A lot of us stopped going. Maybe it was one bad Sunday. Maybe it was years of feeling like we did not fit. And then the guilt came, quietly, every time we drove past the building. Some of us still feel ashamed, or afraid that God is disappointed in us.
Jesus told a story for exactly that feeling.
The son who left
A man had two sons. The younger one asked for his share of the family money early, while his father was still alive. Then he left for a country far away and spent all of it.
When the money was gone, a hard time came to that land. He got a job feeding pigs, and he was so hungry he wanted to eat the pigs' food. Nobody gave him anything.
So he made a plan. He would go home and say, "Father, I have sinned. I am not worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired servants." He practiced it. He was ready to beg.
The father who ran
The Gospel of Luke, one of the four accounts of Jesus's life, tells us what happened next. The son was walking home, still a long way off, when his father saw him.
But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Luke 15:20 · King James VersionThe original Greek
καὶ ἀναστὰς ἦλθεν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα ἑαυτοῦ. ἔτι δὲ αὐτοῦ μακρὰν ἀπέχοντος εἶδεν αὐτὸν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐσπλαγχνίσθη καὶ δραμὼν ἐπέπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ καὶ κατεφίλησεν αὐτόν.
Found in Papyrus 75 (about AD 200), Codex Vaticanus (about AD 325), Codex Sinaiticus (about AD 350).
The son started his speech. He got through the part about being sorry and the part about not being worthy. But the father cut him off before he could ask to be a servant. He called out to his workers to bring the best robe, a ring and shoes, and to start cooking for a party.
The son never finished. His father would not let him.
What this means for you
Jesus was telling this story to religious leaders who were upset with him. They did not like that he ate meals with people they thought were too sinful to sit with. So he told them about a father who could not wait for his boy to come home.
The father did not ask where the son had been. He did not ask how long he would stay. He saw him on the road and ran.
That is the picture Jesus gave of God. Not a door you have to knock on with the right words. A father already running toward you.
If you have been away, you are still loved, and you were never too far for that. You are welcome home, with no speech needed. Church can be a good place to be with other people. But God's love was not waiting inside a building for you to come back to it. It was out on the road the whole time.