I will go to my father

There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “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. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “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! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“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.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 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. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 ”‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 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.


Questions and Answers

How does God, the model, the original Father respond to rebellion and wrongness in his kids? Obviously, the children in question in our text, and Adam and Eve, are adults, and what applies at 20 years old may not apply the same way at 15 or 5. But it’s true, regardless of our age: God has the power to force compliance – whether by fear or by brute force – and he doesn’t. Because love and loving obedience are what he’s looking for in us, and love can’t be forced. So the Father, in love, lets the son learn in the hard school of experience a lesson that he’s refused to learn at home. He lets him go.
It’s interesting to see what his father sends with him – apart from his share of the inheritance. Look at the story. When the son has fallen on hard times, he gets a job. Whatever he could find, and it wasn’t much. His employer treats him like dirt. And it occurs to him – my father’s not like that. He’s never treated workers that way.
17 “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!
His father had lived an example of decency and fairness, the memory of which the son took with him. The son saw how the world acted, and remembered how his father acts, and he saw a difference. And it drew him home. You can imagine, if he’d seen little difference, there would have been little reason to change direction. Fathers – and mothers – I hope you can see a lesson there.
So he carried with him the testimony of his father’s life. But that wasn’t all. When he was in the pigsty contemplating his next move, he said,
18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
It’s hard to imagine that during the course of his revelries, or there in the pigsty, he’s heard much preaching. So if he knew a sin against heaven when he saw one, it’s knowledge he left home with. He’d been taught the Word of God. He’d learned that sin had to be dealt with. He didn’t come home saying, Well, Dad, you’ll be happy to hear, I’ve decided to come back. And even when it became obvious that there was welcome in store, he had to get the words out: Father, I have sinned. “When he came to his senses,” it says. He’d known the truth, and when he came to consider it, it drew him back to his Father.
You could wonder, did he know he’d be accepted back? Difficult to say. The fattened calf would have been a surprise, anyway. But if he didn’t know the depth of his father’s mercy, he knew that whatever mercy he found was more than he deserved, and he believed at least enough to try.
We’ve been looking at fatherhood and how God intended it, and how he himself models it in his relationship with us, his children. Our text gives us one last picture. The lost son’s brother comes home, and he’s spitting venom. It’s one thing to deal with a child who comes home saying, Father, I have sinned. And quite another to deal with a child who comes saying, Look, all these years I’ve been slaving for you, and never once . . . Yet the same patient love that was shown to the penitent prodigal he now extends to the bitter, self-righteous Pharisee, to bring him also into the joy of forgiveness and grace.
31 ”‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 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

GOD BLESS YOU

LAWRENCE AND JULIE