The Pharisees considered themselves righteous, and were therefore
offended because Jesus received publicans and sinners and ate with them.
Jesus therefore spoke the following parables: A certain man had two
sons. The younger said to the father: Father, give me that part of thy
substance that falls to me. And he divided unto them. Not many days
after, the younger son gathered all his goods and took his journey into
a far country, and there he wasted his substance in riotous living. And
when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that country, and
he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to one of the
citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine
ate; and no man gave him anything. When he came to himself he said: How
many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I
perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say
unto him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight. I am no
more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
And he arose and came to his father. While he was yet far off, his
father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his
neck, and kissed him. The son said: Father, I have sinned against heaven
and in thy sight; I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the
father said to his servants: Bring forth the best robe, and put a ring
on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and kill the fatted calf, and let us
eat and make merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was
lost, and is found.
The elder son was in the fields, and as he came home and heard music and
dancing, he asked one of the servants what these things might be. And he
was told that the father had made a feast for his son who had returned.
Then he was angry, and would not go in. His father came out and
entreated him; but he answered: Lo, these many years do I serve thee,
and I never transgressed thy commandments, and yet thou never gavest me
a kid, that I might make merry with my friends; but when this thy son
came, who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou killedst for him
the fatted calf. But his father said: My son, thou art ever with me, and
all that is mine is thine; but it was meet to make merry and be glad,
for this thy brother was dead, and is alive; and was lost, and is found.
When a man has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does he not leave
the ninety and nine, and go after the lost sheep? And when he hath found
it, he lays it on his shoulders and bears it home, and rejoices more
over that one than over the ninety and nine which were not lost. So
shall there be greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repenteth, than
over ninety and nine who need no repentance. (Luke 15.)