18 days · About 12 minutes a day

Parables of Jesus: An 18-Day Bible Study in Luke

This is a free 18-day Bible study on the parables of Jesus for women: one parable a day from the Gospel of Luke, about twelve minutes, told in full and then stopped on one thing. It begins with Luke 15 — the lost sheep, the lost coin, the son who came home and the brother who stayed — told by Jesus in one sitting, as an answer to the complaint that He welcomed sinners and ate with them. Then the good Samaritan, the sower, the friend at midnight, the rich fool, the servants with their lamps lit, the fig tree given one more year, the mustard seed and the yeast, the great banquet, counting the cost, the shrewd manager, the rich man and Lazarus, the persistent widow, the Pharisee and the tax collector, and finally the tenants and the son, where Jesus walks into His own story. Each session resists the urge to explain everything. These stories reward a single observation — the father running, the eleven "I"s in the rich fool's speech, the fact that the rich man knew Lazarus's name — far more than a survey.

Length: 18 days — start any time
Time per day: About 12 minutes
Passages: Luke 8, 10–16, 18, 20
Translation: Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Format: Read here, or listen in the app
Best for: Small groups; anyone who knows the stories too well to hear them

The 18 parables, in order

Days 1–4 are one chapter of Luke, told in one sitting, and belong together in order. After that, one parable a day.

Day	Passage	Parable	Line to carry
1	Luke 15:1–7	The Lost Sheep	He joyfully puts it on his shoulders.
2	Luke 15:8–10	The Lost Coin	Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost coin.
3	Luke 15:11–24	The Son Who Came Home (the Prodigal Son)	While he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.
4	Luke 15:25–32	The Brother Who Stayed	Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
5	Luke 10:25–37	The Good Samaritan	Go and do likewise.
6	Luke 8:4–15	The Sower	By persevering, they produce a crop.
7	Luke 11:5–13	The Friend at Midnight	Knock, and the door will be opened to you.
8	Luke 12:13–21	The Rich Fool	One's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
9	Luke 12:35–40	Lamps Lit	He himself will come and wait on them.
10	Luke 13:6–9	One More Year (the Barren Fig Tree)	Sir, leave it alone again this year.
11	Luke 13:18–21	The Mustard Seed and the Yeast	Until all of it was leavened.
12	Luke 14:15–24	The Great Banquet	Come, for everything is now ready.
13	Luke 14:25–33	Counting the Cost	First sit down and count the cost.
14	Luke 16:1–13	The Shrewd Manager	Use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves.
15	Luke 16:19–31	The Rich Man and Lazarus	A beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate.
16	Luke 18:1–8	The Persistent Widow	Pray at all times and do not lose heart.
17	Luke 18:9–14	The Pharisee and the Tax Collector	God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
18	Luke 20:9–19	The Tenants and the Son	The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

What this plan covers

The parables of Jesus in Luke include several found in no other gospel, and this study takes eighteen of them. Luke 15 comes first and stays together: three stories about lost things — a sheep that gets carried home, a coin that did nothing wrong at all, and a son whose father runs, undignified, to reach him before the village does — followed by the elder brother, who has been at home all along and experienced it as employment. The good Samaritan (Luke 10) turns "who is my neighbour?" from a category into a role. The sower (Luke 8) is read for its thorns: worries, riches and pleasures that choke rather than attack. The friend at midnight (Luke 11) turns on anaideia, shamelessness in asking. The rich fool (Luke 12) says "I" or "my" about eleven times with nobody else in the story. The watchful servants (Luke 12) are served by their master, a picture Jesus later acts out with a towel. The barren fig tree (Luke 13) is given one more year of digging and manure. The mustard seed and yeast (Luke 13) spread invisibly and can't be controlled. The great banquet (Luke 14) is refused for good things. Counting the cost (Luke 14) is Jesus deliberately thinning His own crowd. The shrewd manager (Luke 16) is commended for decisiveness, not honesty. The rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16) is about stepping over someone you know by name. The persistent widow (Luke 18) is an argument from lesser to greater. The Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18) is about comparison, not hypocrisy. And the wicked tenants (Luke 20) is the one where Jesus steps into the story as the son. Every day follows the same seven movements — Arrive, Set out, Hear, Hear again, Consider, Pray, Carry — and ends with one line to take into the day.

Day 1 in full: The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1–7)

This is the complete first session, exactly as it's read in the app. Every day of the plan follows this shape.

Arrive

Welcome.

Settle in properly for this one. It is a story, and stories are best listened to sitting down.

Breathe in, slowly. And out.

Eighteen mornings, eighteen parables. Jesus told these to farmers and fishermen and tax collectors, standing in fields and at dinner tables, to people with ordinary lives and no theological training.

