The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Week 6: Chapter 5 — The Great, Compassionate Deal
Read Chapter 5 of The Ragamuffin Gospel. Key passage: Isaiah 43:1-4; Luke 15:1-7 (The Lost Sheep).
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Manning now focuses on the extraordinary compassion of God — not a distant, detached deity watching from above, but a Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one who is lost.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Manning describes the compassion of God as something visceral and consuming — the Hebrew word for compassion (rachamim) comes from the word for 'womb,' suggesting a mother's fierce, instinctive love. How does that image reshape your sense of what God feels toward you?
2.Read Luke 15:1-7. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find the one. What does this say about the value God assigns to a single lost person — even one who wandered away through their own choices?
3.Manning insists that God's compassion is not pity — it is not a condescending 'tsk tsk' from a distance, but an entering into our pain and lostness. Have you experienced that kind of compassion from another person? How did it change you?
a.Have you ever experienced God's compassion in a moment of failure or lostness? What did it feel like?
b.Is it easier for you to believe that God is compassionate toward others than toward yourself? Why might that be?
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