This parable is set up by Jesus by telling two, shorter, parables: of the
lost sheep
and the
lost coin
. In them, Jesus appeals to our behavior: we go out of our way to find lost valuables.
But it gets much trickier when the lost item is even more valuable: a person. That person may be exercising their personal freedom.
The behavior of the younger son would have been scandalous at the time. Asking for an early inheritance would have been the equivalent of telling a father, "I wish you were dead." Wasting the family wealth would have been the greatest possible shame. And for a Jewish boy to end up herding pigs
represented the lowest imaginable degradation. If he were to show his face near home, every neighbor would have heaped abuse upon him.