“God Redeems the Meaning of a Good Father”
June 16, 2024
Father’s Day can be a difficult day for many as it can evoke many not so positive images and sentiments – from the grief due to losing a father, or from having an uncaring father, an absentee one, or one who had difficulty expressing how proud he was of his children or how much he loved them. However, I’ll state my bottom line first, regardless of what earthly fathers may be like, God, the Father, redeems what it means to be a good Father.
The goodness of God, the Father, is clearly revealed in the parable of the lost son, in Luke 15. The account tells of a father who had two sons, the younger of whom, asked for his share of the father’s estate. Many people know this parable as the parable of the prodigal son and focus on the prodigal son more so than the father. However, both the son and father are “prodigals” according to the dual meaning of the word. The first meaning, and the one that is prominent in this passage and describes the younger son’s actions, is “extravagant waste”. The second meaning, and the one that best describes the father of the prodigal son, is “to lavish generously”.
In the parable, we first see the familiar definition of prodigal as portrayed by the son. The son asked for his share of the father’s estate while the father was still living. In Middle Eastern culture, to ask for the inheritance while the father was still alive was equivalent to wishing him dead, and the father, in response, should refuse the son and then turn him out of the house in a not so gentle way. However, this is not how the story plays out in Luke 15.
The father granted the son’s request and in so doing violated the traditional expectations of a Middle Eastern father. The son, in turn, gathered all that was his, converted it into cash, traveled to a distant country, and did all he wanted to do, until he ended up with nothing, and so hungry that, Luke 15:16 reveals, “…he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.” In this sense, we see our most familiar understanding of the word, prodigal – ‘extravagant waste’.
Thankfully, the son came to his senses and repented in Luke 15: 17-19,
17But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
And then we come to the son’s father, and the second, lesser-known definition of the word prodigal, “to lavish generously” –
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Luke 15:20
We see in this verse, and in the verses that follow, how the father generously lavished good things on his son. The father told his servants to bring the best robe and put it on his son, and to put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet (verse 22), and to kill the fattened calf to eat and celebrate the son who was dead and is alive again, the son who was lost and found (verses 23-24).
The prodigal son, who extravagantly wasted his inheritance was embraced by a father who continued to go against the traditions of the Middle Eastern culture, and “generously lavished” good things upon his son. The son received a robe, a ring, shoes, a celebration, and a father who was lavish in his love and forgiveness. Such lavish generosity is a symbol of God’s infinite love and mercy!
God, our Father, is a good, good Father who generously lavishes His love upon his children, regardless of their wasteful extravagance, and in so doing, both redeems them and the meaning of a good, good, Father.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. John 3:1