Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Chapter 15
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law frowned at this, muttering:
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So Jesus told them this parable:
Jesus continued: “There was a man with two sons.
The younger said to his father, ‘Give me my share of the estate.’ So the father divided his property between them.
Some days later, the younger son gathered all his belongings and set off for a distant land where he wasted his wealth in reckless living.
After spending everything, he faced hardship when a severe famine struck that land.
He then hired himself out to a prosperous citizen and was sent to work on a pig farm.
He was so hungry that he longed to eat even the food given to the pigs, but no one offered him anything.
Finally coming to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against God and before you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me then as one of your hired servants.’ With that thought in mind, he set off for his father’s house.
He was still a long way off when his father caught sight of him. His father was so deeply moved with compassion that he ran out to meet him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him.
The son said:
‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But the father turned to his servants:
‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Bring out the finest robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet!
Take the fattened calf and kill it! We shall celebrate and have a feast,
for this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found!’ And the celebration began.
Meanwhile, the elder son had been working in the fields. As he returned and neared the house, he heard music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what was going on.
The servant answered:
‘Your brother has come home safe and sound, and your father is so happy about it that he has ordered this celebration and killed the fattened calf.’
The elder son became angry and refused to go in.
His father came out and pleaded with him.
The son, very indignant, said:
‘Look, I have slaved for you all these years. Never have I disobeyed your orders. Yet you have never given me even a young goat to celebrate with my friends.
But when this son of yours returns, after squandering your property with loose women, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
The father said:
‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
But this brother of yours was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found. And for that, we had to rejoice and be glad.’”
Commentaries
Parable of the Lost Sheep – Parable of the Lost Coin.
Once again, Jesus is criticized by the Pharisees for welcoming tax collectors and sinners. In response, he tells three parables that reveal God’s mercy. The first, the lost sheep, highlights God’s concern for the sinner and the joy of his return. The second, the lost coin, shows the value that God places on those ignored by the ‘good’ people of official Judaism. In the kingdom’s dynamics, that small-valued coin is actually God’s ‘treasure’; finding it and serving those ‘rejects’ means living out God’s plan in the kingdom Jesus presents.
Parable of the Lost Sons.
Jesus exposes the harmful effects of legalism and the distortion of God’s true nature. He shares his experience of God as a loving father who cares for his children equally. In the parable, the older son believes he deserves all the father’s love because of his obedience, while he thinks his younger brother should be punished for his actions. However, Jesus shows how the father’s love is given to the younger son despite what he has done. The parable challenges legalism by emphasizing that divine love is given freely, not as a reward for good behavior, but through grace and always celebrated in the awareness of that free love.