The Love of the Father

To the moon and back

One of the pleasures of having small children is being able to read many of the really sweet books written for them. I’m talking about the books with big illustrations and a short story. My youngest, Josephine, is starting to get to the age of reading chapter books, although occasionally it’s nice to get out some of the good ones.

One that some of you might be familiar with, is the story “Guess how much I love you?”

It’s a very simple story. It has big nut brown hare putting little nut brown hare to bed.

Little nut brown hare asks the question: ‘Guess how much I love you?’

We then get this little cute exchange, where Little Nutbrown Hare reaches out his arms as wide as they’ll go and says, ‘I love you this much!’ Only for Big Nutbrown Hare to reach out his much bigger arms.

Little Nutbrown Hare keeps thinking of bigger and bigger ways to express his love, finally settling on “…all the way to the moon”. But as little Nutbrown Hare falls asleep, Big Nutbrown Hare says: “I love you all the way to the moon and back”.

It’s quite heartwarming the way it is written and illustrated.

I actually think it contains quite a profound truth. It’s a truth that exists in a parent-child relationship, but this only points to an even greater truth that exists in the relationship with us and God the Father.

The truth is this: A child will love their parent, but that small child won’t fully comprehend the extent of the love that the parent has for the child.

Take a three year old child for example (and I am assuming a healthy family relationship). Yes, they have some level of comprehension that their mum and dad love them. But they don’t understand the sacrifices their mum and dad make to ensure they have a good life. They don’t understand what it takes to ensure they have good food in front of them and a roof over their head. They don’t comprehend the emotional toil it takes to comfort and look after them when they are sick, or the lack of sleep they get just to make sure everything is in order.

As they get older, they might gain a better appreciation, but it’s perhaps not until they are parents themselves that they understand.

I want to suggest that something similar happens in our understanding of the fact that God loves us.

If I were to tell you, ‘God loves you!’, assuming you’re a believer, I’m going to suggest that you’ll agree… ‘yes, God does love me!’.

But it can be like a young child knowing that their mum and dad love them.

As we mature in the faith, it can be a little like the child as they grow and start to appreciate on some level at least, that their parents love involves a great cost. You see, we get these realisations… when I say, God loves me… this is not some empty sentiment… this means something… in fact, it means a lot. We start to see what God’s love for us actually means.

The parable of the prodigal son, is the type of parable, that as we study and meditate on it, where likely to be struck anew at this truth. A truth that is so basic to our Christian faith, and yet a truth so profound, that a lifetime of study will not fully plumb the depth of it.

God loves you!

Background

Well, let’s look at the parable.

Luke 15 contains three parables, and there is something similar in each of them.

They all involve something that was lost and then found again.

The context for giving these parables comes in the first two verses of the chapter.

The first verse tells us that the tax collectors and sinners were gathering round to hear Jesus.

Now when you read ‘tax collector’ we’re effectively talking about the poster boy of sinners.

Most Jews would think of them as traitors. Jewish people who had sold out to the Romans. They would cheat and extort in order to keep for themselves. They were pretty much at the bottom of the social ladder.

And the Pharisees and teachers of the law have taken notice of these lowlife, rotten so-and-so’s, and they were not happy.

Well, Jesus is not about to make excuses about welcoming these people. The three parables effectively says, my love for them is so great… I’m not just going to tolerate their return, I’m going to long for it… in fact, I’m going to celebrate it like it’s the greatest thing.

And so we get the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin - both of which we see the owner go to great length to bring back that which is lost.

But then we come to the parable of the lost son, or the parable of the prodigal son, as we’re perhaps more familiar with it.

The title

Actually, let me just make a few brief remarks about the title of this parable.

Now, we need to remember that titles for these things were not given by the original biblical authors. They come in our modern bible translations by the some editor who wants to break the passage into helpful sections to help us see what is going on.

In the NIV translation that I’m using, it gives it the title, the Parable of the Lost son, which of course highlights the continuity with the previous two parables about lost things.

But in other translations, you will find the title “the parable of the prodigal son”.

The title has become so synonymous with the parable that today when we hear a story of someone returning after some time away, we might use the phrase - ‘the prodigal child returns’. So much so, that I suspect there is a good chance you think the word ‘prodigal’ actually means someone who returns.

But actually, its a word of Latin origin which actually refers to the extravagant, wasteful behaviour. So calling someone a prodigal child, doesn’t mean they’ve returned, the actual word means they’ve lived an extravagant and wasteful life.

