You still don’t get it.
You are not following the context or the point Jesus is making to His audience.
His target audience — the pharisees and scribes who murmured because Jesus received publicans and sinners and ate with them - Luke 15:2.
Since that is His target audience, are the scribes and pharisees the one who wandered off, the one who is lost, the one who returned to his father?
No! The pharisees and scribes are the ninety and nine.
Jesus said the 99 were just and need no repentance.
- likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
When did the Pharisee's become justified?
Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So He spoke this parable to them, saying: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:1-7
The one sheep belonged to the shepherd, along with the 99, and wandered away and became lost>
While the sheep was with the shepherd [reconciled] the sheep was just, but when the sheep who belonged to the shepherd wandered away, he became lost.
Lost = Sinner in need of repentance; unjust.
The prodigal son, was the son who became lost, unreconciled to his father, until he repented and returned to his father.
29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ” Luke 15:29-32
- It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’
JPT