“But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” Luke 15:20b
Do you ever have a disconnect from the way God is portrayed
in the Bible and your perception of God based on your own experiences or
feelings? We may think that God will resemble our parents or authority figures
from our childhood (cf. Psalm 50:21). For example, if you had a rigid and
perfectionistic father or father figure, you could never measure up to his
demands no matter how hard you tried. Because of this, you view God as
Someone who is impossible to please. He does not forgive nor forget sins.
And when you mess up!?! Watch out! His cruel side is manifested. He seems to
delight in sending financial disaster or physical disease to emphasize His
intolerance of your spiritual failures. Understandably, it is difficult for
you to approach God and experience His forgiveness and love when you have
this kind of distorted view of Him.
The Bible gives
us a beautiful picture of God the Father in Luke 15. When “all the tax
collectors and the sinners drew near to” Jesus to listen to His teaching,
the religious leaders of Israel were critical of Christ for associating with
spiritual outcasts (Luke 15:1-2). Christ responds by telling three parables (parable
= an earthly story that teaches spiritual truth) to teach these religious
leaders that when a sinner returns to God it is reason for celebrating
instead of complaining (15:3-32).
After telling
parables about a lost sheep and a lost coin, Jesus tells a parable about the
love of a father toward his two sons (Luke 15:11-32). The youngest son asked for his “portion” of his father’s inheritance, and the father graciously gave both sons
theirs (15:12). Normally in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day, the inheritance
did not pass to the heirs until the death of the father. To request it prior to
the father’s death, was like wishing for the father to die. The youngest son then
“journeyed to a far country, and there
wasted his possessions with prodigal living” (15:13).
When a “severe famine” came to that land, the son “began to
be in want” because of his wasteful living (15:14).
He got a job in the fields feeding “swine,” which is something any self-respecting Jew would only do our of desperation
(15:14-15). The son had sunk so low that he longed to eat pig’s food because “no one gave him anything” to eat (15:16).
Have you ever wasted the resources God has
given you? Just as the youngest son “wasted his possessions with prodigal
living” (15:13), so also when we stray away
from God we waste the the resources God has placed in our possession. Time
spent out of touch with God is an enormous waste of time, energy, strength,
ability, and opportunity. When we are restored to the Lord, may experience
profound regret for what has been wasted during our time of separation from
God. This is especially true when the separation has lasted for years, as it
sometimes does. I wonder how many of us have
ever wandered so far away from God that we were willing to do anything just to
survive? But no matter where we turned, we could
not find one person on earth who showed us any compassion? We were all alone
and destitute. Our stomach and our soul were empty. We may cry out, “Where
are you God!?! Why have you abandoned me!?!” This is the place the youngest
son had come to. Thankfully the story does not end there.
At this point of absolute brokenness, the son “came
to himself” (15:17). He repented or changed his mind and decided to “go” back to his father (15:18a). He planned to confess his sin and his unworthiness to be his father’s son (15:18a-19a), and then ask to
be one of his father’s “hired servants” because he knew his father paid his servants well (15:19b; cf. 15:17).
This son thought he would have to work for His father’s love and acceptance.
How many of us perceive our Father in heaven
to be this way? We think that when
we fail God spiritually, the only way He could ever accept us and love us is to
pay for our own sins with self-hatred and condemnation? We may rehearse in our
minds what we will do for God before we approach Him. We assume that the only
way God will ever accept us and forgive us is to work so hard or punish
ourselves so much, God will eventually have compassion for us and forgive us. This kind of thinking fails to understand the
heart of our heavenly Father. Nor is this
thinking from the Lord. It is from the father of lies (John 6:44) who delights
in accusing God’s children (Revelation 12:10). When we fail, Satan whispers in
our ear, “This is how God thinks of you. He thinks you are unloveable and
unforgivable. He thinks you are worthless and pathetic. The only way He could
possibly ever forgive you or love you is for you to do this and this and this
and this…” These lies drive us deeper into a pit of shame, isolating us from
God.
But this is depressing. Let’s look at
the father’s response when his son returns home. “But when he was
still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell
on his neck and kissed him” (15:20). When the father “saw” his
prodigal son coming home from “a great way off,” it suggests he was continually watching and
waiting for his son’s return. He longed for his son to come home. This is
the way God is with us when we wander away from Him. He leaves the porch
light on every night, looking for our return.
The father did not reject his son by running into the house
and locking the doors. He did not scold or condemn his repentant wayward son.
Instead he “had compassion” on his son. This shows that the father had
some knowledge of his son’s immorality and misfortunes – probably from reports
about him (cf. 15:13, 30). He empathized with his son’s brokenness and need for
acceptance and love after his wayward journey. God is also this way with us. He
is not quick to criticize or condemn us because He knows our weaknesses and
how much we need His mercy and grace when we have failed (cf. Psalm
103:11-14).
When the father “ran” out toward his son, this was
very unusual for any Jewish father to do. It was not acceptable for him to run
out like that in the Jewish culture of that day. But in the father’s eagerness
to restore his son to fellowship, the father ran to him. God is that way with
us. He is not apathetic and cold toward us when we fail. He is not bound by
culturally acceptable expressions of love and forgiveness. He is eager to
forgive us and restore us to fellowship or closeness with Him.
