A son who effectively wished his father dead. A father who ran through the village to embrace him. A homecoming you've heard a hundred times — slowed down so you can see what the original hearers saw.

In this letter

- Why asking for the inheritance early was unthinkable in the ancient Near East

- The Greek diaskorpizō (G1287) — to scatter, squander

- The pigs and what they meant to a Jewish hearer

- Coming to himself — the turning point in the pig pen

- The rehearsed speech

- The father watching, seeing, having compassion, running, kissing

- Splanchnizomai (G4697) — the gut-level compassion

- Why dignified men did not run, and why the father ran anyway

- The robe, the ring, the sandals, the fatted calf — what each one meant culturally

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