If you’re like most kids, you probably had arguments with your parents when you were a kid, and I bet those arguments intensified when you became a teenager.
As your blood boiled in frustration, I bet your teenaged-self wished your parents were dead; then you’d be free. Out of anger, you may have even vocalized this thought out loud.
If you did say it out loud, how did your parents react? I bet it wasn’t pretty.
When the prodigal son asked for his inheritance early, he was basically telling his father that he wished his father were dead. But, instead of getting angry, the father appeased his son and gave him the inheritance he asked for.
In the end, however, the inheritance was a curse for the son who would soon learn that walking the Way means that his father doesn’t treat him fairly!