When God ran

At the beginning of this chapter the super spiritual brethren were complaining about Jesus hanging out with the no-goods, the sinners, the scum of the earth, and the unwashed masses. What they missed was that Jesus came for that bunch just as much as He came for them. The difference was the people in that crowd realized their situation and turned to God in the flesh for help, thus leading up to this great three part parable. In this closing section of the parable we are shown a certain father and his rebellious son, a son who walked away from his dad but after awhile decided to come home. At that point we are shown how his father had been on the look out for the boy and then he did the strangest thing, he ran to him. While the son came slowly with no expectations only a wish, Daddy cast his pride and status to the side to go get his son.