Analysis Of Luke 15: The New American Bible

Luke chapter 15 focuses its attention on three seemingly different parables; parable of the lost sheep, parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the lost son. However, after digging deeper in the stories commonalities, like the joy of being found, along with the idea of repentance, are brought to the surface. This idea of individuals once lost but now found is also highly present in The Shadow of the Galilean by Gerd Theissen. The idea of repentance, and “being found” is what makes me believe the underlying message of these parables actually speaks to Christians as sinners, and finding their way back to God, who welcomes them with open arms. In Luke 15:1-7 (The New American Bible, 1119), Jesus is raised the question about sitting with

Repentance is brought up in all three parables (Luke 15: 7, 10) and in the parable of the lost son where the son repeats, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, I no longer deserve to be called your son” (Luke 15: 18-19, 21) In each of the examples, there is an over joyous reaction to a single item or individual being found, though there were numerous other of the same item without having to search for them (The New American Bible, 1119-1120). The parable of the lost son differs slightly in this way, because the lost son found his way back on his own, rather than his father going out and searching for him in Luke 15: 11-32(The New American Bible, 1119-1120). It is this difference that leads me to believe this can be applied to Christians and sinners. In the way that items are lost, individuals can also be lost in their journey of life, when they stray from the word of God. However, God, similar to the father in Luke’s parable, is waiting with open arms for sinners to return back to His word, after repentance of their sins, welcoming them back into His kingdom. Like Jesus’ response to the pharisees in Luke 15:10, even one sinner who repents his sins will be rejoiced in Heaven by the angels of God (The New American Bible, 1119). Though, a journey is not necessarily a bad thing, as we have seen in the Theissen book, as well as some descriptions from

While Andreas is on many journeys and travels in his work through the Romans, it is actually the journey of one of the zealots that I made a connection to. When Andreas’ meets up with Barabbas after being abducted by the zealots, we learn of Barabbas’ friend Simon (Theissen, 84). In my understanding, Simon participated in both types of journeys. He journeyed away from the typical lifestyle of his time, to become one of the zealots with Barabbas, who all believed in the idea of justice for injustice (as Barabbas gave an example, “if anyone takes your coat, burn his house down” (Theissen, 85)). However, Simon, upon hearing the teachings of Jesus, decides to leave the group of zealots to follow the word of God. In other words, when he was with the zealots he was lost, but through the teachings of Jesus, Simon was found again, and able to find his way back to the road of