We're on reasonably familiar ground with these chapters today, although sometimes our very familiarity with well-known Bible passages closes our eyes to seeing something fresh and helpful.
Luke 15 comprises a triad of parallel parables united by the common theme of 'something' being 'lost and found': a sheep (v3-7), a coin (v8-10), and two (yes, two, not one, but two) sons (v11-32) - each lost in their own particular way. But in our haste to interpret the parables, we must not overlook the circumstances which provoked Jesus to tell these stories (v1-2). The Pharisees were being their naturally 'holier-than-thou' selves, ignoring those who flagrantly flouted the Law and despising anyone, like Jesus, who was prepared to cross the line and become friends with them, which is what "eating" implies. You would have thought that any attempt the bridge the gap between those who claimed to know God and those who clearly did not know God would be welcomed. But no. The Pharisees used their religiosity not just as a boundary to mark the law-keeping 'righteous' off from the law-rejecting 'sinners', but as a barrier to keep the two groups apart. They clearly had little notion of the grace and mercy of God being extended to the undeserving, those who were 'lost' from God, or indeed, that they could possibly, somehow, be 'found' (see v28-30). The repeated refrain throughout the parables of both earthly and heavenly rejoicing when what is 'lost' is 'found' (v6-7, 9-10, 24,32) helps us see the delight of God when the undeserving finally come home to His welcoming heart (v31-32).
In a way, chapters 16-17 pick up the theme of how people should respond to God and His offer of grace, which has dominated the previous sections. To the disciples (16:1) Jesus tells what we probably consider the strange tale of the 'shrewd manager' who knows he will shortly be dismissed and put out of work (v2). What Jesus is commending is not the manager's business strategy but his urgency in making sure now that his 'eternal' future (v9) is secured for then. Our future destiny is determined by priorities we live by and the choices we must make in the present. We cannot afford to delay any decisions to be made. And to the Pharisees, whom Jesus accuses of living double lives - the open and outwardly, supposedly uprightly sacred and the hidden, inwardly selfish, money-loving secular (16:14-15) - Jesus warns with the story of the nameless rich man and the beggarly Lazarus, whose name incidently means "no help but from God". Like the previous story, both parables set our present lives in the context of an unavoidable eternity and underline the necessity of using the time and opportunities we have now to make decisions and live lives that will count for then.
Finally, while the pattern of speaking first to the disciples and then to the Pharisees is repeated in chapter 17 (v1,20), in the middle Luke tells us of the healing of the ten lepers only one of whom came back to Jesus to say "thank-you" (v11-19). What's Luke teaching us?
That, as we have read in the previous chapters, despite being privileged to having heard again and again the message of salvation from the lips of the Saviour Himself and the offer of mercy and of a welcome back home to God, most people - as typified by the Pharisees - did not, and still do not, respond with acceptance and gratitude. Nevertheless, always in God's mercy, there will be those individual lost souls, the outsider, the Samaritan, the penitent sinner who, in hearing the Gospel, "get it", and who on their face before the Lord, responds with broken-hearted repentance, cross-bearing faith and a deep, enduring thankfulness (v15-16). Of the other nine, the faithful religious ones, we hear nothing more. Just wondering, like the Samaritan, the outsider, have you been back to Jesus to say "Thank-you" like that?
Luke 15 comprises a triad of parallel parables united by the common theme of 'something' being 'lost and found': a sheep (v3-7), a coin (v8-10), and two (yes, two, not one, but two) sons (v11-32) - each lost in their own particular way. But in our haste to interpret the parables, we must not overlook the circumstances which provoked Jesus to tell these stories (v1-2). The Pharisees were being their naturally 'holier-than-thou' selves, ignoring those who flagrantly flouted the Law and despising anyone, like Jesus, who was prepared to cross the line and become friends with them, which is what "eating" implies. You would have thought that any attempt the bridge the gap between those who claimed to know God and those who clearly did not know God would be welcomed. But no. The Pharisees used their religiosity not just as a boundary to mark the law-keeping 'righteous' off from the law-rejecting 'sinners', but as a barrier to keep the two groups apart. They clearly had little notion of the grace and mercy of God being extended to the undeserving, those who were 'lost' from God, or indeed, that they could possibly, somehow, be 'found' (see v28-30). The repeated refrain throughout the parables of both earthly and heavenly rejoicing when what is 'lost' is 'found' (v6-7, 9-10, 24,32) helps us see the delight of God when the undeserving finally come home to His welcoming heart (v31-32).In a way, chapters 16-17 pick up the theme of how people should respond to God and His offer of grace, which has dominated the previous sections. To the disciples (16:1) Jesus tells what we probably consider the strange tale of the 'shrewd manager' who knows he will shortly be dismissed and put out of work (v2). What Jesus is commending is not the manager's business strategy but his urgency in making sure now that his 'eternal' future (v9) is secured for then. Our future destiny is determined by priorities we live by and the choices we must make in the present. We cannot afford to delay any decisions to be made. And to the Pharisees, whom Jesus accuses of living double lives - the open and outwardly, supposedly uprightly sacred and the hidden, inwardly selfish, money-loving secular (16:14-15) - Jesus warns with the story of the nameless rich man and the beggarly Lazarus, whose name incidently means "no help but from God". Like the previous story, both parables set our present lives in the context of an unavoidable eternity and underline the necessity of using the time and opportunities we have now to make decisions and live lives that will count for then.
Finally, while the pattern of speaking first to the disciples and then to the Pharisees is repeated in chapter 17 (v1,20), in the middle Luke tells us of the healing of the ten lepers only one of whom came back to Jesus to say "thank-you" (v11-19). What's Luke teaching us?
That, as we have read in the previous chapters, despite being privileged to having heard again and again the message of salvation from the lips of the Saviour Himself and the offer of mercy and of a welcome back home to God, most people - as typified by the Pharisees - did not, and still do not, respond with acceptance and gratitude. Nevertheless, always in God's mercy, there will be those individual lost souls, the outsider, the Samaritan, the penitent sinner who, in hearing the Gospel, "get it", and who on their face before the Lord, responds with broken-hearted repentance, cross-bearing faith and a deep, enduring thankfulness (v15-16). Of the other nine, the faithful religious ones, we hear nothing more. Just wondering, like the Samaritan, the outsider, have you been back to Jesus to say "Thank-you" like that? 
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