Luke 15

The Story of the Lost Sheep

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.

The Story of the Lost Coin

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."

The Story of the Lost Son

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!'"

Luke 16

The Story of the Crooked Manager

1 Jesus said to his disciples, "There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses.2 So he called him in and said, 'What's this I hear about you? You're fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.'

3 "The manager said to himself, 'What am I going to do? I've lost my job as manager. I'm not strong enough for a laboring job, and I'm too proud to beg. . . .4 Ah, I've got a plan. Here's what I'll do . . . then when I'm turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.'

5 "Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

6 "He replied, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' "The manager said, 'Here, take your bill, sit down here-quick now-write fifty.'

7 "To the next he said, 'And you, what do you owe?' "He answered, 'A hundred sacks of wheat.' "He said, 'Take your bill, write in eighty.'

8 "Now here's a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits.9 I want you to be smart in the same way-but for what is right-using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you'll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior."

God Sees Behind Appearances

10 Jesus went on to make these comments: If you're honest in small things, you'll be honest in big things;11 If you're a crook in small things, you'll be a crook in big things.12 If you're not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store?13 No worker can serve two bosses: He'll either hate the first and love the second Or adore the first and despise the second. You can't serve both God and the Bank.

14 When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch.15 So Jesus spoke to them: "You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what's behind the appearance. What society sees and calls monumental, God sees through and calls monstrous.16 God's Law and the Prophets climaxed in John; Now it's all kingdom of God-the glad news and compelling invitation to every man and woman.17 The sky will disintegrate and the earth dissolve before a single letter of God's Law wears out.18 Using the legalities of divorce as a cover for lust is adultery; Using the legalities of marriage as a cover for lust is adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 "There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption.20 A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep.21 All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.

22 "Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.23 In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap.24 He called out, 'Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I'm in agony in this fire.'

25 "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It's not like that here. Here he's consoled and you're tormented.26 Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.'

27 "The rich man said, 'Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father28 where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won't end up here in this place of torment.'

29 "Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.'

30 "'I know, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but they're not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.'

31 "Abraham replied, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, they're not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.'"

Luke 17

A Kernel of Faith

1 He said to his disciples, "Hard trials and temptations are bound to come, but too bad for whoever brings them on!2 Better to wear a millstone necklace and take a swim in the deep blue sea than give even one of these dear little ones a hard time!

3 "Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him.4 Even if it's personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, 'I'm sorry, I won't do it again,' forgive him."

5 The apostles came up and said to the Master, "Give us more faith."

6 But the Master said, "You don't need more faith. There is no 'more' or 'less' in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, 'Go jump in the lake,' and it would do it.

7 "Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, 'Sit down and eat'?8 Wouldn't you be more likely to say, 'Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I've finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper'?9 Does the servant get special thanks for doing what's expected of him?10 It's the same with you. When you've done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, 'The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.'"

11 It happened that as he made his way toward Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee.12 As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. They kept their distance13 but raised their voices, calling out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

14 Taking a good look at them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."15 One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God.16 He kneeled at Jesus' feet, so grateful. He couldn't thank him enough-and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus said, "Were not ten healed? Where are the nine?18 Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?"19 Then he said to him, "Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you."

When the Son of Man Arrives

20 Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, "The kingdom of God doesn't come by counting the days on the calendar.21 Nor when someone says, 'Look here!' or, 'There it is!' And why? Because God's kingdom is already among you."

22 He went on to say to his disciples, "The days are coming when you are going to be desperately homesick for just a glimpse of one of the days of the Son of Man, and you won't see a thing.23 And they'll say to you, 'Look over there!' or, 'Look here!' Don't fall for any of that nonsense.

24 The arrival of the Son of Man is not something you go out to see. He simply comes.25 But first it's necessary that he suffer many things and be turned down by the people of today.

26 "The time of the Son of Man will be just like the time of Noah -27 everyone carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ship. They suspected nothing until the flood hit and swept everything away.

28 "It was the same in the time of Lot-the people carrying on, having a good time, business as usual29 right up to the day Lot walked out of Sodom and a firestorm swept down and burned everything to a crisp.30 That's how it will be-sudden, total-when the Son of Man is revealed.

31 "When the Day arrives and you're out working in the yard, don't run into the house to get anything. And if you're out in the field, don't go back and get your coat.32 Remember what happened to Lot's wife!33 If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you'll lose it, but if you let that life go, you'll get life on God's terms.

34 "On that Day, two men will be in the same boat fishing-one taken, the other left.35 Two women will be working in the same kitchen-one taken, the other left."

37 Trying to take all this in, the disciples said, "Master, where?" He told them, "Watch for the circling of the vultures. They'll spot the corpse first. The action will begin around my dead body."