Father’s Day

Sunday School lesson on Father’s Day
June 15, 2014
by Raleah Murphey

Since it is Father’s Day, I want to talk about a parable Jesus told in which He spoke of a father.

Speaking of fathers … we appreciate all the wonderful fathers here today and wherever they are. A good father loves his children – even when they misbehave. He cherishes them; he enjoys their company; he protects them; sometimes he disciplines them; and he always has their best interest at heart. A good father gives us a glimpse into the heart of God, our Father.

I don’t know about you, but too often when I think of God as my Father, I can’t imagine that the God of the Universe, powerful and mighty, could really love me with all my shortcomings. Or I tend to see God as the disciplinarian, the distant judge if you will, just watching to see if I do something wrong.

But I want to share with you something I learned about the parable Jesus told and that we know as “The Prodigal Son.” It has meant a lot to me; I am letting it sink deeply into my heart. I discovered that the Christians in the Middle East know this story by a different name: “The Story of the Running Father.” The difference in the title shows us something about the culture Jesus lived in and that the people to whom He was speaking would have understood.

We all know that in the biblical story, the son demands his portion of the family’s wealth and leaves home, breaking his father’s heart in the process. Before long, he finds himself completely destitute in a foreign country and determines in his heart to return to his father’s house with hopes of working as a servant.

But the Scriptures tell us something else too; it tells us the father sees his son coming from a long ways off and runs to him. And it’s this picture of the running father that was so very powerful to those listening to Jesus’ story!
You see, for a Middle Eastern man, running anywhere was considered extremely undignified. Running was not for men, but for children. Also, running would require a man to pull up his robe and expose his bare legs as he ran which, in that culture, was considered to be humiliating and shameful.

But the reason he was running was even more important. In those days, if a Jewish son lost his family’s inheritance in a foreign land, it was considered a very serious matter indeed. If the young man ever had the nerve to return home he would be brought to justice by the entire community through a custom called the Kezazah. Once the community realized the money was lost, they would gather around him and break a pot at his feet, signifying that from that moment on, the young man was considered dead … cut off from his family and community forever.

This young man’s father, however, had been hoping his son would return, even though he had broken his heart. And he knew full well what would happen when the villagers saw his son. They would gather around his boy, the pot would be broken at his feet, and his son would be lost to him forever. So, doing what no first-century Middle Eastern man would dare to do, he hiked up his robe and he ran!

He ran through the streets of the village as the neighbors watched, horrified. He ran as young boys came along behind him mocking and shouting at him in his shame. He ran ahead of the crowd that was nearing his guilty son. He ran head of all that was fair and just and reasonable, taking the boys’ shame upon himself.

When he reached his son, the father threw his arms around his boy, kissed him, and called for a celebration in his son’s honor. By doing so, the father had restored full sonship to his son who would otherwise have certainly been “dead”.

And this, my friend, is what Jesus tells us God is like.

It’s not that I want us to take advantage of God, our Father. But even when you find you’ve displeased Him, when you come to your senses and realize what you’ve done, when you determine in your heart that you will return to Him, I want you to know the kind of Father you have. Not only is He hoping you will return to Him, He is watching and waiting for you, ready to hike up His robe and come running to you, gathering up your deserved justice, the guilt and the shame as He runs.

Please listen to the words of this song, “When God Ran,” by Phillips, Craig & Dean. It beautifully portrays “The Story of the Running Father.”

When God Ran from Bro Allan Ministries on Vimeo.