{"id":565,"date":"2021-03-10T07:41:30","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T12:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=565"},"modified":"2021-03-10T17:48:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T22:48:35","slug":"the-running-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/10\/the-running-father\/","title":{"rendered":"The Running Father"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Throughout Lent, we\u2019re exploring the parables of Jesus \u2013 the two dozen or so stories that were his chief means of describing the reality of God\u2019s rule on earth.\u00a0<\/strong>

Jesus\u2019 most famous story has no official name.\u00a0

Over the centuries it\u2019s been called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, or the Two Brothers, or the Lost Child, or the Unforgiving Sibling, or the Waiting Father.\u00a0

What we know for sure is that there are three characters.\u00a0 There\u2019s the rebellious kid who runs away and makes a mess of his life.\u00a0 There\u2019s the Goody Two Shoes big brother who stays at home admiring his collection of Sunday School perfect attendance pins.\u00a0 And there\u2019s the father of these two boys, who loves them both and doesn\u2019t care who might think he\u2019s foolish for doing so.\u00a0

So who is the main<\/em> character?\u00a0 We can make a case that they all deserve the spotlight.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at each one in turn over the next three days.\u00a0

Jesus\u2019 story, which is found in Luke 15:11-32, begins with the younger son\u2019s demand: \u201cFather, give me my share of the estate.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to overstate the edginess of this request. The Palestinian audience who first heard these words must have been appalled.\u00a0 This young man has committed the ultimate sin.\u00a0

In so many words he has said, \u201cFather, drop dead.\u00a0 You\u2019re no good to me alive.\u00a0 All I want from you is your money that will be mine when you\u2019re gone.\u00a0 So, if you don\u2019t mind, let\u2019s pretend you\u2019re gone now.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to imagine a more painful insult to any parent.

With a breaking heart, the father realizes that his son has no desire to be in relationship with him.\u00a0 So he complies.\u00a0 He divides up the estate.

The boy takes off into the wide, wide world.\u00a0 In Judeo-Christian tradition, this describes the relationship that all of us have with God.\u00a0 Each of us has said, in one way or another, \u201cFather, I wish you were dead.\u00a0 You crowd me.\u00a0 My life would be so much happier if you weren\u2019t hovering over everything I think and say and do.\u00a0 So give me my blessings and leave me alone.\u201d\u00a0

What does God do when we relate to him like that?\u00a0 He says, \u201cGo.\u00a0 Go out and see if life is really happier when you are out of relationship with me.\u201d

Author H.J. Duffy remembers when his teenage son was so excited to try out his new surfboard that he plunged right into the breakers, ignoring the warning flags that had been posted for dangerous surf.\u00a0 Immediately the booming voice of the lifeguard rang out: \u201cYou are an inexperienced surfer.\u00a0 Return to shore.\u201d

Humiliated, the boy returned.\u00a0 He asked the lifeguard how he knew he was a beginner.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s easy.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got your wetsuit on backwards.\u201d

God\u2019s love is such that he doesn\u2019t stand on the seashore of our lives and shout into a megaphone, \u201cYou are an inexperienced, completely ill-prepared rebel.\u00a0 Return home at once.\u201d\u00a0

Incredibly, God lets us go.\u00a0

At first things go brilliantly for the boy in Jesus\u2019 story.\u00a0 He has the time of his life.\u00a0 The word \u201cprodigal\u201d (\u201cexcessive, irresponsible, reckless, and wastefully extravagant\u201d) isn\u2019t found in the original text.\u00a0 But centuries ago it became associated with his over-the-top behavior.\u00a0

He quickly runs through all of his assets in \u201cthe far country.\u201d\u00a0 Once again we turn to the scholar Kenneth Bailey, who observes that this would be the equivalent of his ATM card suddenly being rejected.\u00a0 His friends disappear.\u00a0 Jesus assigns to him the ultimate nightmare job for a Hebrew boy \u2013 feeding pigs.\u00a0

He gradually \u201ccomes to his senses,\u201d as Jesus puts it.\u00a0 He wakes up.\u00a0 He realizes how far away he is from where he started.\u00a0 He not only grasps in his head but feels in his gut his separation from his father.\u00a0 He longs to go home.

But what will his dad do if he ever shows his pig-feeding face around town again?\u00a0

That would be a no-brainer in first century Jewish society.\u00a0 The typical father would beat the living tar out of such a disrespectful son, as a warning to every other boy in the neighborhood.\u00a0 It would be a kind of community service beating.\u00a0

But this boy wonders, in his heart of hearts: Is there a possibility that my <\/em>dad will take me back?\u00a0 He\u2019s haunted by the last look that he saw on his father\u2019s face.

He begins to formulate a plan.\u00a0 He will play Let\u2019s Make a Deal<\/em>.\u00a0 Certain that his relationship with his father is broken beyond repair, he rehearses a little speech.\u00a0 \u201cDad, I don\u2019t even deserve a cot under the eaves of the stable.\u00a0 I know I can\u2019t be your son any more.\u00a0 Could I at least be one of your minimum wage workers?\u201d

He leaves the distant country and begins walking in the direction of home, no doubt burdened by the thought of trying to clean his own slate for the rest of his life.

The last thing he suspects is that his father, the very one he has wounded, is about to clean that slate for him. \u00a0

Luke 15:20 tells us, \u201cBut 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.\u201d\u00a0

The astonishing detail is that the father runs.\u00a0 <\/em>Dignified gentlemen in the time of Jesus walked through their paces slowly.\u00a0 To run meant to show your ankles to the neighbors.\u00a0 To do that was to risk ridicule.\u00a0

This Father couldn’t care less.\u00a0

While we ourselves are still a long way off \u2013 even while we remain in our distant countries of doubt, anger, cynicism, and hopelessness \u2013 God the Father is waiting.

What would it be like to turn toward home?

He will run<\/u> to receive us with open arms.\u00a0<\/em>
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Throughout Lent, we\u2019re exploring the parables of Jesus \u2013 the two dozen or so stories that were his chief means of describing the reality of God\u2019s rule on earth.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 most famous story has no official name.\u00a0 Over the centuries it\u2019s been called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, or the Two Brothers, or the Lost Child, or the Unforgiving… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[186,78,177],"class_list":["post-565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-god-the-father","tag-gods-love","tag-parables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}