The Feast of the Father

Pastor Craig Barnes tells a very personal story. He says, “[My father] left us when I was sixteen, and once he left, he never stopped running. Every time we tried to find him, he would only leave and disappear again. He died alone in a raggedy trailer park somewhere in the middle of Florida. A neighboring pastor, who did not know him, spent two days trying to find his family even though he did not know our names. My dad missed all of the important events in his sons' lives: graduations, weddings, birth of children, our two ordinations, and both of our Ph.D. ceremonies. He missed all of it. I prayed and prayed that he would return to us. I used to yearn for the day that he would show up in a congregation where I was preaching. My longing was for him to come through the line at the end of worship, take my hand and say, 'Good job, son' But he never came."

The story we have been studying for the past five weeks is a story, not about a father who didn’t come, but a God who ran to His prodigal son.

This story is the result of a group of people gathering around to listen to Jesus. Luke tells us in Luke 15:1-2: “Now the tax collectors and 'sinners' were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"

The tax gatherers and the sinners loved to gather around and listen to Jesus. Andy Stanley wrote, in his book, The Grace of God, the ones who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus. Then in verse two, we are told that the Pharisees and teachers of the law gathered around again began to murmur among themselves. People who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus. And Jesus liked people who were nothing like him. So out of their murmuring, Jesus tells these stories that reveal the heart of God.

The third of these stories begins with a father and two sons. Jesus understood birth order long before modern child psychology began to talk about it. The older brother is a behaver. He did everything right. He tried to find fulfillment in life by obeying all the rules. The younger brother is a misbehaver. He wants to find fulfillment by sowing his wild oats, by searching for everything fun and living life to its fullest.

But the reality of this story told by Jesus, is that the story isn’t really about a rebellious younger son, or a self-righteous older son. It is really a story about the Father. The rebellion of the younger son, resulting in it’s ultimate degradation of the pigpen didn’t shock the Pharisees and teachers. Sin always has a gotcha. And the religious people of Jesus’ day understood this. They were shocked that the prodigal ended up in the pigpen. The self-righteous behavior of the older brother, didn’t really shock the tax gatherers and sinners. For decades they have felt the condemnation and judgment of angry, bitter, religious people. You know some of them, don’t you? The tax collectors and sinners weren’t surprised that the older brother acted like this.

But the actions of the Father shocked both groups. This week, we are going to drill-down on the actions of the Father and see what Jesus is telling us about our Heavenly Father.