The Father's Crazy Love

This weeks meditations from the Ignatian Spiritual exercises focus on our sin and God's response to our sin. The first scripture for meditation is the story of he Prodigal Son found in Luke's Gospel 15:11-32. It is quite a long passage so I will just include the first half here:

Luke 15:11-24 NIV:

[11] "Jesus continued: “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 servants 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 servants.’

[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.

I, like many people, love this story, and for me this is how I experience God, as a loving Father. The love of the Father is evident through the whole story, and most evident to me in verse 20. It says while the son was still a long way off, the Father saw him, and ran to him. In other words, the Father had been watching for the son to return, he had been waiting and watching, probably daily, waiting to re-establish their relationship.

It is important to note that there is no punishment. That is probably quite challenging for many of us who have been taught that the Father punishes us when we sin - for that is clearly not the Father's reaction here. In fact, the Father's reaction is quite the opposite, He calls for a celebration and restores the son to his former position, authority and relationship! That is definitely worth thinking about for a while. There is an opposing thought very present in the Body of Christ that teaches us that God punishes us when we sin or lack faith. This train of thought says that if something bad happens to us, or if we get sick, that it is due to the Father punishing us for either our lack of faith or our sin. This thinking, according to Jesus, is incorrect, and worse it is a judgement against the true character of the Father. The Father's heart is for reconciliation and relationship always!

Jesus is expressing the Father's heart, teaching the people what the Father is like with this story! There would be no clearer place for Jesus to teach about the Father's response, and He makes it VERY clear. His response is restoration of relationship, intimate affection, and rejoicing! Wouldn't it be grand if this was the way the church responded to repentant sinners! So often our response is to demand contrition, penance, and the re-earning of the right to walk in relationship and identity, but the Father immediately restores these, and requires nothing of the son.

My other thought is how the Father freely gave the son his inheritance, likely knowing full well what he was going to do with it. There were no strings attached, no form of legal binding that would only allow the son to use the inheritance certain ways, but rather a gifting of the whole amount. The son really wasn't entitled to the inheritance until the Father died, so the Father was a making a conscious choice to give the son an incredible gift, with no strings attached. I believe this is also an important point to think on, for this represents the Father's heart to all of us. He gives us incredible gifts and blessings, often knowing we will abuse or misuse them, but He still gives them. The Father knows our every thought, every day of our life from beginning to end, and He still chooses to pour forth His blessings on us all.

Common wisdom would say that if you have a wild son, the last thing you do is give him a pile of money, yet the Father did exactly that. The Father knows we are all sinners, yet chooses to bless us with good gifts nonetheless. We don't earn them, He gives them to us. If one of us did this same thing to one of our problem children, in spite of the knowledge the Father has about that child, we would think them crazy. I guess that is a good definition of the Father's love, it is 'crazy love' for us!

So, as a sinner, my humble expectation of the Father's reaction to my sin should be that He is waiting for me to return to Him. He loves me, and is watching and waiting for me. It is right to feel ashamed both of our sin and waste of the Father's good gifts, but we shouldn't be expecting punishment. It is right to ask for forgiveness, and the Father's answer is restoration of relationship!