However, if we want to give it a title, perhaps calling it the Father’s extravagent love, might actually be a better one, because I want to suggest this is the real focus of what is going on here.

The parable

Well, let’s jump into the parable now and look what it says. I dare say you’re already familiar with it, but it’s such an interesting story, it’s worth going over it and exploring a few aspects of it.

The parable has three main characters, namely the Father and two sons. The younger son will dominate the narrative for the first half and a bit, and we’ll see the older son towards the end.

The young son

Now, what the younger son does at the start of this parable is nothing short of scandalous. He wants his inheritence now.

Now make no mistake, the son is effectively saying, you’re dead to me.

Now, just think for a moment… the absolute heartbreak that the father must be feeling at this point.

The father would have absolutely every right to be angry at this son of his. In fact, the father could simply refuse. It would be very easy for him to just say, no… not happening!

The son could still choose the walk away, but he’d be walking away empty handed.

Now, we can also speculate on what’s going through the son’s head at this point. I’m thinking this has far more to do with his wild dreams of what he feels he’d be able to achieve if he wasn’t so constrained by this father of his, rather than him thinking that his father is a bad man.

Well, whatever the case, the father agrees, and the son leaves, cashed up, and ready to have some fun.

Now, there’s no two ways about it. This son is a fool. He’s got a whole bunch of money, and no idea how to make the most of it. It’s a bit like those sport stars on the mega contracts, who if were wise could invest it wisely, but rather somehow manage to end their career with very little to show for it.

Well, this fool of a son wants to get as far away from his father as he can… setting off for a distant country. This phrase implies that he’s going even beyond the land of the Samaritans, most likely ending up well and truly in Gentile territory.

Quite likely, the first period of time was a wild and thrilling time. It’s easy to imagine that making friends would have been easy, after all, once you start throwing a bit of money around, it doesn’t take long to have some followers.

But what also didn’t take long, was for the money to run out.

This is where the word prodigal comes in - he was being extravagant and wasteful.

Now, sometimes when things turn bad, they turn really bad. He’d made a massive mess of things, but just to make matters even worse, verse 14 tells us that there is a severe famine in his newly adopted country.

It’s worth noting, this prodigal son, he couldn’t control the famine, but a few wise decision might have a least meant he was in a better place to carry himself through the famine.

But not this poor soul. By now, you can imagine his friends have deserted him. His got nothing left. So he hires himself out as a hired hand.

Now, you might think a hired hand might at least be better than being a slave… but you’d be wrong. At least as a slave, your owner has an obligation and even an incentive to keep you fit and healthy.

A hired hand, however… well, you’re on your own. You got no one watching you. You got no support. And if there is a famine, there’s not going to be a whole lot of work for you… so things are going to be pretty tough.

In the end, he finds himself with the pigs. It’s worth keeping in mind at this point that for a Jewish person, pigs are considered unclean - and I’m not just talking about the mud - I’m talking of a religious uncleanness.

Things get so desperate, that this younger son ends up dreaming about eating what the pigs are eating. Now, when this becomes what you’re longing for, you know things have gone very very bad.

Now sometimes, it’s not until we hit rock bottom that we finally wake up to ourselves - probably because at this point we realise we’ve got nothing to lose.

And so you can see the thinking pattern - he’s a hired hand in this country in a famine, if he went back home, even if he remained just a simple hired hand, at least he could make enough money to support himself.

So, he figures the speech out in his head - he’ll come humbly back, and certainly won’t expect a warm welcome. The best he’s hoping for is a job as a hired hand.

The welcome back

Now this is where the story gets truly amazing.

If you just put your self in the shoes of the father… there has been a lot of hurt… he is your son, but there’s a whole lot of reconciliation that needs to be going on about here.

But this is the most extraordinary part. The moment the Father recognises his son walking on the road towards him, he runs out to meet him. Now this is hardly a dignified way for him to go out, but sometimes dignity needs to be chucked out.

The father doesn’t even let his son get the speech out… and I want you to take note of that… even before he utters his words of repentance, the father throws his ar,s around this son of his and kisses him.

Finally the son is able to utter his words of remorse, but the father is already in celebration mode. He brings out the robe, puts a ring on his finger and kills the fattened calf for the celebration feast.

Now some of those things that I just mentioned, which we see in verses 22 and 23, well… it’s worth noting that these are not small insignificant things.

Did you notice, it wasn’t just any robe, it was the best robe - something that signifies a status of great honour. Putting the ring on his finger, well… that represents authority - and it is most unusual giving it to the younger son.

