Week 5: Chapter 4 — Lovesick Father

1.Yancey returns to Luke 15 in this chapter but digs deeper into the character of the father. What details in the parable — the running, the robe, the ring, the fatted calf — does Yancey highlight as expressions of grace that would have shocked Jesus' original audience?

2.He also draws on Hosea 11, where God aches over wayward Israel like a parent watching a child pull away: "How can I give you up, Ephraim?" What does this passage add to our picture of grace? Does it change anything to see God's grace framed in terms of grief and longing rather than just forgiveness?

3.Yancey argues that the parable of the prodigal son is really the parable of the prodigal father — with "prodigal" meaning recklessly extravagant. In what ways is God's grace recklessly extravagant? Does that word — reckless — feel like good news or does it make you nervous? Why?