The Profound Connection Between Joy and Repentance

The Beauty of the Father

There’s an interesting paradox with repentance in that it’s both a time of grief and a time of joy. It’s grief—we see that in the language of Luke 15. We’ve had our face in the manure of sin. And it’s joy—we’re coming home from a far country. Sometimes when we say that it is a time of both grief and joy, people feel like that’s a contradiction. But this is where Jesus’s parable is so beautiful and so genius.

The Gospel of Luke tells us that the father saw the prodigal son when he was still a long way off. When the son saw his father rushing out to meet him, how do you suppose he felt? Did he feel grief? He considered what he’d done to his dad. He looked at the lines of care and the grief that he had caused. And of course he felt grief. He sees his loving father running to embrace him, and this is a time of joy. There’s a great celebration. The time in the far country is over. You’ve come home.

The question becomes, Why exactly is repentance for joy? And if you think of the parable of the prodigal son, you can understand the answer to that question. It’s one of the most beautiful stories ever told. Dickens is quoted as saying it’s the greatest short story ever written. So why is it an occasion for joy? And the answer is because of the beauty of the father.

The father is beautiful from beginning to end. He’s beautiful in the beginning—he gives his son life and everything he enjoys. He’s beautiful while he waits—he waits and he sees his son while he’s still a far, long way off. He’s beautiful in that he absorbs the cost—the money’s not going to be recovered. He’s just welcoming his son home, and he absorbed the cost. He’s beautiful in being patient with the legalism of the older son. And he’s beautiful in the celebration. And it’s beautiful that with the younger son, this is just the beginning of the story. Now the younger son has come home to fellowship with his father, and we who turn to Jesus will fellowship with him for all of eternity.

Chris Brauns is the author of The Way of Repentance: Embracing God’s Gift for a Transformed Life.

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