Parallel Bible results for "luke 15"

Luke 15

The Message Bible MSG

1 By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently.

2 The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends."

3 Their grumbling triggered this story.

4 "Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it?

5 When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing,

6 and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!'

7 Count on it - there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.

8 "Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it?

9 And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!'

10 Count on it - that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God."

11 Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons.

12 The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.'

13 It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had.

14 After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt.

15 He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs.

16 He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

17 "That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death.

18 I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you;

19 I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.'

20 He got right up and went home to his father. When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.

21 The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.'

22 "But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

23 Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time!

24 My son is here - given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time.

25 "All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day's work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing.

26 Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on.

27 He told him, 'Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast - barbecued beef! - because he has him home safe and sound.'

28 "The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen.

29 The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends?

30 Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!'

31 "His father said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours -

32 but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'"

New Living Translation NLT

1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

3 So Jesus told them this story:

4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?

5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.

6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’

7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?

9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’

10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.

12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.

14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.

15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!

18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,

19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. ’

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.

23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,

24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house,

26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on.

27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him,

29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.

30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.

32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”