<p>15:20 <i>And he rose and went to his father. But while he was yet far away, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran and embraced and kissed him</i>- The Father's speed and zeal is captured by the repeated use of the conjunction &quot;and&quot;: &quot;His father saw him, <i>and</i> had compassion, <i>and</i> ran, <i>and</i> fell on his neck, <i>and</i> kissed him&quot;. The son's careful preparation of his request for mercy was needful for him, but not for the Father. This is a precise allusion to the spirit of Is. 65:24: &quot;Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear&quot;. This is primarily concerning God's relationship with men in the Kingdom. Yet our daily experience of forgiveness now should give us a foretaste of the glorious sense of restoration with God which will be ours in the Kingdom.</p><p>There was a Jewish custom called <i>Kezazah</i>, &lsquo;the cutting off&rsquo;. If a Jew lost the family fortune amongst Gentiles, he would be greeted at home by the whole family, who would break a pot and scream &lsquo;XYZ is cut off from his people&rsquo; (Kenneth E. Bailey, <i>The Cross And The Prodigal</i> (Downers Grove: IVP, 2005) p. 52). The family and community would have no more fellowship with the person (Kenneth E. Bailey, <i>Jacob And The Prodigal</i> (Downers Grove: IVP, 2003) p. 102). Moulton and Milligan describe the record of a public notice by which parents declare their dissociation from their son who had wasted their wealth (J.H. Moulton &amp; G. Milligan, <i>The Vocabulary Of The Greek New Testament Illustrated From the Papyri And Other Non-Literary Sources</i> (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952) p. 89). This is what the Lord&rsquo;s Jewish audience would&rsquo;ve expected to come next in the story, when the son returns. But no There is the very opposite. Law and traditional expectation and even human perception of justice is thrown away, as the father races along the street towards his son and accepts him. For an elderly man to run publicly was yet again an unreal element in the story- mature men always walk, at a slow and dignified pace. Not gather up their robes and run, let alone publicly. Actually the Greek word translated &ldquo;run&rdquo; in Lk. 15:20 is that used about sprinting (1 Cor. 9:24,26; Gal. 2:2; 5:7; 2 Thess. 3:1; Heb. 12:1). Here again we see the self-humiliation of the father before men, as he expressed a radical acceptance. Even we from our distance expect there to be a &lsquo;telling off&rsquo;, a facing of the issues. But there isn&rsquo;t. The grace of God which meets the returning sinner leads him to repentance. It of itself, by its sheer magnitude, elicits the state of contrition which is indeed vital; but this is inspired&nbsp;by the huge initiative of the Father and Son. &nbsp;</p><p>The father&rsquo;s radical acceptance is the very basis of our salvation. It is challenging, supremely so. Perhaps we handle &lsquo;classic&rsquo; repentance easier- someone does wrong, goes off for a long time, is out of sight and out of mind, comes back, asks for our forgiveness with tears and humility. It&rsquo;s actually psychologically hard to say &lsquo;No&rsquo;. <i>That</i> kind of forgiveness is relatively easy. But what is so much harder is to show forgiveness and the nature of the father&rsquo;s love and grace time and again in daily life; to keep looking and hoping for the one who has offended us, ruined us, destroyed us, used and abused us&hellip; to be coming home. Actually I know virtually none amongst us who rise up to the father&rsquo;s love and grace in this. It remains a stark, sobering challenge to us all. &nbsp;<br />It needs to be understood that the father had to act as the village expected him to. They expected him to enact the <i>kezazah</i>, to hand the son over to them in some form for judgment, to make an example of this awful man. No village member is an island, all have to act within the expectations of the group. But the father breaks through all that. He again humiliates himself before the villagers by doing what he did. He likely angers them- for anger so often comes as a result of being confronted by the grace shown by others. We see it so often in the life of our spiritual community. Indeed, the Lord got at this in another parable, where He speaks of how some were angry at the extreme grace shown by the generous vineyard owner (Mt. 20:1-16). &nbsp;</p><p>The Father offered forgiveness without repentance to the prodigal son before there was any direct evidence of repentance- just a sign of general regret or desire to be in the Father&rsquo;s house. Indeed, it would see that the very fact the son <i>wanted </i>to return to the Father&rsquo;s house was quite enough to