Parable of the Prodigal Son
The Prodigal Son, also known as the Lost Son, is one of the best known parables of Jesus.
The story is found in Luke 15:11–32 of the New Testament of The Bible and is usually read on the third Sunday of Lent. It is the third and final member of a trilogy, following the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin.
The story
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the story of a man who has two sons. The younger demands his share of his inheritance while his father is still living, and goes off to a distant country where he "waste[s] his substance with riotous living", and eventually has to take work as a swine herder. There he comes to his senses, and determines to return home and throw himself on his father's mercy. But when he returns home, his father greets him with open arms, and hardly gives him a chance to express his repentance; he kills a "fatted calf" to celebrate his return. The older brother becomes jealous at the favored treatment of his faithless brother and upset at the lack of reward for his own faithfulness. But the father responds:
Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
(Luke 15:32, KJV)
The story is one of several very well-known parables of Jesus that are only found in Luke's gospel; and like the others, it expresses Luke's distinctive theology of the inclusive love and grace of God.[citation needed] The forgiveness of the son is not conditional on good works, since he has plainly done nothing "good" throughout the story, other than to return home, symbolic of repentance;[citation needed] and although he formulates the intention of admitting his guilt to his father, his father accepts him even before he gets the chance to carry his intention out, although he indeed makes his prepared speech of confession in the end. Some teachers interpret this story to mean that, when one comes to God, they should come with the intention to serve Him ("make me as one of your hired servants") rather than to make demands. Most Christian theologians note that the story demonstrates repentance:[citation needed] Jesus is suggesting that the recognition by the returning son that he had erred, and his demonstration by his return that he now recognized the error of his ways, was the key to him receiving the father's forgiveness. The correct understanding[citation needed] of repentance as it is used in the New Testament (and, indeed, in the Hebrew Bible) is a change in the direction of one's life, which the Prodigal Son literally demonstrates. The father's words to his oldest son, "All that I have is thine," (verse 31) suggest that the oldest son's jealousy was not only petty, but misplaced; his steadfast obedience will be justly rewarded. The Eastern Orthodox Church traditionally reads this story on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son,[citation needed] which in their liturgical year is the Sunday before Meatfare Sunday and about two weeks before the beginning of Great Lent. One common kontakion hymn of the occasion reads,
I have recklessly forgotten Your glory, O Father;
And among sinners I have scattered the riches which You gave to me.
And now I cry to You as the Prodigal:
I have sinned before You, O merciful Father;
Receive me as a penitent and make me as one of Your hired servants.
Pope John Paul II explored the issues raised by this parable in his second encyclical Dives in Misericordia (Latin for "Rich in Mercy") issued in 1980.
The dual challenge to the Publicans and Pharisees
Within the context of Luke 15, these three parables — the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son — make up a dual plea for repentance to the audience of Publicans and sinners and a rebuttal to the listening Pharisees. The Publicans in the audience were considered the dregs of local society — sell-outs as tax collectors to the Roman occupiers and purveyors of vice. They were the social equivalent of the sinful son in the parable.
The Pharisees' accusation to Jesus had been: "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." They may have been referring obliquely to Psalm 1:1:
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
Their pride and judgmental reaction to Jesus associating with sinners was equivalent to the reaction of the faithful son in the parable.
In each parable, Jesus illustrates that even nonreligious people make an extra effort to go after something or someone in peril: a sheep, a coin, or welcoming back a son. Since Jesus saw "sinners" as people in peril, it would be only natural that He spend time with them.[citation needed] Thus He not only rebuffs the Pharisee's accusations, but justifies His own actions as correct and natural. And "Forgiveness is paramount to being a true Christian"[citation needed] as Jesus replied to a man's question, "How many times must we forgive our neighbors Lord?" and Jesus replies; " I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." Matthew 18:22
Arts
Arthur Sullivan set this story as an oratorio; the manuscript is currently held in the British Library, London. Performances are sadly seldom heard nowadays. This work was first performed at the Worcester Music Festival on Wednesday 1869-09-08.
The Prodigal Son is a 1982 Hong Kong action comedy film starring Yuen Biao and Lam Ching Ying which is very loosely based on the parable.
"Prodigy's Son" is the name of a Kid Rock song on his album, The Polyfuze Method.
The Prodigal was an MGM film released in 1955 starring Lana Turner as the high priestess of Astarte, and Edmund Purdom as the Prodigal Son.
The Rolling Stones have a song called "Prodigal Son" on their album Beggars Banquet.
Barbecue for Ben is "A Musical for Young Voices Based on the Parable of the Prodigal Son" and "A Modern-Day Setting of the Parable of the Prodigal Son" in which a student named Ben tells the parable with modern day twists. It is by Donald F. Marsh.
"The Prodigal Son" is the Season 2 opener of the TV series Miami Vice, although it has virtually nothing to do with the parable itself.
"Prodigal Blues", a song by Billy Idol, compares the singer's struggles with drug addiction to the parable.
One of the tracks on the Bad Religion album New Maps of Hell is titled "Prodigal Son".
"Prodigal Son" is the name of a song by the British band Iron Maiden on their 1981 release Killers.
"Prodigal Son's Prayer" is the final track on country music singer Dierks Bentley's 2006 album Long Trip Alone.
Steel Pulse, a reggae band, released a song titled "Prodigal Son" on their 1978 album Handsworth Revolution.
The prodigal son is mentioned in James Blunt's song "Billy", from his album Back to Bedlam.
The Prodigal Son is an opera by Benjamin Britten with a libretto by William Plomer.
"Tears of the Prodigal Son" is a famous poem by Croatian poet Ivan Gundulic.
Dustin Kensrue wrote a song entitled "Please Come Home" that is a contemporary version of the Prodigal Son.
Independent recording artist David Acton performs an instrumental interpretation of this parable, entitled "The Prodigal", on his 2006 CD Prodigal.
In Part One: Millenium Approaches of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America, the character Roy Cohn calls Joe Harper a prodigal son and says that "the world will wipe its dirty hands all over you".
Bono, the vocalist of the Irish band U2, wrote the song "The First Time" based on this parable.
In the Good Charlotte song "The River" the prodigal son is mentioned: "Like the prodigal son, I was out on my own, now I'm trying to find my way back home"
The band Two Gallants have a song titled "The Prodigal Son" on their album What the Toll Tells.
A book entitled Prodigal Son was co-written by Dean Koontz and and Kevin J. Anderson. It is the first in the series Dean Koontz's Frankenstein.
"Prodigal Daughter" is a Jonatha Brooke song on her 2007 Careful What You Wish For album.
External links
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