The son has rehearsed a speech. He has it word-perfect: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. It is a good speech. It is honest, it is humble, and it offers a workable arrangement — demotion rather than restoration.
He never gets to finish it. When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. The father was watching the road, which means he had been watching the road for some time. And he ran, which in that culture meant an older man gathering up his robes and losing his dignity in public for the sake of a son who had already cost him a great deal.
The son gets out the first part about being unworthy. The father does not argue with it; he simply talks over the proposal. Bring the best robe. A ring for his hand. Shoes for his feet. Kill the fatted calf. Every item is a restoration of status, not a probation.
Jesus told this to religious people who were complaining that he ate with sinners. The scandal of the story is not that the son came home. It is how he was received when he did.