Forgiveness

One of the key themes in the story of the prodigal is forgiveness. I'm curious what kind of community would we become if we took this kind of forgiveness seriously? One of the key distinctions of the forgiveness in this story is that the Father does not make the son come to him, rather he takes the initiative and goes to his son. He pursues the son not knowing what he would find when he embraced his son. He risks another rejection, more humiliation, further requests for more money.This is so contrary to how we pursue forgiveness in our culture. We usually wait. . . for them to apologise, to repent, we wait for a sense justice on our part before we forgive them if they satisfy our requirements. In scripture, there is always the burden of those who have found the radical grace and love of Christ to initiate forgiveness regardless of the person and circumstances. But . . .but . . . we say and excuse ourselves because our focus is on the pain they caused us and not Christ. So we continue to live with our pain and fail to release it through the power of forgiveness. Now just imagine what a forgiving community would look like in our culture and dream of the possibilities of reconciled relationships through the love and grace of our Lord and Savior.