Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 52
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
15:8-30
“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.’ In the same way, there
is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
To illustrate the point 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.
“A few days later this 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 starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent
him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that
even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave
him anything.
“When he 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, “Father, I have sinned against
both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.
Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
“So he 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 him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I
have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of
being called your son.’
“But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the
house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.
And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,
for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost,
but now he is found.’ So the party began.
“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,’ he was told, ‘and your
father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe
return.’
“The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out
and begged him, but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and
never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that
time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.
Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on
prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
