The father who ran

Religious leaders complain that Jesus eats with the wrong people, so he tells three stories about lost things. The third is about a younger son who asks for his inheritance early — the equivalent of wishing his father dead — and spends it all. Starving, feeding pigs, he rehearses a speech and starts home. But while he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. The father was watching. He runs, which a man of standing in that culture did not do, embraces him, and does not let him finish the speech. Robe, ring, shoes, a feast. Then the story turns to the older brother, who has done everything right and will not come in, and the father goes out to him too. Jesus never says whether he came in. The complaint is still standing at the door.