Unreasonable Grace

West Virginia Mountains in September, East of Elkins

One more post about the Father and his two sons.

If you look at the 15th chapter of Luke, it is actually three parables.  I think we miss comparisons like this because we so often focus on one part of scripture, without looking around it in the bible.

Right before the "Prodigal son" story are two others:

1. The Parable of the Lost Sheep -- The shepherd leaves behind 99 sheep in order to go and find the one that is lost.
2. The Parable of the Lost coin --  A woman stops everything she is doing, lights a lamp and searches the entire house until she finds one coin (even though she still has nine of them).
3. The Parable of the Father and two sons -- The father welcomes back the lost son.

Is it reasonable for the shepherd to leave 99 sheep and look for one?  Is it a wise use of time for the woman to spend all day searching for one coin?  Isnt' it foolish for the father to welcome back the son after everything he did?

Perhaps Jesus is calling us to this kind of unreasonable, unwise foolishness in our own faith.  There are those who will judge you as foolish as you pursue those who are lost.  It is an unreasable command from God.  It is probably unwise, but do it anyway.

This is grace.