Luke 15:6-19

⁶When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’

⁷I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

⁸“Or what woman, if she had ten drachma coins, if she lost one drachma coin, wouldn’t light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it?

⁹When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost!’

¹⁰Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”

¹¹He said, “A certain man had two sons.

¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them.

¹³Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.

¹⁴When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.

¹⁵He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

¹⁶He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.

¹⁷But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!

¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

¹⁹I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’