Twenty - Luke - 15

15:1  The tax-gatherers and the outcasts were all drawing near to Jesus to listen to him;

15:2  But the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law found fault. "This man always welcomes outcasts, and takes meals with them!" they complained.

15:3  So Jesus told them this parable--

15:4  "What man among you who has a hundred sheep, and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine out in the open country, and go after the lost sheep till he finds it?

15:5  And, when he has found it, he puts in on his shoulders rejoicing;

15:6  And, on reaching home, he calls his friends and his neighbors together, and says 'Come and rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'

15:7  So, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one outcast that repents, than over ninety-nine religious men, who have no need to repent.

15:8  Or again, what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

15:9  And, when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, and says 'Come and rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I lost.'

15:10  So, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of God's angels over one outcast that repents."

15:11  Then Jesus continued. "A man had two sons;

15:12  And the younger of them said to his father 'Father, give me my share of the inheritance.' So the father divided the property between them.

15:13  A few days later the younger son got together all that he had, and went away into a distant land; and there he squandered his inheritance by leading a dissolute life.

15:14  After he has spent all that he had, there was a severe famine through all that country, and he began to be in actual want.

15:15  So he went and engaged himself to one of the people of that country, who sent him into his fields to tend pigs.

15:16  He even longed to satisfy his hunger with the bean-pods on which the pigs were feeding; and no one gave him anything.

15:17  But, when he came to himself, he said 'How many of my father's hired servants have more bread than they can eat, while here am I starving to death!

15:18  I will get up and go to my father, and say to him "Father, I sinned against Heaven and against you;

15:19  I am no longer fit to be called your son; make me one of your hired servants."'

15:20  And he got up and went to his father. But, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was deeply moved; he ran and threw his arms round his neck and kissed him.

15:21  'Father,' the son said, 'I sinned against Heaven and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; make me one of your hired servants.'

15:22  But the father turned to his servants and said 'Be quick and fetch a robe--the very best--and put it on him; give him a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet;

15:23  And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry;

15:24  For here is my son who was dead, and is alive again, was lost, and is found.' So they began making merry.

15:25  Meanwhile the elder son was out in the fields; but, on coming home, when he got near the house, he heard music and dancing,

15:26  And he called one of the servants and asked what it all meant.

15:27  'Your brother has come back,' the servant told him, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound.'

15:28  This made him angry, and he would not go in. But his father came out and begged him to do so.

15:29  'No,' he said to his father, 'look at all the years I have been serving you, without ever once disobeying you, and yet you have never given me even a kid, so that I might have a merry-making with my friends.

15:30  But, no sooner has this son of yours come, who has eaten up your property in the company of prostitutes, than you have killed the fattened calf for him.'

15:31  'Child,' the father answered, 'you are always with me, and everything that I have is yours.

15:32  We could but make merry and rejoice, for here is your brother who was dead, and is alive; who was lost, and is found.'"