It is usually instructive to pay attention to the setting of Jesus' parables. Thus, the setting for the three "parables of mercy" of Luke 15 is clearly indicated: "The tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus". Clearly, we are to understand that they gathered around because they found meaning in Jesus' words and found that meaning attractive. But it was not really to them that Jesus addressed His three parables. Rather, He directed His words to those who were not gathering round to hear Him, but were rather hovering on the edge of the crowd with an attitude of antipathy and hostility: the murmuring Pharisees and scribes. The tax-collectors and the sinners needed to hear about God's mercy also, of course, but not quite in the terms of these parables. They had a more direct experience: they already experienced how God searched for them in Jesus, as a woman searches for a lost coin or a man for a lost sheep. Before they heard these parables, they had already in the person of Jesus experienced their truth. The Pharisees and scribes, however, had not reached the same level of experience or understanding: they had much to learn about compassion, acceptance and forgiveness.