When the father “fell on his neck” he embraces and
hugs him. Then the father “kissed him” which was a friendly sign of
greeting like a warm handshake in American culture. This is a very affectionate
reception from the father. Imagine how this young man must have felt?! Before
he could begin his rehearsed speech, he already had his father’s total
unconditional love and acceptance. Likewise, God is not cold and calculating
toward his repentant children. He embraces us and welcomes us home when we
repent. But it does not stop there.
When the son began his rehearsed speech, he could not even
get to the part about becoming a hired servant of his father (15:21). His
father interrupted him and said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe
and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And
bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry”
(15:22-23). What is the father doing here? I believe the father knew his son’s
heart. He was not focused on all the immoral and shameful living of his son. He
was not uptight about his son’s sin and shame. He saw the heart of his son
which longed to be connected to his father’s heart. Instead of making his son a
hired servant, the father bestowed the symbols of honor (“best robe”),
authority (“ring”), and freedom (“sandals”) on him. Sandals were
marks of a free man, but slaves went barefooted.
The forgiveness from the father is complete and and his son
does not need to feel as if he is a forever second-class Christian, as if he
now served God as a mere hired servant. He is now able to enjoy all the
privileges of sonship, symbolized by the robe, the ring, and the sandals.
Then his father prepared a banquet for his son because his
“son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found” (15:24). The
father felt the absence of his son as deeply as if he had died (“dead”),
because he had totally lost contact with him. So the death he is referring to
is a separation from the father. Their reunion is like a glorious coming to
life and a joyful rediscovery of the shared father-son experience. Any father
who has long been separated from a son whom he loves dearly can fully relate to
these words.
Years ago,
a young man had a verbal argument with his father and left home. He continued
to keep in touch with his mother, and wanted very badly to come home for
Christmas, but he was afraid his
father would not allow him. His mother wrote to him and urged him to come home,
but he
didn’t feel he could until he knew his father had forgiven him. Finally,
there was no time for
any more letters. His mother wrote and said she would talk with the father, and
if he had forgiven him, she would tie a white rag on the tree which grew right
alongside the railroad tracks near their home, which he could see before the
train reached the station. If there was no rag, it would be better if he went
on.
So, the
young man started home. As the train drew near his home; he was so nervous he
said to his friend who was traveling with him, “I can’t bear to look.
Sit in my place and look out the window. I’ll tell you what the tree looks like
and you tell me whether there is a rag on it or not.” So, his friend
changed places with him and looked out the window. After a bit the friend said,
“Oh yes, I see the tree.” The son asked, “Is there a
white rag tied to it?” For a moment, the friend did not say anything.
Then he turned, and in a very gentle voice said, “There is a white
rag tied to every limb of that tree!”
That, in a
sense, is what God is saying to us in Luke 15. The truth is all of us are like the prodigal son.
He can represent a non-Christian whose repentance or change of mind about his
sinful lifestyle leads him to come home to His Creator God and believe in Jesus
for complete forgiveness of sins, much like Cornelius in Acts 10. You may be
seeking God by going to church and giving money to it, or by trying to clean up
your life. But you are not saved from your sins by any of those things you do
in your search for God (Isaiah 64:6). You are saved by believing or trusting in
Jesus alone for His gift of salvation (John 3:16; Ephes. 2:8-9). God is
inviting you to come home to Him just as you are. He is waiting to welcome
you into His family and make you His beloved son or daughter forever the moment
you trust in Jesus alone (John 1:12; 10:28-29).
But the prodigal son can also represent a Christian who has
drifted away from fellowship with God to explore the pleasures of the world.
Being dissatisfied with the world’s empty pleasures, he decides to “come
home” to God by confessing his sin to the Lord and claiming His cleansing
forgiveness (I John 1:9). We do not have to work for this restoration. There
are no hoops to jump through or obligations to fulfill. Simply come home to
your Father in heaven and He will lovingly welcome you and restore your fellowship
or closeness to Him.
Whether we are coming home to God for the first time for
salvation from hell through faith in Jesus or for the hundredth time as a
believer to restore our fellowship with God, the Father is waiting with open arms and an open heart. Will you come
home to Him now?
Prayer: Oh my Father in heaven, how I have longed to
hear these truths about You. Oh. May I call You Pa Pa? I feel closer to You
when I call You that. So much of my understanding about You has been based on
my own experiences and feelings as a child and as an adult with other
Christians. I have thought of You as a mean old man sitting up in heaven with a
big hammer waiting to strike me the moment I say, think, or do something wrong.
But Your Word tells me that You are not a mean out of control man. You are a
tender loving Father who eagerly waits and watches for His wayward child to come
home so You can wrap Your loving arms around him and tell him he is loved and
safe in Your arms. Please Pa Pa, heal the holes in my heart so I may experience
Your love more fully and begin to see myself as You see me. I am Your beloved
son who has access to all that You possess because of my relationship with Your
only perfect Son, Jesus Christ. I am so glad to know that You are much more
concerned about my heart than my past.
My past is gone now. I am totally forgiven and loved by You. I am not a
second-class Christian. I am a beloved child of God who can now enjoy all the
privileges of sonship. And I am with You forever, never to be alone again.
Thank You for restoring the joy of my salvation. Thank You that I am no longer
defined by the darkness, but by the light of Your love. Please help me to walk
in Your light and love. With much love, Pa Pa. In Jesus’ name. Amen.