[Continuing the story about the unscrupulous manager, Jesus said,] “The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I …
Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are …
[Concluding the tale of the two sons, Jesus said,] “His father said to [the older angry, jealous son], ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but …
[Continuing the tale of the two sons and talking about when the younger profligate son returned home, Jesus said,] “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother is back,’ …
[Continuing the tale of the two sons, Jesus said, “So the younger son who had wasted all his money in wild living] 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 …
[Continuing the tale of the two sons, Jesus said,] “When [the younger son who had wasted all his money] 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! I will go home to my father and say, …
[Jesus continued,] “A few days later [after the sons received their inheritance from their father, the younger son] packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began …
To illustrate the point [about the celebration at finding something that was lost] further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 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.” Note: This passage …
[Jesus continued,] “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? 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.’ …
Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people — even eating with them! So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, …