Talking with people, Jesus very often told parables: short stories in which a deep meaning was hidden. In parables He spoke of God's Kingdom and of faith, of sins and of how to be saved from them.
One day, Jesus wanted to tell people that the Lord always patiently waits for each of us and rejoices, even if the greatest sinner repents and returns to Him. For this He told this parable.
Once upon a time there lived a father and two sons. The elder was obedient, and the youngest was disobedient. One day the younger son took his share of the inheritance from his father and set off on a journey. Soon he wasted all the money and was left in poverty. To return to his father he was ashamed, and he hired in farm laborers, to take care of the pigs. The owners kept him half-starved, so that even pigmeat seemed to him a delicacy. And at last the young man thought: "My father has the last servant to live better than I am here, of course, I am very guilty before him and I can no longer be his son." So I'll go, ask for forgiveness, and I'll hired him to work! Perhaps, He will agree to receive me, "and he went home. But the father, when he saw him, ran to meet him and hugged him tightly. Then he ordered his servants to bring expensive clothes for their son and prepare a feast to celebrate his return. The elder brother was offended that the father rejoices the younger more than him, but the father replied:
"You are always with me, and everything that I have is yours." But today we have joy: your brother was as if dead, and now he is alive!