So, 

Who here has the best father?

And what is it that makes your father the best father? 

Is he smart, or handsome? Is he silly? Or does he give the best hugs?

What makes a father an amazing father?

It’s a question Jesus was teaching about when he told the crowd around him the story that we often call the story of the Prodigal Son.

The reason he was telling the story was because the folks who had gathered around him, primarily the Pharisees and what were generically called “sinners”, both thought they knew what God thought of them.

But Jesus, who called God, “Abba” that is “father”, knew better.  

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “What does God think of me?” 

And what was your answer? 

The Pharisees thought that God was mad at sinners and loved them best.

Sinners thought God loved the Pharisees best and was mad at them!

So actually, it turns out that they thought just about the same thing! 
They thought that God, Abba, the Father, loved the “good” girls and boys the most, and the “bad” girls and boys much, much less.

But Jesus wanted to correct that understanding, because, well, it was just plain wrong. 

God does not love us because of what we do, how we act, what we say, how we think. God loves us because of who and whose we are! His!

That’s why the story of a son who takes his inheritance and parties it away and who then becomes wildly unkosher, that is ritually unclean, is such a great story!

The younger son, as Jesus tells it, has become a bit of a dumpster fire, the epitome of the depths of how far a person can fall out of being acceptable to God, totally ritually and morally unclean.

For all intents and purposes, it would be like you deciding to run and jump in a manure pile at one of the local farms. You would be a mess, stinky at least and maybe, depending on your view of manure, gross!

And no dad, no matter how amazing he is, is going to want to hug you, or even let you ride home in the car to get a shower! 

You have got to get clean before you can go anywhere!! 

Well, maybe if we could find a big enough blanket, we could wrap you up and get you home and then out in the yard and then hose you off. 

Make you strip down to your undies, and give you use a whole bottle of body wash and shampoo to get clean. And then still you would have to go in the shower in the house and do it all over again. Yuck!
And then you might still stink! Might even still be dirty, even if it is nice healthy organic dirt! 

And, therefore unacceptable to Dad, to Abba, to the Father.

That’s exactly what the Pharisees and the sinners both thought! And they were both wrong!

Do you know why?

Let’s say today you go over to Pierson’s Family Farm for their Corn Maze, or Pumpkin picking, or you go to one of the Miedema Farms to see the cows, or Ketcham’s to see the goats, and while there you “accidentally” fall in the manure pile.

Will you stink? Yep.

But…

Will your dad or your mom love you any less? Nope! If anything, they will try to love you more, because you need more loving! 

Maybe they will love you by handing you a bar of soap and a hose. 

Maybe they will love you by yelling! Parents do that!

But they will love you no less!

And that my friends is exactly Jesus’ point! God loves those who need more loving! Why? 

Because they are his precious children!
Now your siblings who have to sit in the car with you may think you are a freaking idiot. They may also think mom and dad should love you less because you did something moronic and maybe worse.

But that’s not how it works! 

God doesn’t love you more because you are good!

God loves us, each and every one of us all the time!

And…

God has given those of us who understand that God really loves his children, every one of them, a really amazing task. 

We are to get the celebration, the party ready and even started for any of our siblings who finally come home! 

So, who here has the absolute best father? 

We all do! Jesus said so! Amen.