070617 Luke 7:32 - 8:3 A Charge to Fathers

When a father charges his son to “be a man about it,” during some contest of strength and endurance on the sports field, or during a hurting failure where the son cries out for validation and worth or in pain – that father is encouraging his son to rise up to a standard of manhood he (that is the father) should already understand. Jesus says that even earthly fathers would not feed their children stones when their children ask for bread. Even earthly fathers encourage and feed others to be their best, to fulfill God-given potential. You and I are supposed to rise above our natural tendencies to take short cuts or the “easy way out.” A father who says, “be a man,” asks other males to be like them. The obedience to perfection that we expect of others instead of compromising with some mere thought of “excellence” is the same charge spoken to us by our heavenly Father.
Jesus asks us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker in their book Everyman’s Battle says Jesus is asking us “to rise above our natural tendencies to impure eyes, fanciful minds, and wandering hearts. His standard of purity doesn’t come naturally to us. He calls us to rise up, by the power of His indwelling presence, and get the job done” (p. 70).
When Jesus asks Simon, “do you see this woman” that Pharisee and his other guest do not answer. How could they? Simon already spoke words of condemnation – “Doesn’t this man know who is bathing his feet with oil and tears using her hair?”
A friend of mine thinks that this scenario with Jesus, the town harlot, Simon and his Pharisaical guests was a “set up.” I asked him if he meant like a “sting operation” where law enforcement (the Pharisees) want to place a temptation before the suspect (Jesus) to do something illegal.
Other men suggest that this is more like a setup by God to test Simon and all men. All men are called to receive the charge to see others with eyes of forgiveness and grace instead of overbearing judgment. Likewise, we must expect higher standards of obedience from men instead of the high statistics of irresponsible males who fail to “be real men” by fulfilling their call to raise children in wholesome and safe homes. We need to find real examples of faithful fathers in our world today – like the fascinating story of the 1989 earthquake that flattened Armenia. The deadly tremor killed over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. In the midst of all the confusion of the earthquake, a father rushed to his son's school. When he arrived there he discovered the building was flat as a pancake.
Standing there looking at what was left of the school, the father remembered a promise he made to his son, "No matter what, I'll always be there for you!" Tears began to fill his eyes. It looked like a hopeless situation, but he could not take his mind off his promise.
Remembering that his son's classroom was in the back right corner of the building, the father rushed there and started digging through the rubble. As he was digging other grieving parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying: "My son! "My daughter!" They tried to pull him off of what was left of the school saying: "It's too late!" "They're dead!" "You can't help!" "Go home!" Even a police officer and a fire-fighter told him he should go home. To everyone who tried to stop him he said, "Are you going to help me now?" They did not answer him and he continued digging for his son stone by stone.
He needed to know for himself: "Is my boy alive or is he dead?" This man dug for eight hours and then twelve and then twenty-four and then thirty-six. Finally in the thirty-eighth hour, as he pulled back a boulder, he heard his son's voice. He screamed his son's name, "ARMAND!" and a voice answered him, "Dad?" It's me Dad!"
Then the boy added these priceless words, "I told the other kids not to worry. I told 'em that if you were alive, you'd save me and when you saved me, they'd be saved. You promised that, Dad. 'No matter what,' you said, 'I'll always be there for you!' And here you are Dad. You kept your promise!" (Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul.)
Another story is about a father of five children who won a toy at a raffle. He called his kids together to ask which of them should have the present. "Who is the most obedient?" he asked. "Who never talks back to mother? Who does everything she says?" Five small voices answered in unison. "Okay, dad, you get the toy." (James Buchanan, “The Importance of Fathers”)
Over 100,000 school children wrote examples recently to describe "What my Father Means to Me." Here is a sampling of the essays from past essay contests:
A 1st grader says, "My dad is the best dad ever. I would kiss a pig for him."
A 3rd grader says, "The dad in my life isn't really my dad. He's my Grandpa. But he's been like a dad to me since before I was born. . . .I hope that as I get older Grandpa will teach me all the stuff he knows about wood, and first-aid, and everything else he knows. My Grandpa isn't my Father, but I wouldn't trade him for all the dads in the world."
Sometimes as a joke a 4th grader puts his stinky socks in his father’s briefcase, so at work the next day he would think of his son. The son wrote, “He's always at the concerts and plays that I'm in, even though he lives about an hour away."
A 5th grader girl says, "…You know what else my dad does? He braids my hair. I think that's a perfect dad. He already is the world's greatest dad to me. I just wanted everyone to know that."
A 6th grader said, "One time I had an assembly and I was a soloist and my dad was in the first row and after my song I smiled at my dad and my dad smiled back and started crying. That was the best thing I ever saw."
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your supreme example of Jesus Christ as the true and loving father. Thank you for examples that we can live by where we have brief but very real glimmers of hope where your fatherly character shines through our puny lives to braid a little girls hair, teach a child about wood and first-aid, lovingly smell the stinky socks of a love starved child and show up at children’s assemblies, games and recitals. You teach us when we save just one child from the rubble of this world, we are saving many others. Please teach all men to be the fathers you want us to be. Help all women and children to encourage and validate men to rise to their calling to reflect Your Fatherly nature – in the name of Jesus Christ – the Father in Him as He is in You, Amen.