One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World Read Free Page B

What an unwise father. If this father had been steeped in the proverbial wisdom of the Bible, he would have never made such a foolish mistake. But the father knows something we don’t. He knows that in order to win the heart of his son, he has to risk losing him altogether by giving him something even more dangerous and reckless than what he asked for. He has to give him grace.
    Sure enough, the son goes out and blows his inheritance on women and wine. When he finally wakes up and finds himself in a pigsty, he takes the only option left to him—namely, to get up and sheepishly return to his father. On the way back home, he rehearses his speech:
    Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. (Luke 15:18–19)
    Of course, his father has been waiting for this moment, and when, from a distance, he sees the bedraggled boy coming, he feels such great compassion and love that he runs out and embraces his son. Then, in a radically undignified manner, the father falls in the dirt and hugs his child’s legs. The son launches into his groveling speech, but before he can get the lines out, the father clothes him in the best robe and puts a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. He restores his lost son’s status before the son even has the chance to say or do anything . The son brings nothing to the table; it is a one-way transaction. Why? Because the father already has one son who thinks he’s a hired servant. He doesn’t need another.
    Note that the father never once says, “I will welcome you back only if you detail for me all the mistakes you have made, so I can determine whether you’re truly sorry and ready to be part of the family again.” Think of that! The father doesn’t demand anything from this son, who has put him through so much pain. He does not insist on emotional, financial, or legal consequences. He doesn’t drag the boy into court or make him stand up in front of the local religious leaders and do penance. Instead he rewards him. He gives him the very opposite of what he deserves. The father knows that his son is already acutely aware of his guilt and shame—the boy knows what he has done—what he needs is to be forgiven.
    Brennan Manning, an author who knew a whole lot more about one-way love than I ever will, summed it up this way:
    My message, unchanged for more than fifty years, is this: God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be. It is the message of grace.… A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wages as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party no ifs , ands , or buts .…
    This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us.… Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try to find something or someone it cannot cover. Grace is enough.… Jesus is enough. 1
    Needless to say, in our everyday lives, bad behavior and poor performance are rarely met with this kind of response. Punishment and reproach are much more common—and reasonable. People need to be held accountable for their actions! There must be consequences! “We are not doormats,” we tell ourselves. The truth is, we are much more comfortable with conditionality, with two-way relationships in which we love those who treat us well and punish those who hurt us, than we are with anything resembling unconditional love. Regardless of how much we may want others to be merciful with us, when the tables are turned, we find it virtually impossible not to judge. Yet we also know that those times when we’ve caught glimpses of grace have been transformative—maybe not immediately, but eventually. During those rocky teenage years I experienced both.
    A TALE OF TWO