The best-known texts of the entire Gospel literature, the parables of the lost sheep, the lost drachma and the prodigal son in Lk 15, are first examined individually from a socio-historical perspective before they are evaluated as a triad and in the context of the Gospel of Luke. On the one hand, a new view of the “conversion” of the “sinners” as a divine-human synergetic
action emerges – and on the other hand, a foreshadowing of the Apostles’ meeting in Acts 15: the uncircumcised Gentiles as lost brothers, for whose return God waits just as longingly as for the prodigal son – not to mention the shared meal of joy, even against the will of the elder son.
