Our church just wrapped up a 3-week series based on the story of the prodigal son, and this morning I’m just marinating some more on the beautiful fact that the father ran to meet the younger son while he was still a long way off.
It was unprecedented, and even scandalous, for a man to run (Aristotle once said that great men never run in public), let alone run with his garments raised and his legs exposed! And yet, this father was willing to risk ridicule to get to his son.
But when you know about the Jewish custom of kezazah, the running takes on an even greater significance. In the culture that Jesus was addressing, whenever a Jewish son lost his inheritance among the Gentiles, he would be subject to a ceremony known as the kezazah.
The villagers would stop the son at the city gates, and break a large pot at his feet. They would yell at him, telling him that the broken pottery represented the relationship between the city and the son, including the son’s family. Fathers didn’t even attend the ceremony, and yet this father ran to restore his son before he would be exposed to the shame of kezazah.
We have a Father who went to great lengths to remove shame from us at the cross. He lifts our heads when shame tries to keep them down. He looks in our eyes when others look away. He runs faster than those who want to expose us. He is the Father who outruns shame, and now, He calls us to do the same.
Today, be a defender of the broken, the outcast, the marginalized. Run to those who have been cut off, and allow the Father to use you as His representative of grace, forgiveness, and restoration.
