Jealousy leads to misunderstanding

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.’” Luke 15:25-31 NIV

This was predictable. But the older son’s arguments do not stand up under the truth test. He says his dad never even gave him a young goat. The truth is, the father gave both boys their inheritance when the young one asked for his portion. Traditionally, this means the older son received twice the bounty of the younger. Oh jealousy, you green-eyed monster, you cause such heartache!

The running father has more than one son who needs unconditional love! Sadly, this son has yet to grasp the principles of his father. He has some sensitivity to what he perceives his father has withheld from him but he, much like his younger sibling, has failed to grasp the vision for living that this father has modeled for both his boys.

The running father pursues in love this resentful, angry older son with the same intensity that he ran toward the younger boy.

The scriptures do not give us further information about this family but I pray that the father lived long enough to see his boys become fathers; to see these sons grow into men who were willing to run toward their own children.

This is a hope for us all. We can also grow into people who can set aside our compulsions and insecurities. We can learn how to run toward others in love.

Embracing the shame

“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. Luke 15:21-24 NIV

More about God. The running father SEES his boy; we can imagine him waiting in anticipation, day in and day out, for his son to return home. He recognized him too. Trudging across the fields with his head down, dirty and emaciated, no conquering hero returning home to praise and adulation here. Instead, a boy returns in humiliation and defeat. A not uncommon story for life is hard and few succeed on their first run at life.

And what does he receive? A welcome that is fit for a king. He receives the best robe, a ring and sandals for his feet. A fat calf. A feast. A celebration for a son who was lost but is now found. The father interrupts the boy in mid-confession. He will hear nothing of his negotiations and deals for reentry into the family. The father is having none of it. The boy is welcomed home because the running father loves him. End of story.

We do not know if the son ever understands the depth of the father’s love - a love that is itself willing to be shamed (fathers do NOT run and certainly do not expose their knees by lifting their robes to run) as the community sees him welcome the son who squandered his inheritance, lived in a distant land and chose a disreputable lifestyle. It may take this son awhile to process a robe and ring and fattened calf. Maybe he ends up grateful; maybe not. But the point of this story is NOT the son; it is the father.When Scott was in seminary he took a class from a guy who wrote a commentary on Luke. He’s got quite the reputation for scholarly research and understanding this gospel. He teaches his pupils that parables are primarily understood as short stories that teach one small thing about God. And so it is with some measure of confidence that I implore us to stop making this parable all about us (seeing ourselves as one son or the other) and instead, turn our gaze to the running father. Consider how knowing that this is who God is might change how we relate to him.

Gaining clarity about our problem(s)

Who among us escaped our youth without an indiscretion? The story of the prodigal son, if we make him the focus, is a common one. But from Dale’s perspective, looking at this as a tale of “The Running Father” turns it into an extraordinary epic adventure.

This matters, because I am suggesting that we must fight with all our spiritual weapons to keep the following truth in mind in order to avoid assaulting our virtue to the point that we become unrecognizable as a kid of God.

“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! I will set out and go back

to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and

against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one

of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.” Luke 15:17-20

Notice the following while remembering that the point of all this is to help us remember who WE are in God’s kingdom: He came to his senses, but that did not mean he was transformed. This is a big deal. He had a moment of clarity, but I would suggest that he lacked vision. Notice how he spent his time practicing his “speech” - trying to figure out a way to get his father to hire him as a servant. On first blush, this may seem humble. But I would suggest that it is at some level an insult to his father. He is assuming that his father will need some kind of negotiated settlement for a return home.

Next, notice that he got up and went. This is also a big deal. He took action. Perhaps he was worried about his reception, maybe we are right in saying his moment of clarity has not morphed into a guy with a vision. BUT. He returned home. He had some sense about him. He realized that his father treated his hired men far better than he was treated as a hired man in a distant land.

Clarity helps us wake up to the fact that we have a problem; vision may take awhile to acquire. As we wait for vision, it is a lovely thing to get up and go. How might you be frozen with indecision, regret, shame, or guilt? Consider the clarity of this young man. He chose, the moment he got up and went, to believe that his father was the man he had always been - generous, giving, willing to suffer the shame of his community for the sake of giving his son his inheritance. This is who God is; this is who he can be to each of us.

Distorted Images of God

For the next few days, I want to take a look at some foundational teachings in scripture that challenge our forgetfulness and wrongheaded ideas about who God is and what he expects from us. First up - a passage of scripture commonly described as the parable of the prodigal son. We are going to unpack it line by line. This parable is found in the gospel of Luke, and it is part of a string of parables taught by Jesus.

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said

to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ so he divided his property between them.” Luke 15:11-12 NIV

This is highly unusual. In some cases, fathers might divide up an inheritance before death (with twice as much going to the older son) but retaining the income from the inheritance until his death. In this case, the younger son has asked his father a shameful thing. To demand an inheritance is ungrateful, presumptuous and gives the small community in which they lived the opportunity to judge the father as weak and his son has unworthy. But the father, who loves his son, puts himself in that position in order to give the son what he asks for. Will the son repay that generosity with gratitude?

“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. After he

had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country,

and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a

citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed

to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave

him anything.” Luke 15:13-16 NIV

There are three obvious issues here:

1. The younger son broke tradition and moved to a distant land, isolating himself from his family and tribe.

2. The younger son squandered his preemptively gained inheritance, putting his family in a weaker position financially.

3. He further demeans himself and his family by doing what no self-respecting Israelite would do - working with pigs.

This is the story of a young man who forgets who he is, but I do not think it is the central theme of the story. My friend Dale Ryan has renamed the parable from the story of the prodigal son to the story of the running father. I quite like that. For truly, as we are about to see, the story of the son is a common one - young people behaving in an immature fashion. But the father? He does something extraordinary. Stay tuned!