Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

– Luke 15.1-2

 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

– Luke 15.31-32

The Pharisee were grumbling that Jesus was welcoming sinners.

The father explains to the older brother that the prodigal son, the sinner, ‘was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’

The parallel seems to suggest that these sinners who Jesus was spending time with, were indeed repenting. They were indeed ‘being made alive’ again.

These lost people, have been found by Jesus!

That’s news which is worth celebrating.

News that the Pharisee should be celebrating too.