Thursday, October 15, 2009

Lost and Found, Part 32 of 78

TEXT: "But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him" (Luke 15:17-20).

IDEA: By running to his son, the father reveals an unexpected display of love in humiliation toward his son and toward sinners.

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize the inexpressible extent of God’s grace.

Did any of you grow up in a small town?

How much truth is there in the old quip, “God made the country, man made the city, and the devil made the small town”?

Certainly there are advantages and there are disadvantages in growing up in a small town.

It is easy to overlook the strong possibility that the Prodigal Son grew up in a small village. That is a factor in his coming home. Luke 15:17-20 tells us about his decision to go home and the reception he received:

"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." ' "

The young man faced the fact that he would return home to his father and mother, his brother, and the people in the village.

His father was also fully aware of how his son would be treated on his arrival:

He will be mocked by the crowd that will gather spontaneously as news flashes across the community telling of his return.

He will face the slander of the town and perhaps the gathering of a mob. He will be subject to verbal and perhaps physical abuse.

While the boy might have figured out how to satisfy his father and avoid his older brother by becoming a “hired servant,” he had no ready solution for the humiliation heaped on him by the village people.

What the father does in the homecoming scene can best be understood as a series of dramatic actions calculated to protect his son from the hostility of the village and to restore him to fellowship within the community. (Ken Bailey, Poet and Peasant, p. 181)

The father runs down the road.
An Oriental nobleman with flowing robes never runs anywhere. To do so is humiliating.

Kenneth Bailey observed that an acquaintance of his was not accepted as pastor of a church in Lebanon because, in the judgment of the elders, he walked down a street too fast.

Aristotle said, “Great men never run in public.”

L. P. Weatherhead, In Quest of a Kingdom, p. 90: “It is so very undignified in Eastern eyes for an elderly man to run.”

Joachim Jeremias, Rediscovering the Parables, p. 102: to run “is the most unusual and undignified procedure for an aged oriental, even though he is in the greatest haste.”

Note the motive for his running: “He was filled with compassion for his son."
That compassion specifically includes awareness of the gauntlet the boy will have to endure as he makes his way from the outskirts of the village to his house.

The Father then runs the gauntlet for him, assuming a humiliating posture in the process.

The father also makes the reconciliation public at the edge of the village.
The son enters the village under the protective care of his fathers acceptance.

The boy, who must have steeled himself for this hostile reception, discovers to his amazement that his father runs the gauntlet for him.

Rather than experiencing the ruthless hostility he anticipates and deserves, the son witnesses an unexpected. visible demonstration of love in humiliation.

The father’s act replaces speech.
There are no words of acceptance and welcome. The love expressed is too profound for words. Only acts will do.

One Christian Arab commentator says, “Christ reports for us the words of the son to his father, but does not give anything about a speech of the father to his son. For in reality, the father substitutes kisses for words and replaces assertion with expression and eyes speak for the tongue.”