God Runs Toward You: The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Introduction

If you feel far from the Father this morning, there is one thing you need to hear before anything else: God is not disgusted by you. God has compassion for you. Those are the words David Pothier opens with in this sermon, preached at a turning point for the Chapelle: the acquisition of a new building in Cartierville, Montreal.

He begins by talking about running. Eliud Kipchoge, the extraordinary marathoner, was the first person to run a marathon in under two hours. Usain Bolt remains the fastest man over 100 meters. But David Pothier wants to tell you about another runner: "the greatest runner in all of history." A race to find a son who was lost. The story is in Luke 15.

This is not a sentimental tale. It is a revelation of the heart of God, who, through Jesus, runs to meet you, even when you think you no longer deserve to be called his child.

Outline of the Sermon

1. A Son Who Tells His Father: "I Wish You Were Dead"

The parable tells of a young man who asks for his share of the inheritance. In that culture, this amounted to telling his father, "I wish you were dead." David Pothier notes with humor that in many cultures, a child who spoke to his parents this way would get an immediate, firm response. But in the parable, the father divides the property between his sons.

The son sells everything, travels to a distant country, and squanders his inheritance in reckless living. David Pothier draws a direct parallel to Quebec: "We want freedom, we want justice, we want equality, but we no longer want the Father." We have taken the Christian inheritance and are squandering it because we no longer want God. The result: broken communities, broken families, broken marriages, and above all, broken souls. We are the most anxious, the most depressed, and the most medicated generation in history.

2. A Son Brought to Rock Bottom

The young man ends up feeding pigs, ready to fill himself with the food the pigs were eating. For a young Jewish man, this is the ultimate humiliation: pigs were unclean animals. David Pothier insists that this is what happens to us when we drift from the Father. We end up surrounded by people who claim to love us but are only there to use us.

One day, the son says to himself, "How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, and I'm dying here of hunger! I will get up and go back to my father." He prepares a three-point speech: "I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants." His plan: pay off his debt to his father someday.

3. A Father Who Runs, Despite the Shame

He sets out, but the text says that while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him (Luke 15:20). This father was not disgusted by his son. He was not ashamed of him, even though his son reeked of pigs.

David Pothier draws attention to a detail that 2,000 years of Christianity have made too familiar: in that culture, a father never ran in public. Men wore long robes; running meant hiking up your robe and showing your legs, which was considered shameful. This father runs despite the shame. This father looks like God.

4. The Custom of the Kezazah: Why the Father Really Runs

Theologian Kenneth Bailey sheds light on the background of the parable through a Jewish custom called the Kezazah (literally: "cutting off"). If a young Jewish man had lost his inheritance to Gentiles and wanted to be welcomed back into his community, he had to appear before the village elders. The father was not allowed to attend that ceremony, because a father's blessing takes precedence over the community's decision. The mother could plead on the son's behalf, but the decision belonged to the elders.

If the community refused to take the son back, they would take a clay jar filled with grain (grain was precious; nothing was wasted) and smash it at his feet while declaring: "You have broken our trust, you have broken our community, the damage is beyond repair. May your life now be like this broken vessel. You are no longer welcome here. You are cut off."

The father watches the horizon because he wants to reach his son before he enters the village, before the elders. He runs, embraces him, and gives three orders before the son can even finish his speech:

• The robe, the father's own robe. Wearing it, no one can spit on the son or curse him.
• The ring, the seal, the equivalent of the family credit card. It restores him to the family business.
• The sandals, since only slaves went barefoot. He is not a servant; he is a son.

By the time the son enters the village, he is already wearing the robe, the ring, and the sandals, already carrying the father's blessing and forgiveness. The elders can no longer exclude him. The father's blessing takes precedence over the community's decision.

5. What God Has Done for Us

David Pothier draws the connection: "That is exactly what God has done for us." When God saw us in our sin, he did not stay in heaven with his arms crossed. He said, "I will go myself." God became a man. The cross of Jesus Christ is God running toward us.

It is not because sin is a light thing, if it were, Jesus would not have needed to die. It is because the Father's heart bleeds for you. God has already run toward you. God is still running toward you today.

Key Takeaways

• God is not disgusted by you. No matter your misery, your addictions, your anxiety, your loneliness, your pride, your sin, the Father's heart is moved with compassion.
• An inheritance without the Father loses all its meaning. You can keep Christian values like freedom, justice, and equality, but if you reject the Father, you squander the inheritance.
• The Father runs despite the shame. In that culture, running was humiliating for an older man. God accepts humiliation to reach you before the community can condemn you.
• The cross of Jesus is God running toward you. It covers you with the Father's robe, ring, and sandals before you can even say your first word.
• Being a good person does not save you. Even religious, well-behaved people can be far from the Father. Only the Father saves.

Personal Application

1. Are you aware that you might be far from the Father, even while being a "good person"?
2. What is the thing you keep trying to squander to feel free, and that leaves you emptier than before?
3. Do you see God as a distant judge, or as a Father who runs toward you despite your shame?
4. What is keeping you today from running toward him in return?
5. Is there someone around you that you could help find their way back to the Father, the way Stéphane was helped?

A Testimony: Stéphane

David Pothier closes with the story of Stéphane, who first came to the Chapelle in April 2018 for an Easter celebration at the Théâtre Saint-Denis. Anxious, addicted to cocaine, surrounded by negative relationships, he had never planned to come to church. That day, he raised his hand to receive Jesus, and then felt "an indescribable warmth flood his heart." A few months later, at the Chapelle du Mile End, people prayed for his addiction. God set him free, completely, from more than twenty years of addiction. He later married the friend who had invited him. And he became the project manager for building the new Cartierville building, alongside dozens of volunteers.

A life lost, found, restored, and sent out. "The church is not first a building. The church is people. They are living stones."

Verses Cited

• Luke 15 (parable of the prodigal son)
• Luke 15:20 · The father runs to meet him
• 1 Peter 2:5 · You are living stones

FAQ

What does the parable of the prodigal son mean in Luke 15?

It reveals a Father who welcomes without reserve the one who returns to him. Jesus tells it in response to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who criticize him for spending time with tax collectors and notorious sinners. It is the third in a series (the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son): God always rejoices when what was lost is found.

What is the custom of the Kezazah?

According to theologian Kenneth Bailey, this was an ancient Jewish ceremony. If a young man had lost his inheritance to Gentiles and wanted to return to his village, the elders would decide whether to take him back. If they refused, a clay jar filled with grain was smashed at his feet to mark an irreparable exclusion. In the parable, the father runs to arrive before the elders and cover his son with his own blessing: the father's blessing takes precedence over the community's decision.

How do I come back to God when I feel too far away?

The question is not whether God is running toward you, he has already done so in Jesus Christ. The real question is: will you run toward him? Simply tell him: "I'm running toward you, with my anxiety, my fears, my addictions, all of it." He will never force your will. He is waiting for you.