Which means they are for you, and they were never intended to require expertise.

Let the day wait. There is no hurry in any of these stories.

Set out

Before the story there is an argument, and the story only makes sense as an answer to it.

Luke tells us that the tax collectors and the sinners were all crowding round Jesus to listen. Those are two specific groups. Tax collectors were countrymen who had taken contracts with the occupying power and extracted money from their own neighbours. Sinners was a term of art — people whose trade or history put them outside respectable religious life.

And the religious leaders muttered: this man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.

They meant it as a complaint, and it was a serious one. Eating with somebody in that world was not a neutral act. It was an endorsement.

His answer is three stories in a row, about three lost things — a sheep, a coin, and a son. We are taking one a day for the first four mornings.

And remember who is standing there while He tells them. The people who had been written off are in the room. So are the people doing the writing off. He is talking to both at once.

Hear: Luke 15:1–7

Luke, chapter fifteen, from verse one.

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to listen to Jesus. But the Pharisees and scribes began to grumble: "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Then Jesus told them this parable:

"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, comes home, and calls together his friends and neighbours to tell them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!'

In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent."

And a line from the prophet Ezekiel, six hundred years earlier, which the crowd would have known.

I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bind up the broken and strengthen the weak.

Hear again

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders.

Joyfully. Not wearily, and not with a lecture. On his shoulders — because the animal is too tired, or too frightened, to walk.

He joyfully puts it on his shoulders.

A question, and it has two halves. Take whichever one is true this morning.

Where do you feel like the one — the one who wandered, the one out of reach, the one somebody would have to come and get?

Or, honestly, are you one of the ninety-nine, watching somebody else get carried home, and not entirely sure how you feel about the party?

Consider

Notice how He opens it. What man among you would not do this?

He assumes the answer. Of course you would go. Anybody would. A shepherd who shrugged and said he still had ninety-nine would be a strange sort of shepherd, and everybody in that crowd knew it.

So He is inviting the people who are muttering to admit that what He is doing — going after the ones nobody else wants — is exactly what any decent person would do about a sheep.

Now look at what the sheep contributes to the story.

It does not find its way home. It does not call out. It does not walk back — it gets carried. The only two things it does in the entire parable are get lost and get found.

Everything else is done by somebody else.

If you came to this walk expecting the parables to be mainly about what you should do, the very first one says something different. Mostly, you need to be found.

And then the strangest part, which is the joy.

He does not simply bring the animal home and put it back in the fold. He throws a party. He calls the neighbours in. Rejoice with me.

Over one sheep, out of a hundred. It is out of all proportion — the celebration probably cost more than the sheep was worth — and Jesus says heaven is like that.

Which is the answer to the muttering. Why do you eat with these people? Because that is what finding feels like. Nobody eats quietly after they have found what they lost.

And if you have ever wondered how God feels about you coming back after the year you have had — that is the answer. Not relief. Not about time. Joy, and a shoulder, all the way home.

Pray

Lord, You go after the one. Thank You for coming after me.

If you are lost this morning — somewhere you did not intend to end up — tell Him where you are. You do not have to explain the route. He is already on His way.

Carry me. I am too tired to walk back on my own.

And if you are one of the ninety-nine — safe, and a little unsure about all this celebrating over somebody who has just come in from the cold.

That is worth admitting. Ask Him for His joy about that person rather than your own opinion of them.

Then name one person you would like carried home, and leave them with the shepherd.

Amen.

Carry

The line to carry today.

He joyfully puts it on his shoulders.

Say it once.

If somebody comes back into your life today — a message after a long silence, an apology, a face at a door — try to meet them the way the shepherd does. Joy first, and the conversation afterwards.

And the shepherd left ninety-nine safe animals in open country to do it, which no risk assessment would approve of. Jesus does not appear to think that is a problem.

Tomorrow: a woman, a lamp, and a coin that has no idea it is lost.

For now — you are worth going after. You always were.

Listen to Day 1 and the other seventeen parables in the app. Every story is told aloud, softly, over quiet music — about twelve minutes a day.

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Days 2–18: one parable each morning

Short summaries of the remaining sessions. Each full session is around 1,100 words and takes about twelve minutes to listen to.

Day 2 · The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8–10)

“Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost coin.”

A sheep at least wanders; a coin does nothing at all. It's lost entirely because it was dropped, doesn't know it's lost, and can't begin to help. Some people are far from God because of choices they made — the sheep is for them. Some are far because of something that happened to them, and have no memory of deciding anything. The coin is for those people, and it sits in the middle of the three on purpose. And in this story, God is pictured as a woman sweeping a house.

Day 3 · The Son Who Came Home (the Prodigal Son) (Luke 15:11–24)

“While he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.”

