“A Good Father”
(Matthew 7:7-12 & Selected Scriptures)
The Greenhouse ~ 2nd Sunday after Trinity
I’ve been in churches more often than I care to count when the topic of the sermon was some kind of life advice. Three ways to a better marriage. Five steps toward fulfillment. I’m not saying those things can’t be helpful, but I rarely find them to be given at the appropriate time or place. Perhaps the title “A Good Father” on Father’s Day strikes you immediately the same way. Let me assure you, if that’s a worry, it’s not what you think. Nevertheless, cultural holidays like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day have the potential for a wide range of emotions. Some love their mothers or fathers and celebrate this day with them. Others love their mothers and fathers but are saddened on these days because their parents have died. Still others dread such days because their mother or father, whether alive or dead today, was neglectful, abusive, angry, derogatory, demeaning, and all sorts of other negative words. It’s certainly tempting to skip any discussion of Father’s Day today to avoid any potential negative feelings.
Yet, one of the more difficult realities we face is that the first person of the Trinity is regularly referred to in Scripture as Father. Jesus’ model prayer begins with “Our Father.” Paul regularly distinguishes the three persons as Father, Lord Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. For many people in the church, their experience with abusive, unloving earthly fathers negatively affects their view of God. Many ask, how can I worship a God who calls Himself Father when my father was so harmful to me? These are real, powerful, and understandable feelings; I have no intention of ignoring such feelings. But I do want to suggest that rather than letting our earthly fathers define God as Father, we should do our best to allow Scripture to define the ways in which God is Father, then seek to live our own lives (whether as fathers, mothers, children, or any other relationship) according to His model.
Today we will look quickly, but hopefully meaningfully, at five passages that teach us about God as the good Father. We begin in Matthew 7:7-12, a passage in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where He contrasts God’s fatherhood with that of earthly fathers. He says earthly fathers, though evil, seek to give good gifts to their children. Here we must pause to clarify that Jesus knows there are evil fathers out there who do not seek to give good gifts to their children. He is not making a claim about the universal gift-giving of fathers. Rather, many (perhaps most) fathers, even poor ones, even evil ones, do still seek to give gifts to their children. In this passage, Jesus’ point is pretty straightforward—if a fallen father can give a good gift, how much more a perfect, heavenly Father? One of the characteristics of God’s Fatherhood, therefore, is that He gives good gifts. But what might these good gifts be?
Our second passage comes in Genesis 2. In Genesis 1-2, the Father’s good gift is creation—both the good creation itself, and humanity and their role in ruling over it. After creating Adam and Eve and giving them work to do, we get a statement about another of God’s good gifts: marriage and family. Genesis 2:24 states, “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.” One of the blessings of the marriage union is the separating from parents to create a new family, often followed by the second blessing of children to expand this family and start a new generation who will grow up to do likewise. We will save a full exploration of this passage and its implications for marriage, parenting, sexuality, and more for another day. Likewise, the blessing of marriage here does not deny the fullness of a Christ-centered, gospel-oriented life that single people can live. Paul especially speaks of the calling and benefits of singleness. But again, we must save that for another day. Today I simply want to point out in the context of God’s good gifts as Father that He gifts us life, purpose, blessing, and, for many, the calling of their own fatherhood in the model of His.
Our third passage is Psalms 103. In Psalms 103, God’s good gift is compassion. The psalmist writes in verse 13, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” The context of this verse is an acknowledgement and praise that God the Father forgives our iniquity, heals and redeems us, crowns us with steadfast love and mercy, and satisfies us with good. Though our failures could bring harsh judgment, God the Father instead extends His steadfast love towards us because of His compassion. Jesus models this beautifully through the gospels, but I am always especially struck by Jesus’ response to the crowds, when the Scriptures say He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. In God the Father’s compassion, He has provided us with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, so that we need not be lost, harassed, or helpless any longer.
Our fourth passage is 2 Corinthians 1:1-7. In Paul’s opening words to the church at Corinth, he reminds them of God’s good gift of comfort. In Paul’s words, God is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Paul references comfort nine times in verses 3-7. God comforts us so that we might comfort others, remembering that the comfort we give to others is from God to us and through us to the other person. And of course, as with compassion, the good gift of the Father comes to us through the Son, Jesus Christ. Verses 4-5 communicate these truths well: “He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” In a world of chaos, trials, fears, and more, the gift of comfort is an immeasurably good gift.
Finally, our fifth text is perhaps the most powerful text of God’s Fatherhood: the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Many think the focus of this story is on the prodigal son. Our name for the parable would certainly suggest this. Others posit that the story is about the elder brother. Both are certainly prominent. But in the context, I suggest that the story is really about the father. (We will revisit this parable later in the summer when explore some of Jesus’ parables, so today is only a quick survey to deepen our understanding of God as Father.) Earlier in Luke 15, the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to seek after the one that is lost. Then, the woman looks for the one coin of the ten that is missing. Now, the father seeks the one son of the two that is lost. Notice two things about this sequence. First, the value continues to increase. One out of two is much more valuable than one out of ten or one out of 100. Second, the emphasis in each story is on the one who goes seeking. The father, we find, has not forgotten about his son. In fact, when his son is still a long way off, the father sees him and runs out to greet him. The father sees him a long way off because he is looking for him. And he runs to him out of compassion and love and provides his son comfort. Though the son is prepared to return as a servant, the father receives him as his son. Though the son has repented and is ready to beg before his father, he returns to find his father stills loves him and has already forgiven him. Though the son seeks merely enough food to live on, the father provides him with a feast. God the Father, the giver of good gifts, gives (in Paul’s words in Ephesians) far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think. Or as James says, every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights.
God the Father, Scripture repeatedly tells us, delights in giving good gifts to His children. His greatest gift, of course, was sending His Son. Indeed, one of the more well-known verses of Scripture, John 3:16, highlights this point, but we sometimes miss the verb—For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…God loves, so God gave. God loves, so God gives creation, compassion, and comfort—all through Christ.
Father’s Day as a cultural holiday may be one you celebrate or grieve, but the Scriptures are clear—God is a good and gracious Father. He has compassion, He provides comfort, and He does so most importantly in Christ. We, then, regardless of our experience of earthly fathers, can learn to see what it means in Scripture that God is Father. He is the one seeking the lost, scanning the horizon for His lost children to run to them and gather them in His loving arms of comfort and compassion. In the parable, the father runs to his son when he sees him returning. Perhaps I’m taking a liberty here, but I don’t think it’s out of line, to say that the son may very well have, or ought to have, run to his father. Our world today encourages us to leave our father and mother and run away from the faith of our youth. The prodigal son does just that; indeed, there is nothing new under the sun. But growing up and leaving home is not an invitation to leave the faith, rather it is an opportunity to solidify and spread that faith. But whether at present we are far, far away from God, or walking closely with Him, He is always prepared for our return, and he runs to us with open arms to receive us. Let us, in turn, run to Him.
Comments