"His father ran and kissed him"
A young man and an older man walk along together, talking
about various matters. The young man says to the old man: "Tell me -- I've
studied the Bible, as you know -- but I'd like YOU to tell me... what's the
gospel all about? Give me the key. Tell me what it all means."
What did he expect to hear from the old man? What he did NOT
hear was a list of 25 or 30 doctrines that had to be believed, with a
corresponding number of other doctrines that had to be rejected ('I tell you,
son, believe all these things in the left column, and be sure you don't believe
any of these things in the right column, and get yourself baptized, and I can
guarantee you'll be saved.')
And that is not meant to disparage doctrine at all, nor any
statement of faith. But a statement of faith, or a list of principles with which
one agrees intellectually, is NOT the final object of faith; it is NOT the
reality. After the fundamental ideas have been mastered (and -- make no mistake
--they must be mastered!), we come face to face with the fact that there is
still... something beyond!
The old man stares off into the distance; his eyes are a bit
dim now, but he seems to see something the younger man can't quite make out.
"Son," he says, his voice trembling just a bit, "let me tell you a
story."
*****
The preeminent "picture of redemption" is a simple
story:
"There was a man who had two sons" (Luke 15:11)... And the
father -- it goes without saying -- loved them both, very much.
"The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share
of the estate' " (v 12). The first request we hear from the younger son is "GIVE
ME!" -- as though it had suddenly dawned on this young man that the father had
wealth, and that it "rightfully" should be his!
"So [the father] divided his property between [the two sons]":
The young man was "grown up" now, and ready (so he thought!) to take what was
his and enjoy it. And the father does not say, "No!" Instead, he gives his son
what he asks.
"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had,
set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living" (v
13). "Got together" is a technical expression in the Greek, meaning literally
"to convert to ready cash"; the young man "cashed in" his property; he got his
hands on what he could carry away, and carry it away he did! He was not content
to stay at home; the world was an inviting place. "I'm outta here! Look out,
world, here I come!" He traveled far away, and carelessly wasted all his
father's blessings and gifts.
"After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in
that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out
to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs" (vv
14,15). Pigs! The dirtiest, most despised of animals to a devout Jew! In
desperate circumstances, in a pagan place, he makes an effort to save himself,
by joining with unclean people, and living by unclean practices, and in unclean
ways.
"He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs
were eating, but no one gave him anything" (v 16). It's a fact of life: the
"world" gives nothing away! Nothing, that is, except poverty, and illness, and
regret. Sadly, he came to realize that it was all "vanity and vexation of
spirit". Whatever he begged, or grabbed, or stole from the "world" was never
going to be enough to fill the aching void within himself.
"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's
hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!' " (v 17). The
memory of his father's love, and a safe home, touched him even in the distant
land. "He came to his senses." Here is the place where the angels begin to tune
up their harps, and warm up their voices, for there is about to be joy in heaven
over one sinner who repents!
"I will set out and go back to my father..." (v 18). How he
had suffered, in strange lands, and with strange people. But he had learned a
valuable lesson: Suffering is not punishment if it brings us back
home!
"...and [I will] say to him: Father, I have sinned against
heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me
like one of your hired men' " (vv 18,19): Notice what is here, and why this
story is so powerful:
- First, he is convicted of his
sin!
- Then, he confesses: "I have sinned". No
whitewash, no explaining away, no excuses, just... "I have
sinned."
- He has the profound feeling of not being
good enough: "I am no longer worthy" (news flash: he NEVER was! Nor are
WE!)
- And finally, there is the second request by
the young man to his father. It is no longer "Give me!" That was the first
request, the prayer of youth and greed. Now, instead, there is the prayer of an
older and wiser son: "Father, make me..." "Father, I don't care about what I can
HAVE; I care about what I can BE! Don't GIVE me anything; just MAKE me one of
your servants! MAKE me into something worth keeping
around!"
"So he got up and went to his father" (v 20): What he needed
was a new beginning, and he could only find that new beginning by going back to
where he had come from, by finding his "roots", by going... HOME!
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and
was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him
and kissed him": Even before he got back, his Father was watching, looking down
the road. The Father's hand was stretched out still, and when he saw him in the
distance -- the sad, ragged figure of his once proud young son -- struggling
back up the road to the old homestead, the Father could scarcely contain
himself. He was "filled with compassion." He RAN to his son, with the urgency of
parental love. And he embraced him, and drew him into his bosom. There was no
bitterness, no reservation, no standing upon dignity or formality. The one whom
he had held in his heart, all that long time of wandering, had come home! And
now he held him in his arms.
"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven
and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one
of your hired men' " (v 21): Notice that it was not enough merely to think the
words to himself, as the young man had done before beginning his journey home
(vv 18,19). He had to say them; he had to make a public confession of sin and
unworthiness, in front of witnesses. There had to be no doubt as to his
intentions, in the minds of others or in his own mind.