warrant his acceptance there- and the killing of the fatted calf. <br />The Lord's zeal for our redemption and His enthusiasm to see us as righteous is brought out in the parable of the prodigal. The Father (manifest in the Lord) runs out to meet the son. That story was masterfully tied back in to Is. 64:5-8: &quot;You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways... we have sinned... we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags... but now, O Lord, You are our father&quot;. The patient, hopeful father saw in the son a boy rejoicing and working righteousness; but this was hardly how <i>he</i> felt And so it will be with Israel in the last days. And so it is with each of us now, in our times of repentance. That surpassing grace is ours; we are seen as working righteousness when all we have is a bitter self-loathing and desire to somehow get back to God. But the crucial point is: <i>how often</i> do we have such a true repentance? We repeatedly sin, that we admit. But how frequently is there this kind of repentance which calls forth such grace, to see us as so righteous when we are so unrighteous, the grace of Jesus so great, so free...?&nbsp;<br />The parables so often allude to contemporary Jewish conceptions of grace, and show how God's grace is so far beyond them. The Father is watching for the return of the prodigal, even while the son was &quot;far off&quot; (Gk. <i>makron</i>); and this is the same word used about the &quot;far (Gk. <i>makros</i>) country&quot; where the son was (Lk. 15:13,20). The Divine eyesight sees the person who is far off in sin, and longs for their return. This was quite contrary to all Jewish and human notions of showing grace to those who return - <i>after</i> they return. There was a contemporary Jewish story about a son who wished to return to his father; and the father sends a message to him saying &quot;Return as far as you can and I will come the rest of the way to you&quot;. The Lord's parable showed how the care of the Father for His children is so far more than that. And He is there watching billions of cases, simultaneously... such is the passionate heart of God for the individual.</p><p>We must grow in our realization of the <i>enthusiasm</i> of God for our salvation. Consider how the Father ran unto the pathetic son and fell on (Gk. violently seized) his neck and kissed him (Lk. 15:20; the same Greek as in Acts 20:37). The Father restlessly watching for the prodigal's return matches the woman searching for the lost coin &ldquo;till she find it&rdquo; or the unusual shepherd who searches for his lost sheep &ldquo;until He finds it&rdquo; (Lk. 15:4,8,20). This involves God in huge activity- setting up providential encounters, nudging consciences through circumstance. The huge amount of &lsquo;work&rsquo; is one thing; but the mental energy of concern and thoughtfulness is phenomenal beyond our comprehension. God rises up early seeking His people- rather like us somehow being able to wake up early in the morning without an alarm clock, because our internal clock is restlessly wanting to be up and on our mission for the day. In all this we are to manifest God- for we too are to seek and save the lost.</p><p>The elder brother in the prodigal story shows an unbelievably self-righteous attitude. Yet, this truly is the position of the legalists of Christ's day and this. The love of the Father God for the son repentant Israel is quite something. Would a father really rush out and kiss him, i.e. forgive him (Lk. 15:20 cp. 2 Sam. 14:33) without first requiring an explanation and specific repentance? For this unusual Father, the mere fact the son wanted to return was enough. And when the vineyard workers refused to work and beat and killed the Owner&rsquo;s servants that were sent, the response we expect is that the Owner sends in some armed men and re-establishes control. But He doesn&rsquo;t. Why ever keep sending servants after some are killed? But this is the loving, almost desperate persistence of the Father for our response. This is what the parables of Israel teach. In the end, He does something humanly crazy. He sends a single Man walking towards them- His only Son. Or think of the parable of the older son. The loving Father divides all that He has between the two sons- and the son who remained at home therefore ended up with <i>all</i> that the Father had, seeing the younger son had blown the other half of it (Lk. 15:31). This was the extent of God&rsquo;s love for Pharisaic, hypocritical Israel. He gave them His all- the blood of His only Son. Elderly oriental gentlemen never run in public. But the Father will do so when the younger son returns. Such will be His joy, and such is His joy over every sinner who repents</p>