The richest of fare...

I am reading the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, and it just occurred to me that the Father never asks for the kid to pay back all the money he wasted. The Father could have worked for years and years saving and working and scrimping to leave His sons a legacy when He was gone. It could have been all His blood, all His sweat and all His tears. Yet it meant nothing in light of the return of His son. In fact, the only time the wasted inheritance is even mentioned is when the older brother complains that the father is treating the younger too well in spite of His libertine ways. The Father essentially responds that all that grace was available to the older son as well, he just didn't ask.

Ay, there's the rub. We don't ask, mainly because we think asking involves this false assumption that we owe God something, and that even if Jesus paid the debt for us, we are still responsible somehow. I don't agree. In fact, that whole paradigm about Jesus allaying the just wrath of the father, just doesn't work for me. It sounds as if Jesus was for us, but He had to convince the Father because He was pretty mad that we totaled the Spiritual car. What kind of family is that where the older brother has to fight off the fury of the father on all the little siblings like that? It just rings hollow.

That said, I think that the Father is just as much in our corner as the Son and the Spirit are. Or maybe more so, because you could make a case that sending Jesus was His idea. He loves us and wants us to come back, not so He can demand repayment from Jesus or Us or anyone else, but so we can follow the path of life, being freed from the path of death (we die more every step we take when we are walking away from Jesus. In the words of Lewis, how can somebody not die so far from the fountain of life?). Sin is by nature self-destructive, and anybody who has been engaged in self-destruction behaviors can tell you that it is so easy to think every one is against you. How many addicts have the friends try to help them, only to have cries of "you are judging me!" hurled at their confused ears. Maybe the wrath of God is more that God essentially gives the self-destructive what they want, freedom from Him. The problem is, then they end up in hell.

However, the Lord refuses to let sin and judgment and consignment to eternal perdition be the last word. Namely, that Christ, born of a virgin, being a master teacher, died on a Roman Cross. Being dead for Three days, he woke up, being resurrected. Those who would follow this risen Rabbi must die as He did, enabling them to live in the same manner. This is the Great Romance, that Christ became sin for us, and killed it, so we all might live.

HALLELUYAH!

Daniel

PS, I'm trying to edit blogs more, if you say any bad grammar, or quick haphazardness, comment and let me know! Thanks!