Mercy

Seeing sons a great way off – Part 1 – The father

EireneLeave a comment

Luke 15:20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”

This is such a beautiful picture of the Father’s heart for every prodigal….he never stopped longing for the son that had left him. He had been humiliated by this son, his goodness had been exploited, his love had been trampled on. But his heart yearned for him. I wonder if he went every day to gaze down the path his son had traveled when leaving…..scanning the horizon to see if this would be the day he would return home. How many days passed with no son returning? We aren’t told. But on the day the son returned, the father was watching. Intently watching. So much so that he saw him a great way off.

The world had been harsh to the boy and he was returning with his tail between his legs….broken by the life he had chosen. The son who had humiliated the Father now returned humiliated. How many neighbors must have seen him on the road as he traveled home? Their glaring disapproval must have disheartened him all the more. Shame is piled upon shame and humiliation upon humiliation. But the father saw the beloved son approaching, and unwilling for the boy to be humiliated any further he did the unthinkable….he picked up the skirt of his robe….and RAN. No respectable man runs. That is the activity of children. So the disapproving eyes are turned away from the son, now onto the father…as he ran to his son and embraced him, hiding him in his arms away from every condemning stare. The boy finished the rest of his journey home accompanied by the father, that very presence announcing to all who saw him – ACCEPTED! BELOVED! FORGIVEN!

 

Joseph – just and merciful

EireneLeave a comment

“Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.”  Matthew 1:19

Joseph was a man who followed the commands of God.  He knew the law and he obeyed the law.  He would have known that the punishment for a woman caught in adultery was to be stoned to death.  It would not have been wrong for him to demand this sentence to be executed upon Mary.  But it was not in his heart to do that.   And once he received God’s instruction through a dream, he knew what he needed to do and he did it.

Although I cannot tell for certain, it appears that Joseph did not take Mary to him as his wife until she was already more than 3 months pregnant.  People being the same then as now, they were certainly doing the math when the baby was born.  All appearances were that Joseph had acted improperly during their betrothal.  This just man appeared, in the eyes of others, to be most unjust. 

What better man to be the earthly father of Jesus than one who loved and obeyed the law, but also valued mercy; one who himself, very probably, had borne reproach for his obedience to God.

How I thank God for the men and women he has placed in my life who model the love and mercy of God, and who believe in holiness and obedience to God even when it brings the displeasure or disapproval of man.   And I pray that He will make me one of these people as well, who faithfully imitates Christ in my following of Him.