2. but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3. So to them he addressed this parable.
4. “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?
5. And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
6. and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
7. I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.
8. “Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it?
9. And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’
10. In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
11. Then he said, “A man had two sons,
12. and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them.
13. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
14. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need.
15. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
16. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.
17. Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger.
18. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.