✨WEB · Luke 15:3
What does Luke 15:3 mean?
"He told them this parable."
— Luke 15:3 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him.
The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”
He told them this parable.
“Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?
When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’
Explanation
Luke 15:3 is a short transitional sentence that simply tells us Jesus is about to teach through a parable. On its own, the verse contains no content beyond this announcement, but its meaning comes entirely from what precedes and follows it. Understanding it requires looking at the surrounding verses to see why Jesus spoke and what he said.
The context is crucial here. Luke 15 opens with tax collectors and sinners gathering to hear Jesus, which provokes grumbling from the Pharisees and scribes, who complain that "this man welcomes sinners and eats with them" (Luke 15:1-2). It is in direct response to this criticism that Jesus "told them this parable." Luke, writing his Gospel to a broader audience (traditionally addressed to Theophilus) to give an orderly account of Jesus's life and teaching, places this verse as the hinge connecting the religious leaders' complaint to Jesus's threefold answer: the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost (or prodigal) son, all of which follow in the rest of the chapter.
Theologically, even this brief verse carries weight because of what it introduces. Jesus does not respond to the Pharisees' criticism with a direct argument but with story—a method consistent throughout his ministry. The parables that follow reveal God's
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