he saw his son while yet "a great way off"?

5. Which is perhaps the most interesting scene? Which is least
pleasing?

6. How would the older son have had the father act?

7. Did the father argue at length with the older son? Was it in place
to argue much about such a matter?

8. Describe the character of the elder son. Which of the two is the
better?

9. Is the father shown to be at fault in any respect in the training
of his sons? If so, how?

10. How do people about us often resemble the elder son?

11. Is this story told as a warning or as a comfort? How?

These are only a few of the many questions that might well be
considered. Indeed, whole books could be, and probably have been,
written upon this one parable. Yet neither such questions nor their
answers are included in the text. It seems strange that almost none of
the great thoughts that should be gathered from the story are
themselves included with the narrative. But the same is true in regard
to other parts of the Bible. The conversation between Jesus and the
Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) is, perhaps, the greatest
conversation that was ever held. Yet one must discover this fact
"between the lines"; there is no such statement included in the