An elderly man of standing did not run; it meant gathering his robe and exposing his legs in the street. The father runs because of what's waiting between the boy and the front door — a village that knows what he did. He takes the shame onto himself so his son doesn't have to walk through it. And the rehearsed speech has three sentences. The son gets through two. He never says the third — make me like one of your hired servants. The father interrupts the negotiation.

Day 4 · The Brother Who Stayed (Luke 15:25–32)

“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”

Written for the listener who is the elder brother, not to expose her. All these years I have served you — the verb is a slave's. He's been at home with full access to everything and has experienced it as employment, and nobody in the house noticed until the music started. The younger son knew he had nothing; the older had everything and couldn't enjoy it, because the accounting never came out right. And the father's answer isn't a rebuke: child, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

Day 5 · The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37)

“Go and do likewise.”

The lawyer asks who is my neighbour? — a question about categories, and about who can be safely excluded. Jesus doesn't answer it. He tells a story and asks which man was a neighbour, making the word a role and putting the questioner in it. You don't have a neighbour; you are one or you aren't. And this session is fair to the priest and the Levite: their reasons may have been serious and religious. Whatever they were, they didn't survive contact with a man in a ditch.

Day 6 · The Sower (Luke 8:4–15)

“By persevering, they produce a crop.”

Four soils, three failing in different ways. The path is hard ground — usually a long story, not a moral failing. The rocky ground is quick joy with nowhere for a root to go. But watch the thorns: worries, riches, pleasures. None of them wicked — the standard contents of an ordinary comfortable life. And the verb is choked: not attacked, crowded out slowly. That's how most people lose faith gradually. No crisis, no argument; the plant gets less light every year.

Day 7 · The Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5–13)

“Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”

First a misreading cleared away: God is not the grumpy man in bed, worn down by noise. It's an argument from lesser to greater — if even he gets up, how much more the One who isn't asleep. Then the word: anaideia, shamelessness, a total absence of embarrassment about asking. In an honour culture where a guest must be fed, the quality commended isn't faith or eloquence. It's the willingness to be a nuisance about something that matters.

Day 8 · The Rich Fool (Luke 12:13–21)

“One's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Count the pronouns: in four verses he says I or my about eleven times. My crops, my barns, I will say to myself. No wife, no workers, no neighbours, no poor, no God — not one other person anywhere in his thinking. The harvest happened to him; building storage is what any competent farmer would do. The sin isn't wealth. It's a whole life that has become a private arrangement between a man and his own soul. And then God speaks, which almost never happens in a parable.

Day 9 · Lamps Lit (Luke 12:35–40)

“He himself will come and wait on them.”

A master comes home late from a wedding, finds the lamps lit — and tucks up his robe, sits his servants at the table and serves them. No first-century household worked like that, and Jesus states it as a plain promise. Months later, on the last night, He got up from supper and did exactly that with a towel. Then a stranger picture beside it: He compares His coming to a burglar's, for the one property a thief has — nobody knows when.

Day 10 · One More Year (the Barren Fig Tree) (Luke 13:6–9)

“Sir, leave it alone again this year.”

Three years with no fruit, and the owner says cut it down. The gardener doesn't argue the tree is fine. He accepts the whole case and asks for time, offering himself: I will dig around it and fertilise it. Digging round the roots means cutting into them; the fertiliser was manure. Disturbance and dung, applied for twelve months to a tree that has done nothing to earn either — a fair description of a good many seasons that turned out to be the making of somebody.

Day 11 · The Mustard Seed and the Yeast (Luke 13:18–21)

“Until all of it was leavened.”

Mustard, once in a garden, goes where it likes; yeast, once in dough, can't be picked out. Nobody expected the kingdom of God to arrive like a weed and a lump of leaven — they expected an army. And both work invisibly. Nobody has ever watched yeast rise; you look at dough for an hour and see nothing, and come back to find it doubled. The absence of visible progress is not evidence of no progress.

Day 12 · The Great Banquet (Luke 14:15–24)

“Come, for everything is now ready.”

Take the excuses one at a time. Nobody buys a field without seeing it, or ten oxen untried. They aren't lies exactly — they're polite fictions everyone in the room would recognise. And all three are good things: property, livestock, a marriage. Nobody turns the banquet down for something shameful. Reasons are what people produce after they've already decided not to come. Then the guest list is torn up and rewritten: the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame.

Day 13 · Counting the Cost (Luke 14:25–33)

“First sit down and count the cost.”

Large crowds were travelling with Him — the position every movement wants — and He turns round and talks about cost in terms plainly chosen to reduce the numbers. Every other movement inflates; He deflates, at the moments He's most popular. The builder's problem is humiliation: a half-finished tower everyone points at on the way home. The king's is different, and his answer is the surprising part: send a delegation and ask for terms.

