The parables recorded in Luke 15 were the Savior’s response to the Pharisees and scribes after they had condemned Him for eating and drinking with sinners. Seen in this context, these parables contain not only words of hope for the repentant sinner but also a strong rebuke against self-righteousness. This rebuke may be seen in the Savior’s statement that there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over 99 just persons who do not need to repent. The Savior’s reference to “just persons, which need no repentance” (Luke 15:7) does not suggest the Pharisees and scribes did not need to repent. Rather, it was an apt representation of the Pharisees’ and scribes’ prideful self-regard and their failure to acknowledge their own need to repent. Another condemnation of such attitudes may be seen in the older brother’s actions in the parable of the prodigal son. Like the Pharisees and scribes who complained when Jesus received sinners, the older brother in the parable reacts with self-righteous hostility rather than compassion when his father welcomes back the wayward brother.
“I desire to refer to the conditions that contributed to [the sheep, the coin, and the prodigal son] being lost. …
“I ask you tonight, how did that sheep get lost? He was not rebellious. If you follow the comparison, the lamb was seeking its livelihood in a perfectly legitimate manner, but either stupidly, perhaps unconsciously, it followed the enticement of the field, the prospect of better grass until it got out beyond the fold and was lost.
“So we have those in the Church, young men and young women, who wander away from the fold in perfectly legitimate ways. They are seeking success, success in business, success in their professions, and before long they become disinterested in Church and finally disconnected from the fold; they have lost track of what true success is, perhaps stupidly, perhaps unconsciously, in some cases, perhaps willingly. They are blind to what constitutes true success. …
“In [the case of the lost coin] the thing lost was not in itself responsible. The one who had been trusted with that coin had, through carelessness or neglect, mislaid it or dropped it. There is a difference, and this is the one-third, which I think applies to us tonight. Our charge is not only coins, but living souls of children, youth, and adults. They are our charges. Some of them may be wandering tonight because of the neglect of the ward teachers. …
“[Regarding the prodigal son:] Here is a case of volition, here is choice, deliberate choice. Here is, in a way, rebellion against authority. And what did he do? He spent his means in riotous living, he wasted his portion with harlots. That is the way they are lost.
“Youth who start out to indulge their appetites and passions are on the downward road to apostasy as sure as the sun rises in the east. I do not confine it to youth; any man or woman who starts out on that road of intemperance, of dissolute living will separate himself or herself from the fold as inevitably as darkness follows the day” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1945, 120, 121–22, 123).
“The three parables … are as one in portraying the joy that abounds in heaven over the recovery of a soul once numbered among the lost, whether that soul be best symbolized by a sheep that had wandered afar, a coin that had dropped out of sight through the custodian’s neglect, or a son who would deliberately sever himself from home and heaven. There is no justification for the inference that a repentant sinner is to be given precedence over a righteous soul who had resisted sin. … Unqualifiedly offensive as is sin, the sinner is yet precious in the Father’s eyes, because of the possibility of his repentance and return to righteousness. The loss of a soul is a very real and a very great loss to God. He is pained and grieved thereby, for it is His will that not one should perish” (Jesus the Christ,3rd ed. [1916], 461).
“The Prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) said that one interpretation of the parable is that the ‘hundred sheep represent one hundred Sadducees and Pharisees’ and since they did not accept and follow the Savior’s teachings, He would go outside the sheepfold to search for ‘a few individuals, or one poor publican, which the Pharisees and Sadducees despised.’ When He had found the ‘sheep that are lost’ who would repent and receive Him, they would have ‘joy in heaven’ (in History of the Church, 5:262). This interpretation helps us understand that the Savior’s words were a rebuke to help the Pharisees and scribes recognize their own need to repent, for the Lord commands ‘all men everywhere to repent’ (D&C 133:16; see also Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8; D&C 18:9, 42)” (New Testament Student Manual [Church Educational System manual, 2014], 168–69).
“I ask you to read that story. Every parent ought to read it again and again. It is large enough to encompass every household, and enough larger than that to encompass all mankind, for are we not all prodigal sons and daughters who need to repent and partake of the forgiving mercy of our Heavenly Father and then follow His example?” (“Of You It Is Required to Forgive,” Ensign, June 1991, 5).
“Some of our own … cry out in pain and suffering and loneliness and fear. Ours is a great and solemn duty to reach out and help them, to lift them, to feed them if they are hungry, to nurture their spirits if they thirst for truth and righteousness. …
“… There are those who were once warm in the faith, but whose faith has grown cold. Many of them wish to come back but do not know quite how to do it. They need friendly hands reaching out to them. With a little effort, many of them can be brought back to feast again at the table of the Lord.
“My brethren and sisters, I would hope, I would pray that each of us … would resolve to seek those who need help, who are in desperate and difficult circumstances, and lift them in the spirit of love into the embrace of the Church, where strong hands and loving hearts will warm them, comfort them, sustain them, and put them on the way of happy and productive lives” (“Reach with a Rescuing Hand,”Ensign, Nov. 1996, 86).
“The tender image of this boy’s anxious, faithful father running to meet him and showering him with kisses is one of the most moving and compassionate scenes in all of holy writ. It tells every child of God, wayward or otherwise, how much God wants us back in the protection of His arms” (“The Other Prodigal,” Ensign,May 2002, 62).
“This son is not so much angry that the other has come home as he is angry that his parents are so happy about it. Feeling unappreciated and perhaps more than a little self-pity, this dutiful son—and he is wonderfully dutiful—forgets for a moment that he has never had to know filth or despair, fear or self-loathing. He forgets for a moment that every calf on the ranch is already his and so are all the robes in the closet and every ring in the drawer. He forgets for a moment that his faithfulness has been and always will be rewarded. …
“… He has yet to come to the compassion and mercy, the charitable breadth of vision to see that this is not a rival returning. It is his brother. …
“Certainly this younger brother had been a prisoner—a prisoner of sin, stupidity, and a pigsty. But the older brother lives in some confinement, too. He has, as yet, been unable to break out of the prison of himself. He is haunted by the green-eyed monster of jealousy” (“The Other Prodigal,” 63).