Jesus · c. AD 30
Chapter 42
Lost and Found
“He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.
For parents
In Jesus’ story of a father and his two sons, the younger son wastes his share on a wild, rowdy life (Luke 15:13), and his older brother says he has eaten up his father’s property with prostitutes (15:30). The Story says that gently, as “women he paid.”
The and the sinners were all coming close to to hear what he had to say.
The and the grumbled about it. “This man welcomes sinners,” they said, “and eats with them.”
Jesus told them this : “If one of you men had a hundred sheep and lost one of them, wouldn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one he lost until he found it?
“And when he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, full of joy. When he gets home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors. ‘Be glad with me,’ he tells them, ‘because I’ve found my sheep that was lost!’
“I tell you, it will be just like that in heaven. There will be more joy over one sinner who than over ninety-nine people who have no need to repent.”
Jesus went on. “Or if a woman had ten coins and lost one of them, wouldn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house, and look hard until she found it?” A drachma coin was worth about a day’s pay for a farm worker.
“And when she has found it,” he said, “she calls together her friends and her neighbors. ‘Be glad with me,’ she says, ‘because I’ve found the drachma I had lost!’
“It’s just like that, I tell you: when one sinner repents, there is joy in the presence of the of God.”
Then Jesus said, “There was a man with two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of what you own.’ So the father divided all he had to live on between his two sons.
“A few days after that, the younger son gathered up everything that was his and went away to a far country. There he wasted everything he had, living a wild, rowdy life.
“When he had spent every bit of it, a severe famine came over that country, and he began to be in need.
“He went and attached himself to one of the people of that country, and the man sent him out to his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the pods the pigs ate, but nobody gave him any.”
“But then the younger son began to think clearly,” Jesus said. “‘So many of my father’s hired servants have bread to spare,’ he said, ‘and I’m dying of hunger! I’ll get up and go to my father, and tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I don’t deserve to be called your son anymore. Let me be like one of your hired servants.”’
“He got up and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his heart went out to him. The father ran, hugged him around the neck, and kissed him.
“‘Father,’ the son said to him, ‘I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I don’t deserve to be called your son anymore.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate, because my son here was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.”
“Now the man’s older son was in the field,” Jesus went on. “As he got close to the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants over and asked what was going on.
“‘Your brother has come home,’ the servant told him, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has gotten him back safe and healthy.’
“But the older son was angry and would not go in. So his father came outside and begged him.
“But he answered his father, ‘Look, I have served you all these years, and I never disobeyed a command of yours. And yet you have never given me a goat to celebrate with my friends. But when that son of yours came home, the one who has eaten up what was yours with women he paid, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
“‘Son,’ his father answered, ‘you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. But it was right to celebrate and be glad, because your brother here was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”