Love With Tenderness
This post is a continual reflection of my guest post last Saturday for St. Matthew’s church and Fr. Hayden’s Sermon of the Prodigal Son on the Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Links to the other posts are included at the bottom.
In the story of the prodigal son, God’s love for his children shows a very tender side of love. Loving arms that open for an embrace and shelter his son into a home that comforts a weary traveler from long days of exile, sin, and despair. His lips kiss the neck of a child he cherished and was once lost. His LOVE centers on a warm heart full of tenderness, compassion, and understanding for his child. “And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”(Luke 15:20). Empathy for the child that needed to find his path. The child needed to find love on his terms even if that process required the rejection of love offered and the giver.
The lost son finally knew his Father’s love when he found himself. Cain’s exile in Genesis was God’s doing for this the quest that His children will need to leave Him to find Him. Abundance is seen through the eyes of someone starving. “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” (Luke 15:17). So the Prodigal Son finally completed the quest of man to find eternal life when we wanted The father’s love for himself and uncovered there were plenty to be had. It is a lonely quest but a needed journey to God and a humbling act to come home.
The elder son was in grave danger of repeating the human family dysfunction of blame that caused Cain to fall into exile in the beginning. In Cain’s story, he was angry at Abel when God accepted his offer “But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.”(Genesis 4:5) The elder son was angry at his brother when their father forgave his younger brother. “And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.” Luke 15:28. He hasn’t learned the lesson of mutual exclusivity from his brother’s failure. His brother’s return did not diminish his faithfulness, nor did it reduce the Father’s love for him. The elder son never left home but was offered the same love. He, too, needs to claim that love for himself.
The father’s role in this story shows how God’s love can be tender and differentiated. Both boys were tugging and pulling at him, and he remained himself and gave them both the gift of love that was both himself and all that he possesses. He didn’t get caught up in their drama and didn’t get pulled into their anxiety. The sons’ rejection of His love did not diminish or prevent him from offering it over and over again. “And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” Luke 15:31. This parable highlights God’s love as merciful, tender, and forgiving. God gave these four boys and us the love we need but does not force us to take it. Abel received the love of acceptance, Cain the love of discernment, The younger brother the love of forgiveness, and the elder son the love of empathy. So offered to all but can only be given to those who come to his loving embrace to receive. His arms wide open, closing us into his loving home. We get clothed in fine robes, a ring on our hand, shoes on our feet (I prefer snakeskin stilettos), and food in a feast. He kisses our neck. A display of affection that says, “I CHERISH YOU.” He elevates us to the status of Sons and Daughters from the state of sinners or scum. We were lost and discarded now; we found and cherished.
Image: Pompeo Batoni, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1773.
Click here to read my guest post “Eve’s Sorry for Her Sons” at St. Matthews’ Chruch.
Below is the video recording from the Ninth Sunday After Trinity with the bible lesson of The Return of the Prodigal Son. The sermon from Fr. Hayden highlights grace, forgiveness, and the age-old issue of family dysfunction.