When Jesus wanted to send a dramatic and memorable message out about “who is my neighbor”, he used a Samaritan to display neighborly love. The parable mocks the “pious self-loftiness” of the Pharisees as they refuse to “become unclean” by helping a man who is hurt in which the parable, the father is God; the good son represents the Righteous and the prodigal son represents the Sinners. God gave the prodigal the freedom to choose his life, and the son chose dissolution, but when all else failed, he returned to the Father.