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Parable of The Lost Sheep, Lost Coin and Lost Son
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There are a lot of people in Ukraine who come to the Orthodox Church for the very first time. Most of them are well educated and enter the church after the long atheistic period of the Soviet Union. They were brought up without any belief in God in their hearts. Today the former atheists begin to understand eternal truths. They would like to find the answers for questions, like following: why does humankind live and how should people spend lifetime? I would like to explain them the Parable of The Lost Sheep, Lost Coin and Lost Son. Now people’s souls open for God and God is always glad to accept their repentance. But these people want to know some explanations from Bible and the life of Jesus Christ to make their faith stronger. The Parable of The Lost Sheep, Lost Coin and Lost Son lets such people know, that there is never “late” for belief in God and repent. It helps them to be sure they will receive God’s grace. It is no matter for God what we did in our past. He only wants to hear our repentance. These three parables we read only in Gospel of St. Luke. Pharisees and scribers denounced Jesus Christ for consorting and eating with sinners and tax collectors who were “the lowest of the low” in the country for Jewish people of that period of time. It was thought if a man eats with sinners he is one of them, so he is a sinner also. A good person should not even approach sinful and sick people. The answer of Jesus Christ to Pharisees and the teachers of law is in these three parables. He tried to show them how big is the gladness on the Heaven, when sinners, who were almost lost for the Kingdom of God, come to the temple – the house of God, and repent. Jesus explained that he came to save sinners not righteous. Righteouses think there is no need to repent, because they are already sinless. Therefore they are already saved. The initial and grave sin is to be sure you do not have any sins…The Evangelists preserved the parables of lost and found for the church, because they knew, that Gospels should be preached in many of gentile countries. These parables help gentiles to understand the purpose of Jesus’ coming and prevent them from proud and arrogance. In the parables of The lost Coin and Lost Sheep Jesus used the natural feature of people who are gladder to obtain what they had lost, rather then what they had not lost, even if it is more expensive. Jesus told about a sheep, because it is a very simple animal. It cares only about food. It could easily go wrong way and be lost. A Shepherd should lead a sheep. If he loses it and then finds it, he is exhilarated about it. Shepherd’s jubilation is so big that he invites his friends and celebrates it with them.
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