A familiar parable Jesus told is found in the gospel of Luke. It is usually referred to as the parable of the prodigal son, but I think a better name would be the parable of the unknown father.

Why give it a new name? Because the main point of the story is actually about the heart of the Father, and two sons (not one) who didn’t know him as well as they could, and/or took him for granted.

I believe Jesus told this story as part of his ongoing campaign to reveal the Father to his disciples and the world. Let’s read it anew:

Luke 15:11-32

There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.'”

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The  son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

I have been, in my life, both sons.

I have been the one who was blind to the generous and good Father who was there all the time, who had to run off and taste all the world had to offer before limping home in shame.

​I have also been the one who served the Father out of duty and love, yet blind to the magnitude of His generosity and goodness being held out to me every day. Sometimes because I was just so busy serving him.

These sons grew up with the father. Why didn’t they know him better?

The short answer is because they didn’t value knowing the father above all other values. That’s the same reason we might not know the Father better. We simply have other things on our minds and in our hearts that obscure our full view and seeking Him. In my case, it was my view of myself that obscured my view of Him. I suspect this was the older son’s problem.

Neither son knew the Father as they could, and both in their own way took him for granted. Both were blind, in some way, to the full character the father would bring to their relationship, if sought. Both were blind to the fact that his heart was so generous that everything he possessed was theirs, from the moment they were born. Everything.

The younger son who took his inheritance was probably too immature to appreciate his father and the wisdom he would have taught him if he had hung around. He was likely beset with the self-centered spirit that can easily captivate youth. Clearly there was a more compelling desire than knowing his father more: the desire to know (taste of) the world more.

It is safe to assume that the father hadn’t changed significantly between the son’s departure and his humble return home. He had given the younger son his inheritance for the asking, and the freedom to do whatever he desired. So this son thought all he could hope for in his destitute and embarrassing state was to come home to safety, food on the table, clothes on his back and, hopefully, forgiveness. What he discovered when he got there was just how big his father’s heart was. And had always been.

Why was he blind to the father’s heart before?

Our eyes are the gate to our soul, opening us up to whatever we gaze at. Gazing upon a thing is the beginning of developing a hunger for it, to personally taste of it. That’s what advertising is all about — creating a hunger in you for that thing. This can easily blind us to the things we already have.

This story reflects my own experience of God.

I too, have wandered off from God, only to be humbled by my choices. I too have expected the least reception — expected what I deserved — and prepared my little dust-eating speeches. And I too have had the Father run to me with arms open, brushing off my little speech, and having seen that I was on my way back, had already set a celebration in motion. The Father not joining me in the judgment I had already heaped upon myself, and letting my heart know He was consumed with only one thing: the joy that I had come home.​

I’ve also been the son who never left home, but lived below the joy of knowing that all the Father had was already mine, to enjoy now.​ Full of self-consciousness, not a little self-righteousness, proud of the kind of daughter I am trying to be. In seeking to be the perfect daughter, I’m careful not to presume or ask too much, and assuming my restraint is a virtue. In my self-absorption, I’ve been busier focusing on me and my performance, than on knowing Him.

I’ll never forget the day that the Spirit showed me a picture: I was facing the Father, praying, but as I did, I was holding up a mirror. I wasn’t praying to myself, I was constantly checking to see how I was doing as a Christian. I wasn’t seeking His Face, I was seeking to earn His favor. A favor I already had, and apparently didn’t trust in enough.

What I love about the parable of the unknown father:

I love how the Father revealed that beyond his generosity, mercy and love, was his joy in the relationship itself. Above all, he wanted his sons alive, blessed and near him. To not just bestow a blessing, but to be a daily part of that blessing, and get to see the joy it would bring them.

He is generous, so generous, that all He has is ours, as Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 8:32:

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Jesus told his disciples once:

All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.​

John 16:15

Jesus knew how rich he was in the Father.

That kind of knowledge doesn’t come from bean counting and bank accounts. It comes from tasting of of the true heart and character of the Father. After all, a father can be a very rich man, and still not be generous.

How did Jesus come to know that the Father withheld nothing from him? By seeking to know the Father himself. He didn’t go to the Father and ask for his inheritance. He went to the Father and said, “I want to know you.”

Yes, Jesus had a special mission, and we acknowledge that above all human beings, Jesus needed to thoroughly know His Father to carry out that mission. Yet little word bombs all over the Scriptures noisily tell us that we should know God, can know God, and that the Father will always be found by those who seek him.

What Jesus learned about the Father was only partially from the Father telling him about himself. Jesus got to know the Father through his obedience to Him. As he stated often (as recorded in the gospel of John), Jesus spent his days doing and saying only what the Father did and said. He gave credit to the Father for every word and deed. Every judgment, every teaching, every act of mercy, every miracle. All these revealed to Jesus, on the job, the character of God His Father.

That, added with all the times where God shared his thoughts with his Son, became complete knowledge of the Father. Jesus’ goal from the beginning of his ministry wasn’t to make a name for himself or to win converts and followers to his kingdom. The more He knew the Father, the more consumed he became with revealing the Father. Knowing the Father made him insatiably hungry for others to know Him too. That is the real reason there were miracles and resurrections, not to mention the stunning sight of Jesus, a righteous rabbi, eating with sinners and forgiving a women caught in the act of adultery.

Amazingly, it is this wealth from the Father that Jesus offers us every day through the Spirit, as stated in John 16:15.

Beloved, all things are yours in the Father’s heart, today.

Is there anything He might have in His hand that you are leaving un-enjoyed? Walking right past on your way to something else?

Above all, know this: of all the things the Father wants to give you, the best thing is His heart. He literally has His heart in His hand, offering it to you, every day.

We could name this parable lots of other things: the parable of the misunderstood father. The parable of the ignored father. Call it what you will, but don’t ever forget that what it reveals about the heart of the Father in relation to all his sons and daughters:

• If you are in Christ, everything he has is yours.
• He loves you so much he’s been known to ignore all your self-shaming speeches and go straight to celebrating that you’ve come home.
• It was always about the heart connection between you.

Tonia