The love of the father that is demonstrated in this parable is
a kind of love that is seldom seen in is world. It does not judge. It does not
lecture. It offers itself to the other without regard for recompense or return.
It is, in short, the love that God shows His own children.
Remember that the parable mentions nothing of the prodigal
son longing to be with his father. His concern was his stomach. He was so
desperate for something to eat that he was willing to go and hire himself out
to his father that he might survive. When we analyze his motives deeply enough
we realize that they were entirely selfish – he was concerned with
self-preservation. Having squandered all that the father had given him, he came
to the place where his only possibility for survival was to return to his
father’s household.
Place yourself in the father’s shoes for a moment. Your son
comes to you, not because he loves you and wants your fellowship, but because
he has wasted everything you worked hard to give him. Now what he wants is to
live in your household again so that he may benefit again from your kindness.
Which of us would accept him without condition? Which of us would not lay down
new ground rules? Which of us would run to him and embrace him, dress him in
the finest clothes and jewelry and put on a feast in his honor? Be honest.
But this father is different. This father is God. Part of
the reason that people have such a hard time accepting the grace of God is, as
Brennan Manning puts it in The Ragamuffin Gospel, God’s love seems somewhat
embarrassing and undignified. It demands nothing from us. As I said in the post
two days ago, as soon as we decide in our hearts to return home He accepts us
with joy. It makes no difference that we go for self-preservation rather than
with great contrition and sacrifice. He, like the father of the parable, is not
interested in our sacrifices and offerings, but in us. If he can have us, that
is enough. “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is
found.” (Luke 15:24 ESV)
Jesus was frequently hard toward the religious people of his
day, which makes the response of the father to the older son even more interesting.
The older son, legalistically working to please the father, feels that he has
earned what the younger son has not – the father’s favor. He represents those
in bondage to religion; anything that we feel we must do to please God. In the
parable, the father does not resent what the older son has done for him, but
seems almost to pity him for not having realized that his love was not earned
by works, but freely given. “You are my
son. That is why I love you. Why do you work so hard to please me as if I were
not already pleased?” In his response I hear the words of Christ echoing from
Luke 10:
And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:39-42 ESV)
Do you see that Christ is not reprimanding Martha for her ‘doing’,
but seemingly expresses pity that she cannot enjoy the wonder of a relationship
with him as her sister does? In the same way, the father of the parable desires
to have the same relationship with both sons. He does not desire that they ask his
forgiveness nor work to please him, but only that they allow him to love them.
In that love alone, both are secure. The
prodigal is accepted despite his past and the older son finds rest from his labor.
There are two things that are difficult to comprehend in
this parable. One, as we have already said, is the love of God toward us. It is
so wonderfully unconditional as to be ridiculous – it is humiliating. If you want
to know true humility, allow the God who created the universe to love you in
this way and then try to be proud. The second, the harder of the two, is that
this is how God expects us to love others. Walk the extra mile. Turn the other
cheek. Give them the shirt off your back. Accept the prodigal who abused you just because
he is starving and not because he loves you. Set captives free from
their bondage to pleasing you.
We do not know how things progressed in this family. We don’t
know if the prodigal continued to abuse his father’s kindness or if his brother
continued to work to gain approval that was already his. That’s not the point. God extends his peculiar kind of love to us regardless of how
we reciprocate. But in receiving that peculiar love we find the only thing that
gives us enough security to be able to give it back and out. That’s the point.
God Bless
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