and he wanted it now. It could not have been easy for the father to accommodate his son’s request, but he found some way to do it and gave his rebellious boy what he asked for.

While it is not stated explicitly in the text, we know that this father was a wealthy man. He had hired servants, fatted calves and goats, and the capacity to hire musicians and dancers and throw a huge banquet at a moment’s notice. So this is a high-profile family, and the father is a well-connected and respected man in the community.

In the village life of that day, there were no secrets. Everyone knew everyone else’s business. With the sale of real estate, the private rift in the father’s household went public. The entire family was subjected to shame and embarrassment. There was no time for damage control, for the text says that the prodigal left “not many days after” (Luke 15:13).