Parable of the Prodigal Son

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"Prodigal son" redirects here. For other uses, see Prodigal Son (disambiguation).

The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) by Pompeo Batoni

The Prodigal Son, also known as the Lost Son, is one of the best known parables of Jesus. It appears only in the Gospel of Luke, in the New Testament of the Bible. By tradition, it 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.

1 Overview
2 The dual challenge to the Publicans and Pharisees
3 In the arts
4 External links

[edit] Overview

The story is found in Luke 15:11-32. 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 (clearly a low point, as swine are not kosher in Judaism). 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 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.

[edit] The dual challenge to the Publicans and Pharisees

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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.

[edit] In the arts

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Ivor Williams (1908-1982)

The story of the prodigal son has been revisited many times by later Christians. Many pieces of artwork have been made depicting the story. Notable adaptations for performance include a 1929 ballet by Sergei Prokofiev and an 1869 oratorio by Arthur Sullivan. Many of these adaptations considerably added to the Biblical material to lengthen the story; for example, the 1955 film The Prodigal took considerable liberties, such as adding a temptress priestess of Astarte to the tale.

The parable has also often been revisited in songs, which alleviates the need for additional material. More oblique adaptations include Prodigal Blues, a song by Billy Idol that compares the singer's struggles with drug addiction to the parable, and the musical Godspell, which re-enacts the Prodigal Son story as a Western film. Bono, the vocalist of the Irish band U2, wrote the song "The First Time" based on this parable. Musician Dustin Kensrue, also of Thrice fame wrote a song about the Prodigal Son entitled Please Come Home of the album of the same name realeased in 2007. The British heavy metal band Iron Maiden recorded a song, Prodigal Son, based on the parable of the same name, which appeared on their second release Killers in 1981. In 1978, reggae band Steel Pulse recorded a song entitled "Prodigal Son", which transposes the story of the prodigal onto the slave trade, and suggests that their real "homecoming" was in fact to be spiritual rather than physical, a "homecoming" through religion (Rastafari). (Edited By James Mariotti-Lapointe) The Rolling Stones told the story of this parable in the song "Prodigal Son" on their 1968 album Beggar's Banquet.

"Juan en la Ciudad" (John in the City), a salsa-merengue fusion that describes the parable in condensed terms, was Richie Ray's and Bobby Cruz's most popular hit ever, in 1977.

We Own the Night, the 2007 critical success crime drama is also a retelling of the Prodigal Son.