Gospel according to Luke 15

¹ The tax collectors and the sinners, meanwhile, were all seeking his company to hear what he had to say,

² and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

³ So he spoke this parable to them:

⁴ ‘What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it?

⁵ And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders

⁶ and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours? “Rejoice with me,” he would say “I have found my sheep that was lost.”

⁷ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance.

⁸ ‘Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it?

⁹ And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbours? “Rejoice with me,” she would say “I have found the drachma I lost.”

¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.’

¹¹ He also said, ‘A man had two sons.

¹² The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me”. So the father divided the property between them.

¹³ A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

¹⁴ ‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch,

¹⁵ so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs.

¹⁶ And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything.

¹⁷ Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger!

¹⁸ I will leave is this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;

¹⁹ I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.”

²⁰ So he left the place and went back to his father. ‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly.

²¹ Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.”

²² But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

²³ Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration,

²⁴ because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

²⁵ ‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing.

²⁶ Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about.

²⁷ “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.”

²⁸ He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him;

²⁹ but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends.

³⁰ But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

³¹ The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours.

³² But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”‘