The Father’s heart
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:22-24).
In the final parable in Luke 15, the Lord Jesus gives us a beautiful insight into the heart of God. But the story begins with what was in the heart of the youngest son: “Father, give me…” These three words describe so clearly how the youngest son saw his father – only as a giver. It is a telling picture of people’s view of God. They want God to give them exactly what they want and not to interfere in their lives. I cannot recall how many times people have said to me, “If there is a God, why doesn’t He… ?” The extraordinary feature of this story is that the father gave his son everything he requested. And the first thing he did was to leave.
We believe we can do so much better by ourselves, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The youngest son illustrates what putting a great distance between himself and the father who loved him, led to. He didn’t lose everything: he spent everything. No one took his inheritance away: he gave it away. He was responsible for his loss. And when he had nothing, he learnt the bitter lesson that the world would give him nothing. But it was the loss of everything which transformed his life. I remember a brother telling me how he grew up in a Christian home and turned his back on the faith of his parents. He woke one night, after another bout of heavy drinking, in the gutter, and, in the words of Luke 15, “he came to himself.”
It was easy for the son to leave his father’s house a rich young man, but it was a painful journey to return in poverty. Yet it is in our nothingness we discover the fullness of the heart of God. The son had never known his father’s heart while he lived in his house. It was only when he returned home in repentance that he discovered the profound love his father had for him. The father had longed for the day his son would return. How many tears had he shed and how many days had he known when his hopes were dashed because his young son had not returned? The speed the father ran to his son was far greater than the speed at which the son approached his father. The son’s sense of unworthiness caused him to hesitate and express his utter failure. But the father never allowed him to finish the words he had rehearsed: “Make me like one of you hired servants” (see ESV, NIV et al.). The son only wanted to be safe; he had no expectation of the love that overwhelmed him. He never entered the father’s house as a servant, but as a son: clothed, not in rags, but in the best robe; not in poverty, but with a ring on his finger; and not in shame, but with shoes on his feet. All of this was given to him. The son discovered how great a giver his father was, and he understood, for the first time, the source of that giving: a love which dealt with his need and sin, and transformed him by its power.
Why did the publicans and sinners draw near to Jesus at the beginning of Luke 15? They knew in their hearts the emptiness, not of what they had lost, but of what they had accumulated. Like Zaccheus, that emptiness had drawn them to the Saviour, never realising the Saviour had come to meet them. They, like so many, including ourselves, knew a time when they did not understand the immensity of the steps that God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and God the Father took to redeem us and transform us into the children of God.
The Father has clothed us in the righteousness of Christ, He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit, and He has caused us to walk as His children. Surprisingly, it is possible to forget how deeply I am loved by God. At such times, we can thank the prodigal son for reminding us of the Father’s heart. It is a discovery we should share.
