These are some beautiful thoughts about the parable of the prodigal son from Peter Chrysologos, Bishop of Ravenna [450 AD]. Notice how there is no hint of shame in the way the father embraces his wayward son.
“I will break away and return to my father.” What is the basis for such hope, such assurance, and such confidence on his part? The very fact that it is his father to whom he will return. “I have forfeited my sonship, ” he tells himself, “but he has not forfeited his fatherhood.” There is no need for a stranger to intercede with a father: it is the father’s own affection which intervenes and supplicates in the depths of his heart.
And the father, on sighting his son, immediately covers over his sin. He prefers his role and father to his role as judge. At once he transforms the sentence into pardon, for he desires his son’s return, not his ruin. He “threw his arms around him and kissed him.” This is how the father judges and corrects: he gives a kiss in place of a beating.
The power of love takes no account of sin; that is why the father pardons his child’s guilt with a kiss, and covers it over with an embrace. The father does not reveal his child’s sin, neither does he stigmatize his son; he nurses his wounds in such a way that they leave no scar or dishonor whatsoever.
Peter Chysologos, Sermons 2-3: PL 52, 188-189, 192, quoted in Wright, J. Robert, Readings For the Daily Office From the Early Church, p. 375-376.
Thanks for posting (re-posting?) that Ben. I have been thinking for a while about the “lightness” with which God delights in welcoming me back when I turn back to him. Which removes my shame, and makes repentance easy. Strikes me that I can make my sin such a huge obstacle between us- like it takes ALOT for the Father to forgive. Might this be because we are taught often in our churches, well, I feel like in my church anyway, that our sin cost our Saviour his life – so it took ALOT for our sin to be forgiven. The Father gave his only precious Son…
And so is it that I “res-crucify” Jesus when I hesitate to run to my loving Dad? When I feel he forgives me more with a stern look and finger waggling than a big bear hug and a kiss? This all has me wondering…..thanks!
I think one of our challenges – at least in the Evangelical stream, is that we begin the gospel with the crucifixion rather than the incarnation. This puts our focus in the wrong place. We fail to see God, the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the eternal community of love who begins by creating the world we know in love and then sending the Son – in love – to rescue that which has wandered away. To begin with the crucifixion is to make sin the primary object rather than God. Not that sin isn’t real or an issue. It’s just not bigger than the Trinity!
We cannot truly understand, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Until we begin with the incarnation. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Yes that makes sense! Another way of saying what I think you’re saying is that we “extract” the crucifixion from the Incarnation and try to think about it apart from the wider context of the Incarnation, resurrection, ascension, and second coming.
Geoff and Ben that is super helpful thank you. And timely as Im speaking at a kids’ camp on John 3:16 next week and will make sure I start with the incarnation. Thanks to God!