Lessons on the Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ and His Apostles
Lesson No. Eighteen

The Splendor of the Parable of the Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

“As a gem in a crown of gold, so is the parable of the prodigal son among the parables.  Even Jesus’ words are not all of equal splendor, and the Son of God in this parable climbs the mountain height.  In wonder and reverence we view his terse eloquence” (Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah 3:248). 

The parable of the prodigal son has many meanings and applications, including the following:

We all need to repent for we are all prodigals – President Gordon B. Hinckley said this parable “is large enough to encompass every household, and enough larger than that to encompass all mankind, for are we not all prodigal sons and daughters who need to repent and partake of the forgiving mercy of our Heavenly Father and then follow his example?” (Of You It Is Required to Forgive, Ensign, November 1980, p. 88). 

“The parable of the prodigal son can be read as a handbook detailing the seven steps of repentance:

  1. Realizing that one’s life is out harmony with God’s will (“came to himself”)

  2. Remorsefully and genuinely recognizing one’s situation (“I perish”)

  3. Resolving to make a permanent change (“I will arise and go to my father”)

  4. Requesting forgiveness (“I have sinned against heaven and against thee”)

  5. Relying on mercy, putting oneself in God’s hands (“make me one of thy hired servants”)

  6. Receiving gestures of forgiveness as they are extended (“put on robe, ring, sandals”)

  7. Rejoicing with others and celebrating the happiness found (“they began to be merry”)

All of these steps in the repentance process are found in the words and actions described in the return of the prodigal” (John and Jeannie Welch, The Parables of Jesus Revealing the Plan of Salvation, p. 106).

We do not excuse sin, but we need to be forgiving as our Father in Heaven is forgiving – “The father became aware of the prodigal’s approach and hastened to meet him.  Without a word of condemnation, the loving parent embraced and kissed the wayward but now penitent boy, who, overcome by this undeserved affection, humbly acknowledged his error, and sorrowfully confessed that he was not worthy to be known as his father’s son…The father’s glad heart could express itself only in acts of abundant kindness; a feast was made read, for was not the son, one counted as dead, now alive?  Had not the lost been found again?” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 457-460).

The father in this parable, representing our Heavenly Father, did not excuse the prodigal’s sin because God “cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance” (Alma 45:16).  However, He rejoices, as did the father in the parable, when one of His son or daughters repents.

We must guard against pride and selfishness demonstrated by the elder son – “On learning that his brother had returned and that the father had prepared a festival in honor of the event, this elder son grew angry, and churlishly refused to enter the house even after his father had come out and entreated him.  He cited his own faithfulness and devotion…and reproached his father for having failed to give him so much as a kid with which to make merry with his friends; while now that the wayward and spendthrift son had come back the father had killed for him even the fatted calf. 

There is significance in the elder one’s designation of the penitent as ‘this thy son,’ rather than ‘my brother.’  The elder son, deafened by selfish anger, refused to hear aright the affectionate assurance:  “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine,” and with heart hardened by unbrotherly resentment he stood unmoved by the emotional and loving outburst, ‘this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 459-460).

The parable of the prodigal son is a divine illustration of the wandering of man and the love of God – “All this is indeed a divine epitome of the wandering of man and the love of God such as no literature has ever equaled, such as no ear of man has ever heard elsewhere.  Put in the one scale all that Confucius, or Sakaya Mouni, or Zoroaster, of Socrates ever wrote or said – and they wrote and said many beautiful and holy words – and put on the other the Parable of the Prodigal Son alone, with all that this single parable connotes and means, and can any candid spirit doubt which scale would outweigh the other in eternal preciousness – in divine adaptation to the wants of man?” (Frederic W. Farrar, The Life of Christ as quoted by Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah 3:252-253).