The Prodigal Son's Selfishness

In the first Parable of Luke 15 we learned of Christ's seeking of lost sinners. In the second Parable we learned of the Woman, Christ's Church, seeking lost sinners. In this Parable we learn of the great need for all mankind themselves to come to seek to understand how gracious and loving and good God the Father is, and to return to Him. All men are sinners, and so all men need to return to God, either from the Far Country as the Prodigal did, or from self-righteousness and self-justification as these Pharisees and scribes needed to, but in many cases, did not. The older son in this Parable well represents the Pharisees and the scribes, men who thought that because they had kept the Father's commands, were justified. But we will find that this was not true. The younger son represents the tax-collectors and other sinners who were being received by the Lord Jesus. Many of them had been prodigal sons.