Vital Signs: The Father’s Motherly Love
Richmond’s First Baptist Church, May 14, 2017
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
John 14:1-14
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to
him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever
has seen me has seen the Father.
On this Mother’s Day I’m reminded of a story I heard about a hospital chaplain
who used to visit with patients in their rooms, and often, because she was a chaplain, the
conversation turned to God. In one of those visits she referred to God as “Father,” and
the woman she was talking to shuddered and said, “I can’t think of God that way.” “Why
not?” the chaplain asked. “Because my father abused me,” the woman said. “He used to
hit me and say terrible things about me. If God is like that I want nothing to do with
him.” “Well, then,” said the chaplain, “who in your childhood showed you the most
unconditional love?” And the woman smiled and said, “Oh, that was my mother! She
was the one who always tried to protect me from my father. She was the one who held
me after he did or said something hurtful.” The chaplain thought for a moment and then
said, “Would it help you to think of God like that, like a loving mother?” And the
woman smiled again and said, “Oh, if I could do that I think I could believe in God!”
And the chaplain said,
“Then why don’t you do it?”
That’s not wrong, is it? There are several places in the Bible that speak of God’s
“motherly” love.i Jesus himself said that God is spirit, which means that God is neither
male nor female. He is certainly not our father in any biological sense. When we refer to
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God as “Father” we are simply using the word Jesus used most often when he talked
about God. It’s a metaphor, and Jesus used it to show us that God is like a loving,
heavenly father. But I think Jesus himself would say that if, in your experience, the word
father has come to mean something other than that, if it has come to mean fear, or abuse,
or neglect rather than love, then you need to find another word! For Jesus it was a good
one, and he used it freely. In John’s Gospel it is his favorite word for God. As I thought
about that last week I pictured Jesus and his disciples sitting around the campfire at night
and one of them saying, “Tell us about the Father.”
And Jesus would stare into the fire for a while, his eyes shining, and then he
would say, “Well, the Father is like a man who had two sons. The younger one decided
that he wanted his share of the inheritance early, before his father died, and the father
gave it to him! He took it off to a far country and squandered it on wine, women, and
song. He had a lot of friends in those days, but when his money ran out so did his
friends. And to add injury to insult there was a famine in the land and the boy didn’t
have anything. He hired himself out to a pig farmer, and he was so hungry he would
have been glad to eat the slop he fed to the pigs. But one day he came to his senses and
said, “In my Father’s house everybody has enough to eat. Nobody goes hungry. This is
what I’m going to do: I’m going to get up and go to my father and say, ‘Father, I have
sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Treat me as one of your hired hands.’
“All the way home he rehearsed that speech, but when his father saw him coming
he ran down the road to meet him, threw his arms around the boy, and wept on his neck.
His son began to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you,” but the
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Father wasn’t listening. He told his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on
him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. And then kill the fatted calf and let’s
have a feast! My son was as good as dead, but here he is, alive! He was lost and gone
forever, but here he is, found!” (Luke 15:11-32).
The disciples loved that story. It was probably their favorite. But Jesus had other
stories about the Father. Once he said, “The Father is like a man who was having a big
party. He had invited a lot of guests. When it was time he sent his servants to tell the
guests, ‘Everything is ready! Come to the party!’ But one at a time they began to make
excuses, one saying he had to go look at a field, another saying he had to try out a team of
oxen, and another saying he had just gotten married. The servant went back and told his
master and his master was furious. ‘Everything is ready for the party!’ he said. ‘All this
food is going to go to waste! Hurry, go out to the streets and alleys and bring back the
poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ The servant did, but there was still room.
‘Then go out to the country roads and lanes and find anybody you can,’ he said. ‘I’m
throwing a party, and I want my house to be full!’” (Luke 14:16-23).
They liked that one, too.
Once Jesus said, “The Father is like a man who owned a vineyard, and needed
some help picking his grapes. He went out early in the morning to hire some day laborers
and promised to pay them a day’s wages. But it was a big crop, so he went back at nine
and rounded up a few more, promising to pay them what was fair. He went out again at
noon, and again at three. Finally, at five o’ clock, just before quitting time, he picked up
a few more and together they finished the job. The master was so happy to have his crop
gathered in he told his manager to pay everybody, starting with the ones who had been
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hired last. So the manager did, and even though they had only worked an hour he gave
them a full day’s wage. Well, the ones who had been hired earlier thought they would
get more, but when the manager paid them everybody got the same amount—a day’s
wage. That made the ones who were hired first angry. One of them went to the owner
and said, ‘Look, what’s this all about? We’ve been out there all day, working in the
blazing sun! How come you paid these latecomers the same as you paid us?’ But the
owner said, ‘What are you complaining about? I promised to pay you a day’s wage and
that’s what I did. Now, take it and go. Or are you jealous because I’m generous?’”
(Matthew 20:1-15).