The sandals represent freedom. And the killing of the fattened calf… this is something reserved for the most special relationship.

Now we love this part of the story. It really is so beautiful.

But let’s put our emotional reaction aside a moment and think about this rationally.

This does not make sense.

You know, I’ve been trying my best to train my dog Bentley. Well, you don’t need to be an expert trainer to know that you don’t reward bad behaviour. Rewarding bad behaviour will entrench those bad habits.

If we think about this rationally, it could certainly be argued that the father is rewarding this terrible decision of the son.

Well, I want to suggest that the problem with this thinking is that it doesn’t understand love. It doesn’t understand the power and the ability to completely bring about transformation that love has.

There is a time for discipline, and we’ll find at times God will give us the rebuke that we need, but there is also a time when we just need to hear that we are entirely and fully loved by God. He want tentatively welcome us in.... He won’t just put us on some sort of probation… He will welcome us with full honours. Not because we deserve it… but because of his great love.

The Older Son

But of course, the parable doesn’t end here. From verse 25, the older son comes in to focus.

Now I just mentioned that from a rational perspective, a good argument could be formed to say that what the father has just done is bad form.

Well, the older son was thinking the very same thing. This is not fair!

This son has been obedient, and he doesn’t even get a goat to celebrate with his friends. And just for a bit of context, goats are far more common and far less valuable than a calf.

His insolent younger brother, however, he gets to go have the time of his life, come back, and he gets rewarded for it. Its. Not. Fair!

But do you see what’s happened? This older son has not understood the father’s love.

Had you asked him prior to this - does your father love you? I’m quite confident he would have said yes. But yet, I’d argue he doesn’t even come close to understanding the depth of it.

Just look at how the father responds in verse 31. Now, to be honest, I suspect the older son probably wouldn’t have recognised how amazing this response is, and I think we as believers don’t recognise how amazing it is either.

He says: “My son… you are always with me, and everything I have is yours”.

This older son has been living in the depth of the love of his father all this time. This is the greatest blessing. Sometimes you can get the ‘the grass is green on the other side’ thing happening, but guess what, sometimes the grass is actually greener on your side.

You know, sometimes people might think, look, I could just live a wild and exciting life now, and I’ll become a Christian later.

Now, despite the fact that you never know when you’re going to die, the fallacy of that thinking is actually in thinking that the supposedly wild and exciting life is actually better.

Part of the problem with the older son’s thinking is that it wasn’t that his brother had this amazing time and then came back and rewarded. Sure his younger brother might have had a few thrills along the way, but they would have been momentary glimpses of superficial happiness, followed by long periods of deep despair.

By contrast the older brother is in a constant state of security, with his needs being met, his enjoyment being catered for, and above all, experiecing constant love.

Don’t envy those who are going after the thrills. When you dwell in the house filled with the love of the father, you have the best life imaginable.

Understanding love

We will never fully understand the full depth of the love of the father.

But every now and then, we can be struck afresh what it means to have a father that loves us.

There are many things that can get in the way of our understanding.

This parable has shown two such ways.

The younger son, after a period of rebelliousness, didn’t think love could cover over his selfish and wreckless ways.

The older son, didn’t appreciate how amazing it was to be constantly living in this love.

I wonder if either of these are blocking your way to understanding God’s love better. Perhaps a bit of both.

Perhaps you’ve realised how sinful and wretched you really are - if so, know that God doesn’t want to just tolerate you, he’s ready to give you the full welcome.

But perhaps you’ve also been living as a Christian for a while and have started to lose sight of how wonderful it is. Perhaps you’ve even looked with jealousy at other Christians who from your perspective are just getting an easy ride.

If this is the case, I would encourage you to take the time to dwell on the love of God.

Conclusion

The love of the Father does not always seem to make sense from our perspective. It’s love that reaches out to those who don’t deserve it.

But this is the whole point of Christianity. It’s the reason we have hope. Because at the end of the day, even if we might resonate with the older son more, each of us are that younger son who has turned our back on God and chosen to do things our own way.

The fact that we have any standing in God’s sight at all, is one hundred percent, only to do with the fact of God’s love.

You are loved. God knows everything that is in your past. He knows what you’ve thoughts. He knows what you have said. He knows what you have done. And yet he doesn’t just choose to tolerate you. He chooses to give you the full welcome, where you are given a seat of honour.

Your job, is simply to return back to him.

Let me pray...