Luke chapter 15

vs 1

I'm glad my job doesn't get lumped in with the 'sinner' category. Probably would if I were a politician. "Ohh, do you know Ben? He's a 'politician', if you know what I mean."

vs 2

The problem the Pharisees had was that they thought holiness was fragile. They thought that if you were a holy person, and you had a sinner in your house, that your holiness would somehow fade or fracture. Jesus can't therefore be a holy man of God, because he is always hanging out with sinners.

vs 3

Jesus, of course, just does his parable thing.

vs 4

After all, you've got a pretty good chance the other 99 will stay put. But 1 sheep more or less represents 1% of your wealth. That's a lot.

vs 5-6

When you regain that 1%, you're pretty happy about it. So you throw a party. Jesus hasn't said anything out of the ordinary here.

vs 7

So now Jesus relates it to life - Jesus explains his parable. Now, is Jesus saying here that the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law are righteous? I don't think so. I think he is indicating that righteous people exist, but I don't think he's necessarily pointing to the Pharisees for them. The Pharisees might point at themselves, but that's not the same thing.

Another interesting point, one made clear in the evangelism seminar I'm doing at the moment - people who think they 'do not need to repent' will not be interested in repentance. They probably won't listen.

vs 8

This time, the person is losing 10% of their wealth.

vs 9

When she finds it, her reaction is the same.

vs 10

Why did Jesus repeat this idea with two parables? Perhaps one for the country folk with sheep, one for the city folk with coins? Perhaps it's just so important, he wanted to make a clear point.

Perhaps Luke thought these parables were alike, and stuck them together for effect, even though Jesus used them at to completely different chronological times. It's a possibility.