"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best
robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet' " (v
22). But just as quickly as the confession came, it was over. The evidence of
his past sins was not to be held over his head to shame him, or to keep him in
an inferior position! He had asked only to be one of his father's servants; but
his father now elevates him to the rank of a favored son. His nakedness is
clothed with a garment provided by the father -- and it is the BEST garment:
nothing "second-class" here! And he is given the "ring" of authority as well --
the sign of a son and an heir. He may have squandered his earlier inheritance,
but now he receives another!
"Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and
celebrate" (v 23). The welcome is followed by a special meal of fellowship and
rejoicing.
" 'For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was
lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate" (v 24). What power -- and what
joy -- there is in those two little words: "OF MINE"! Now he belongs to the
father again! His sins and all his past set aside, he is now something worth
keeping! He belongs to the Father! "He will be mine," says the LORD Almighty,
"in the day when I make up my jewels, my treasured possession. I will spare him,
just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him" (Mal 3:16).
"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near
the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and
asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your
father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound' "
(vv 25-27). We need to see clearly here: the older son is to be commended. He
had always been working -- he was not a BAD son! While the younger son had gone
off to live a life of sin and selfishness, the older son had been doing his
duty. And now it looked as though his younger brother had had all his fun, and
was ALSO going to be the father's favorite! It was just not fair!
"[So] the older brother became angry and refused to go in" (v
28). But by keeping himself away from the feast of rejoicing with his younger
brother, he was also keeping himself OUTSIDE his father's "house"!
"So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered
his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed
your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with
my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with
prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' " (vv 28-30). Sure,
there is resentment here; and we can understand, can't we? 'But, Dad, I have
been a better son than he ever was!' And he HAD! But somewhere in the back of
this exchange there is the echo of a prayer uttered in the temple itself: "I
thank you, Lord, that I am not as other men!" And in that echo there is a grave
danger. "We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend
themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves
with themselves, they are not wise" (2Co 10:12).
Besides, how can he now claim perfect obedience when at this
very moment he is going against his father's wishes? One son may have been
"lost" in a far-away land, but this son is showing by his present attitude that
he is "lost" even though he never left home!
" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and
everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this
brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found' " (vv
31,32). Notice how the older son had called the prodigal "this son OF YOURS" (v
30), as though to disclaim all kinship. But the father, gently and patiently,
reinforces that he is "this brother OF YOURS"! Like the sheep that wandered away
from the shepherd and the flock, he was lost and now is found!
The power, and the beauty, of Jesus' story lies also in this:
it is an unfinished story. There is at the end a final, unanswered question: Did
the older brother go into the house again? Or did he remain outside?
The question is left unanswered in the story because we are
expected to answer it, every day, in our own lives.
*****
Some final thoughts:
- We can, all of us, be like the older son.
Forgiving our brother is not an optional matter. It is "heart and soul" of the
gospel. It is the only basis by which we may expect that the Father will forgive
us: "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not
forgive your sins" (Mat 6:14,15).
- We can, all of us, be like the younger son too.
We may not travel to a distant land, to enjoy ourselves in riotous and decadent
living. But we may take little "day trips", short "vacations" and "holidays"
from our duty as children of God. Our lives may consist of many such little
trips away from the Father, and then each time we hurry back, and hope that no
one noticed we were gone. To us too, as well as the really "serious" sinner, the
words of the old hymn apply:
"Oh, Thou who knowest the path we take,
Who seest how OFT we roam,
Reveal Thyself, the living way,
And guide ALL travellers home."
- There is nowhere that we can travel, not the
"farthest country", from which we cannot return to the Father's love. There is
no "pit" so deep -- nor so degraded -- from which we cannot be drawn out by the
"cords of love".
- The Father is always waiting. When men and women
knows they are "starving to death" -- like the prodigal son (v 17) -- then, and
only then, are they ready to come home!
- The Father "runs" to the son, to forgive him and
welcome him home. The Father "rises early and sends the prophets" (2Ch 36:15;
Jer 25:3), beseeching His people to come back to Him. And when we do, then He
"runs" to meet us! Like Abraham with his beloved son Isaac, the Father in heaven
"rose early in the morning" and hastened, with His Son, to the place of
sacrifice (Gen 22:3,6,8). "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God
is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him
up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all
things?" (Rom 8:31,32). We should think of Jesus on the cross as the
outstretched "arms" of God; just as the Son's arms were stretched out and nailed
to the cruel cross, so the Father's arms are stretched out, beckoning us sinners
to come home to Him. "God was reconciling the world to himself IN CHRIST, not
counting men's sins against them" (2Co 5:19).
- The Father has made every effort, and provided
every opportunity, by which we might be drawn to Him and saved. Truly, "a good
measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over", has been poured into
our laps (Luke 6:37,38). "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good
PLEASURE to GIVE you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
*****
If there is any single "picture of redemption" -- above all
others -- in which the gospel, and all of man's hope, and the love of God which
passes understanding, is isolated, and compressed, and comprehended, then it
must be this one. Everything else that we might learn from the pages of
Scripture, everything else that we might glean from a lifetime's experience in
living the Truth in a hard and often cruel world, everything else we might know
of the human condition, and of human need, ought to be set alongside, and
interpreted in the light cast from this simple picture:
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and
was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him
and kissed him" (Luke 15:20).
May it be so for each one of us.
