Father Runs
Luke 15: 20 – 24 The Prodigal Son
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
But the father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. “ And they began to make merry.
As the son comes closer to his home, he feels fear and shame. He wished his father dead; left family and community; and now he has lost everything. He expects to face his father’s and brother’s anger and rejection. Further, the community would reject and banish him—as was the custom. Any Jew who lost his money among foreigners would face the Kezazah (literally “the cutting off.”) The Kezazah would be performed by breaking a clay pot at the feet of the prodigal as visual symbol that the community rejected him forever.
Now the son is struck with fear seeing his father run at him from a distance. In the Middle East, it was considered humiliating for men over age forty to run. As the father ran, he would have had to lift his robe—another humiliation. As the father drew closer, the son would see not anger—but joy. And when the father reached him, the father kissed him over and over on the neck.
Experiencing the father’s visible, costly love for him, his manipulative speech melts away. All that is left is feeling that he is is not worthy to be the father’s son. The grace is too overwhelming. Then the father restores the son—showering him with the best robe, providing shoes for his feet (slaves were bare-footed, sons wore shoes), placing a ring on his finger (a signet ring would give him the power to transact business).
The imagery here is that of the son returning with dirty rags on his back and a contrived speech. Yet it was the father’s costly, unexpected outpouring of visible love that turns the son’s heart toward him—perhaps for the first time. The son’s work (repentance) is SIMPLY ACCEPTING BEING FOUND by the father. The related parable of The Lost Sheep provides a beatiful image of this saving grace.
How we personally define repentance in large part defines how we interact with God and others. When we feel responsible for our own repentance (like the Pharisees), there is tremendous pressure to be “good.” The problem is that, when we focus on being “good”, we forget the importance of the relationship with God and endlessly oscillate between self-righteousness and guilt. We then project this thinking onto others. Yet, when we realize that God takes the responsibility (with joy) to find and restore us, we can release much of what controls us.