Interesting question

[ThuriferAcolyte]

I think that Jesus will save us. WE are the church.

Yes, Jesus does save us, through the Church. And yes, we are the Church, the Body of Christ. A body is visible, so is the Church.

 

[Pug]

Pug. it seems that"more joy in Heaven over the one repented sinner than the ninety nine righteous" answers the question, and I didn’t know this particular scripture verse pertained to the prodigal son. Wasn’t this about the one lost sheep? Although it could be the same.

Frank1304,

Somehow I lost the thread there for a bit. I’m sorry I’m so late in answering you.

I am perhaps being confusing. You are observing something I do, and that is to read the surrounding context when I read scripture. The lost sheep is immediately followed by the lost coin and then by the prodigal son, all in Luke 15. They seem to be the same or similar topics and in the same location, so I read them as a block. The set up was the Pharisees complaining about Jesus eating with sinners (Luke 15:2). Jesus then answered with the lost sheep parable, followed by the lost coin parable, then possibly the prodigal son parable is also part of the sequence. I’m assuming you meant the gospel of Luke and not Matthew, because the quote that you give comes from Luke.

Can you see how there is rejoicing over a lost sinner who has returned in the parable of the prodigal son? “It is fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” (Luke 15:32) And so they killed the fatted calf and celebrated the return of the younger son. Just like there was much rejoicing in heaven over the lost sheep/sinner that was found in the parable of the lost sheep. Also, in the parable of the prodigal son, the rejoicing is over the returned son, not the one who had always been there, just like the rejoicing over the one sheep and not the 99 who were always there in the other parable. That the dead have come to life (the lost has been found) is a huge cause of rejoicing/celebration in both parables.

But, I think the parable of the prodigal son also contains more information: the information about the elder son and his questions. The elder to me seems to function like the 99 sheep that didn’t need to be found, so there wasn’t a bunch of rejoicing over him, just like there wasn’t over the 99 sheep. He is different from the 99 sheep, though, in that he stumbles upon seeing all the rejoicing going on and asks about it. He is told, not that the younger son is loved more, but that everything the father has is his, and that it was simply the proper occassion to rejoice over the younger son who was found.

I see it that way with the sheep, too. If I were a shepherd, I wouldn’t love the lost/found sheep more than some other sheep of mine, I would simply be glad to have found it. I would rejoice, because I would have been worried about the one sheep until I found it. Then I would be glad once I found it.

I hope I’m being clearer now.