Day 14 · The Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1–13)

“Use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves.”

The master praises the manager for acting shrewdly, not well; Luke calls him dishonest in the same breath. What's held up is a single quality, and Jesus names it with open exasperation: the sons of this age are more shrewd than the sons of light. Crooks tend to be more decisive than saints. He understood that his time was short and his position about to change completely — and he moved the same day.

Day 15 · The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31)

“A beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate.”

The most damning line is the rich man's own: send Lazarus. He knows his name. He has known it the whole time. Even in torment he treats him as staff. And the story doesn't say he was cruel — no kicking, no moving him on. He simply stepped over him, every day, in purple and fine linen, past a man covered in sores. Not cruelty. Habituation. The only character given a name in any of Jesus's parables is the beggar.

Day 16 · The Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1–8)

“Pray at all times and do not lose heart.”

The same shape as the friend at midnight, told again in different clothes: an unattractive character who gives in anyway, because the worse the character, the stronger the argument. The judge admits he fears neither God nor man; he isn't a picture of God, he's the furthest thing from God the story could find. The parable is really about the widow — no standing, no money, no advocate — whose entire strategy is to come back. Pray at all times and do not lose heart.

Day 17 · The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9–14)

“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

The Pharisee isn't lying. Everything in his prayer is accurate — he fasted and tithed at rates most people would find punishing. If this were about hypocrisy it would be easier, because none of us believe we're one. His prayer has no request in it, and it has another human being in it as furniture: he locates the worst man in the temple and uses him as a measuring stick. Envy and contempt are the same operation pointed in different directions. The tax collector compares himself to nobody.

Day 18 · The Tenants and the Son (Luke 20:9–19)

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

For seventeen mornings Jesus has stood outside these stories. Here He walks into one: the beloved son, sent last, killed by tenants who reckon the property will be theirs. He describes what His hearers are about to do, to their faces, in the temple courts — and they knew it was about them. Then He ends with a psalm about a building site: the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

How to use this study

Keep days 1–4 together. Luke 15 is one answer to one complaint. The elder brother on day 4 only works straight after the prodigal on day 3.
Stop on the one thing. Each session picks a single detail. Resist looking up the "full meaning" afterwards; the detail is the point.
Notice which character you are. Most of us are the elder brother more often than the prodigal, and the Pharisee more often than the tax collector. The sessions are written for that, gently.
With a small group. Luke 15 as one meeting, then two parables a week. Parables are the easiest part of the Bible to discuss well.
Next. The Sermon on the Mount walk is the natural companion — Jesus's teaching without the stories.

Frequently asked questions

Which parables are in this plan?

Eighteen parables from Luke: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son, the elder brother, the good Samaritan, the sower, the friend at midnight, the rich fool, the watchful servants, the barren fig tree, the mustard seed and yeast, the great banquet, counting the cost, the shrewd manager, the rich man and Lazarus, the persistent widow, the Pharisee and the tax collector, and the wicked tenants.

Why only Luke?

Luke has more of Jesus's parables than any other gospel, including several found nowhere else — the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the rich fool, the shrewd manager, the rich man and Lazarus, the persistent widow, and the Pharisee and the tax collector. Staying in one gospel keeps the context of each story intact.

Why are the first four days all Luke 15?

Because Jesus told the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son in a single sitting, as one answer to one complaint: 'this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.' Days 1–4 keep them together and in order, and Day 4 (the elder brother) only works after Day 3.

Does each session explain the whole parable?

No, on purpose. Each session tells the story and then stops on one thing — the father running, the eleven 'I's in the rich fool, the fact that the rich man knew Lazarus's name. Parables reward a single observation more than a survey, and explaining everything is the main way they get flattened.

How long is each day?

About twelve minutes. Each session is a guided reading of roughly 1,100 words: you arrive, hear the parable, sit with one line, consider it, pray, and carry one sentence into the day.

Is the parable of the persistent widow saying God has to be nagged?

No. Like the friend at midnight, it's an argument from lesser to greater: if even an unjust judge who admits he fears neither God nor man gives in, how much more will God — who is neither indifferent nor asleep. The judge is the contrast, not the comparison.

Which Bible translation is used?

The Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Every session works with any translation you already read.

Do I need the app?

No. The schedule and Day 1 are here in full. In the HER Hallow app each parable is told aloud with music, about twelve minutes a day.

Can I use it with a small group?

Yes — parables are ideal for groups. Do Luke 15 (days 1–4) as one meeting, then one or two parables a week. Each session's single observation makes a good opening question.

Eighteen stories, told aloud to you. The HER Hallow app has Parables of Jesus and twelve other walks — Bible reading plans for women you can listen to.

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Written by the HER Hallow team.