The disciples didn’t really get that one, but they liked it that the Father was
generous. Jesus told them other stories, too: about how the Father was like a shepherd
who left his other sheep behind so he could find the one that had gotten lost; how he was
like a woman who turned her house upside down so she could find one lost coin; how he
was like a king who could forgive everything but an unforgiving heart. This Father Jesus
talked about was everything you could want in a father: he was generous, he was
gracious, he was loving, he was kind. In fact, he was a whole lot like Jesus. The more
Jesus told them about the Father the more they wanted to know. They didn’t say it out
loud but they began to hope that someday they might get to meet the Father. And then
one day Jesus told them he was leaving.
And they weren’t expecting that.
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said. “You believe in God; believe also
in me. There is plenty of room in my Father’s house. In fact, I’m going to prepare a
place for you, and when I get it ready I will come back and get you, so that you can be
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where I am and we can all be there together, forever.” And that sounds wonderful,
doesn’t it? Except for the part about Jesus leaving. The disciples must have still had that
troubled look on their faces when Jesus said, “Don’t worry! You know where I’m going.
You know the way.” But Thomas (who was always the most honest one in the bunch)
said, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” And
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by
me” (John 14:6).
For centuries now Christians have used that verse to make exclusive claims for
Christianity, to say that Jesus is the only way to heaven. I’m not saying that they’re
wrong, but have you noticed that the word heaven is never mentioned in this passage?
Jesus doesn’t say, “No one gets to heaven but by me,” he says, “No one comes to the
Father but by me.” In fact, in these 14 verses, the word father is mentioned 13 times, but
the word heaven? Not even once. It seems clear that Jesus’ message to his disciples is
not destinational (as in, “How do we get to heaven?”) but rather relational (as in, “How
do we get to the Father?”), and the way they respond makes it even clearer. When Jesus
says, “No one comes to the Father but by me,” Philip doesn’t ask, “Does that mean only
Christians get to go to heaven?” He says, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be
satisfied.” Did you hear that? “We will be satisfied with a glimpse of the Father,” Philip
says. “Not mansions in glory. Not streets of gold. Just the Father. That’s all we want.”
Which makes much of modern-day Christianity seem rather shallow by
comparison, doesn’t it? Because we do want mansions in glory; we do want streets of
gold. At the very least, we don’t want to end up in hell. And so we try to figure it out.
We ask ourselves: “What do I have to do to get to heaven?” And sometimes, “What’s the
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least I have to do to get to heaven?” I’ve seen gospel tracts that spell out the good news
of salvation in about seven small pages, and then ask you to say the sinner’s prayer and
sign your name. There! Now you’re done. Now your salvation is secure and you will
spend eternity in heaven. Which is probably not exactly what Jesus had in mind when he
preached the gospel. There’s a verse in the first chapter of John that says, “No one has
ever seen God. The only son, who is close to the Father’s heart, has made him known”
(John 1:18). What if that’s what Jesus came to do: to reveal the heart of the Father, to
show us that it beats with love?
“Show us the Father and we will be satisfied!” Philip says. It’s just the kind of
thing you might expect him to say after all those wonderful stories he’s heard. But Jesus
says, “Philip, have I been with you all this time and you still don’t know me? If you’ve
seen me you’ve seen the Father. The words that I say are his words; the works that I do
are his works. I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” And if eternal life is knowing
the Father (as Jesus will say in Chapter 17), then yes: Jesus is the way to that kind of life.
And maybe that’s what he’s been trying to say all along. Because sometimes our
understanding of God gets twisted. Instead of thinking of him as a loving father we think
of him as an angry judge, or a cruel king. And Jesus might say, “If you want to think of
God that way you can go there. There are people who will take you there. There are
whole religions that will take you there. But if you want to think of God as a loving,
heavenly father then I am the way.”
Why do our thoughts about God get so twisted? Because it’s not hard for us to
believe that we are sinners who deserve to be punished. What’s hard is believing that we
are children who were born to be loved. But Jesus says God loved the world so much he
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gave his only son (John 3:16), and that was before the Son even came. That’s while we
were still stinking in our sin. Even so, God didn’t send his son into the world to condemn
the world; he sent him so that the world, through him, might be saved (John 3:17). And
maybe what Jesus means is this: that the world—instead of fearing God, instead of
trembling every time his name is mentioned and trying to appease his righteous wrath—
might come to trust his love, might begin to “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his
courts with praise,” not so they could get into heaven or get out of hell, but just because
his love is so good, because it feels so good to be in his presence.
And this is where someone usually says, “Yes, but you have to do something to
be saved. You have to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. You have to say
the sinner’s prayer.” And maybe they’re right. Maybe you do have to reach out and
accept the gift of love God is trying to give you; otherwise the transaction is never
completed. But on this Mother’s Day I’m thinking about something I heard a mother say
just last week. She said, “There is nothing my boys could do to make me stop loving
them.” And she meant it. She’d considered all the options. It reminded me of that
benediction I’ve heard that says, “God loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it.
There’s nothing you can do to make him love you more. There’s nothing you can do to
make him love you less.” His love is unconditional.
And if you’re looking for a God like that, then Jesus is the way.
—Jim Somerville © 2017
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Deuteronomy 32:11-12, 18 ; Psalm 131:2; Isaiah 49:15; Isaiah 66:12-13; Hosea 11:3-4; Matthew 23:37 ;
Luke 13:34
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