Does Jesus practice what He preaches?
I've known the parable of "The Prodigal Son" since my teenage years but it is "making a comeback" in my life in recent months. I am amazed at the grace shown by the Father because, to my mind, the returning son deserved something very different to what he received. I am confronted by the self-righteous attitude of the older brother who had a relationship with his father that was based on works and performance. In his heart he was just as far removed relationally as was his younger brother geographically.
At this point in my journey, I find myself wondering what would have happened had the younger son, having been reconciled and restored, had another 'brain-snap', returned to that distant land and then, coming to his senses yet again, came back to his father seeking forgiveness? Would the father have welcomed his son a second time? What about a third time? A fourth time? At what point would he exhaust his father's grace and forgiveness? At what point, if any, do we exhaust the forgiveness and grace of God?
Jesus taught that we are to forgive others seventy times seven which, incidentally is not a statement that sets an arbitrary mathematical figure. I have long since understood that Jesus was teaching limitless forgiveness. But does He practice what He preaches? I'm sure the answer has to be, "Yes, He does". But my struggle is that such extravagant grace and forgiveness is open to all kinds of abuse. Shouldn't we be protecting God's grace from such abuse? What about, "Three strikes and you're out!"?That would be a more reasonable and just application of grace, wouldn't it?
I have a sneaking suspicion that the father would have run to receive his son as many times as his son returned from that distant land. I can't escape the idea that such is the grace of God. Unlike us, God's grace is inexhaustible.
