A Bridge that Leads to God

The sun is setting later each evening as we head into spring. I get to sit here longer. There is so much to think about, so much to ponder. It has been a long life yet it has passed quickly. And now the sun is setting. Whatever time I have left, my desire is to be filled with His love, to have Him drench me in it and overflow my cup. I live in a world full of filth, yet I find beauty. I live in a world full of hatred, yet love is present as well. I live in a world filled with noise, yet I can hear the voice of God. I long now for this time of fellowship with Him. If all my life was only a pursuit of worldly things and ambitions, I would not rest in my soul. This is refreshing, rejuvenating. It is a pearl of great price. I love the birds that are here every night to fish, to feed. It is wonderful to watch them as they entertain us with their beauty and grace.

Remember the story of the prodigal son? The younger son insulted the father, took what was to be his portion of the inheritance and left home. He wounded his father’s heart. The father was not angry, just deeply hurt. And although the younger son crushed and grieved his father’s heart, his actions could not change the love his father had for him. The father’s love never wavered. Not for a moment. So the younger son goes to Las Vegas and blows all of his inheritance quickly, ending up homeless, wandering the streets. He has no friends in Vegas; no one is friendly when you are broke. He thinks back about his father’s house while begging for a meal. He remembers sitting by the fire on a cold night, laughing with his father and brother. He remembers always being readily filled when hungry and thinks to himself that even the servants in his father’s house had more than enough to eat and a warm bed to sleep in. He decides to go home and ask his father if I could be a servant. And so he sets off for home.

Now at this same time, the father was standing on the front porch at home, thinking of his younger son. Longing for the day when he would return. He did this every day. Stood and watched and longed in his heart to see his son again.

Then one evening the father saw a man approaching from afar. He knew right away it was his younger son. His heart exploded in joy and love. The son also saw his father, but was a little confused because his father should be in the fields at that time of day. The younger son’s heart began to fill with mixed emotions. Love, joy, fear, guilt, truly a heart in turmoil, revealing that he never really knew his father’s heart towards him.
As they near each other the younger son slows a bit, guilt and shame making him fearful of what the father might say or do. The father though increases speed with each step and as he gets to his son, he grabs him and hugs him, tears of joy and thanksgiving rolling down his face. The son says something about being a servant, but the father is already in motion, calling out to his servants and to his elder son to prepare a feast and to bring the robe and the ring. The father may have heard the son’s request to be a servant but he would not recognize a statement from the flesh. You see flesh likes to serve, but the father is thinking of a deeper relationship, one where spirit communes with spirit. He wants his son back, he doesn’t want another servant. The father took him back as an equal, nothing to be earned or worked for, no service required. The father demonstrated his love, his compassion, his forgiveness and grace. He forgave the son all without a question of where he had been and what he had been doing. The father did not mention sin at all, not once, either in word or in action. Not even a facial expression of disappointment.

Now the elder son, who took over running the family business because his father did nothing but sit on the porch and long for the return of the younger son, this elder son served, and served some more. He was good at it, always trying to get the attention of the father. He wanted the father to be proud of him, to notice his work. He thought he wasn’t loved as much as the younger son whom the father longed for and spoke about so often. So how do we think the elder son reacted when the younger son was welcomed back with a feast and equal status in the family, including another portion of the inheritance? This is what he said to the father in an angry tone: “your younger son who took his share of the inheritance and wasted it on gambling and lap dances comes home after blowing it all and you welcome him back and give him one third of what I worked hard to secure for you?” He didn’t have to say it wasn’t fair, both he and the father knew that it wasn’t fair, but God’s Grace was being revealed and God’s Grace is not fair. Thank God.

Now follow me, the younger son couldn’t get the idea of service out of his mind. He felt he owed the father something. He began to serve and work for his father’s love and acceptance. He could have enjoyed the benefits of sonship but his guilt and desire to work wouldn’t permit him to rest in the father’s gift to him. The elder son could not accept the younger son getting away with breaking the Law of God and not getting punished.

Do you see it? The younger son is the body of Christ. The elder son is Israel. Israel was having trouble allowing the Gentiles to be equal in the eyes of God. These heathens who lived a life of sin could not be welcomed into the family of God by Grace, they needed to work and serve and prove they were worthy through their effort and obedience. Can’t you hear the Jewish men gathered on the street corner saying “we have served God all this time, all these years and you’re telling me that God wants to bless these filthy Gentiles with a salvation that requires no obedience to rules and laws?” So everywhere Paul went with the gospel of Grace, the elder son followed in his footsteps and destroyed his work by sowing seeds of discord and doubt. The elder son was convinced that Paul’s message was a lie. The elder son was so efficient in his work that even Paul’s closest friends were swayed for a short while. The gospel of Grace was under attack, the enemy was service and work. There was no way in the elder son’s mind that the Messiah would ever want these unclean Gentiles to be in the family, let alone without obedience to the Law.
And so the gospel of Grace became polluted from the early stages and today the church is filled with Law and works and service. This is not what God intended. The younger son, the body of Christ, is caught up in guilt manipulation with works and service, trying to please God and win a reward. The elder son is so jealous that he can’t see how wonderful God’s Grace is. In every form of Religion and in every congregation, there are both younger and elder sons. There are younger sons who are so busy working and serving that they cannot see they are sons with whom the father wants to fellowship with in rest. And there are elder sons who judge the younger sons because of their past or present life choices. Only God’s Grace and the love of the father can heal both men. Only when we see the action of the father and the words from his heart will we see God. “My son whom was dead, is alive again. He was lost and now he is found. Bring the fatted calf; bring the robe that represents family, and the ring that represents sonship and inheritance. My son is home where he belongs.”

Only when we look away from our service and our works can we see clearly the father’s embrace of the sinner and the father’s tears of joy. Only when we stop speaking of what we have done for the father can we hear the father say I love you, not what you do, whether good or bad. Only then can we join in the father’s joy and experience, in full, the love of the father towards both sons.