by Rick Badman

Created on: March 16, 2009

The story of the prodigal son is found in Luke 15:11-32. Since Jesus said there was a certain man, I believe he actually existed. Under Jewish law, the youngest son could receive only 1/3 of the material his father possessed in the inheritance. After he received what was rightfully his he took off for a far country.

While in the country, the young man wasted what he had been given living it up. After he was broke, a famine happened in the land and he began to be hungry. He was too proud to beg. So he took a job as someone who cared for pigs. Evidently he was little more than a slave because he wanted to eat of the food he fed to the pigs because no one wanted to feed him. Even slave masters fed their slaves a couple centuries ago in this country.

The hunger he felt made him remember how good his father treated their servants back home. They had plenty to eat. So he decided that instead of starving to death, he would go back to his father's house and become a servant. With practically no inheritance coming his way, he thought that his father would be ashamed of him and might not even take him back as a servant. So he was going to have to appologize.

To his surprise, when his father saw him, he ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him. The son appologized and was willing to be disinherited. But his father loved hm and had a banquet set to celebrate his return. He was given a robe, a ring, and shoes. These could be considered symbols of what God our Heavenly Father gives to us. The robe could symbolize the blood of Christ which covers our sins. The ring could symbolize our relationship as a child of God with the ring being a signet ring with an identifying crest which only a child of God could have. The shoes whould symbolize our walk with God. The shoes would protect our feet from damage and the soil of sin which we may walk in. The fatted calf was a traditional meal of celebration since it was tender and delicious like veal is.

While the celebrtion was going on, the brother came in from the field and asked a servant what was gong on. When he heard that it was in honor of his brother's return, he became angry and refused to go in. After being faithful for years to his father, he couldn't understand why his brother was now being honored. His father reminded him that he was still going to receive his fair share of the inheritance. But for the time, a son he thought he would never see again had returned symbolically from the dead.

The two sons could be compared to Christians.

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