Our Father in heaven…
— Matthew 6:9
Following the Call—Chap. 30: Our Father
What kind of father is this? God’s family and ours. Are we related? Your turn.
Jesus wanted people to discover who the Father really was by seeing what he, Jesus, was doing. When we call God “Father,” we are making the same astonishing, crazy, utterly risky claim. The mission of the church is contained in that word; the failure of the church is highlighted by that word. But the failure, too, is taken care of in the prayer, and in the cross.
— N. T. Wright
What Kind of Father Is This?
The Old Testament depicts God several ways: as a shepherd, a rock, a fortress, a potter. Jesus, however, repeatedly addresses God as “Father,” which highlights the kind of relationship Jesus has with God. God is not an abstract “ground of being” or “totally Other.” In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus even calls God dearest (abba) Father. Jesus knows God personally and affectionately. He knows that God cares for and attends to him. He is God’s very own son, “in whom God is well pleased.”
Not all of us understand our earthly fathers this way. A few years back, my wife and I were walking the neighborhood in Albany, New York. We met a teenage girl carrying her baby sister. She told us that she was looking forward to having children of her own one day. We wished her luck in finding a good husband. She looked at us with a blank stare, as if she had no idea what a husband was. She didn’t even know who her father was. All she knew were men who came in and out of her mother’s house.
For many of us, our fathers are absent, distant. Some are intimidating, even abusive. Consequently, when we hear God addressed as “father” we have a problem. The opposite of this happens as well. Some of us have fathers who are weak, emotional pushovers that give us what we want. We thus think of God in terms of a buddy, a pal, a softy who spoils us with things and attention. In both cases, God is but a human projection and remains unknown.
All of us are tempted to project the image we have of our earthly fathers onto God, either making God ominous or innocuous. But to acknowledge God as our Father means that our human notions of fatherhood are ultimately relative. The God we pray to is far beyond any human father; he is our heavenly Father. He is transcendent in the sense that he alone is good. It is he who defines what true fatherhood and sonship are.
In praying to God as our heavenly Father, therefore, we need to learn to know God for who he really is and allow him to enter our life on his terms, not ours. Those terms are made known to us in his Son. We call God “Father” because we confess Jesus as his Son. “He who has seen me has seen the Father….No one can come to the Father except through me”, Jesus says (John 14:6, 9). Only by looking to Jesus and at his relationship with the Father do we gain insight into who God is and who we are as his children.
God’s Family and Ours
What do we learn about God when we address him as our Father? First, by praying “Our Father” we learn not to be possessive. God is not my personal property. As important as a personal relationship with God is, more important is the Father’s relationship with us as his people. God is our Father, and so we know and belong to him together. Any faith we happen to have in God is birthed from, formed by, and made manifest in others who call on God as their heavenly Father. Who we are is found not only in him but in his family.
Since we pray to God as our Father, we must also recognize the limitations of our own human family. For Jesus our first family is not our biological family (Matthew 23:9); our first family is the family of all those who cry out to this same Father. This family demands a higher allegiance because it consists of all families, nations, races, and cultures. God’s will is that all ethnocentrism, racism, and tribalism fall away. In Christ, water (that is, baptism) is thicker than blood.
Finally, in praying “Our Father,” we understand God to be more than a cosmic creator. God didn’t just make us, he saved us. We are children of his not by natural descent but by being born of his Spirit (John 1:12-13). In other words, we don’t just amorphously belong to some benign “brotherhood of man.” Despite our rebellion and separation from God, Christ leads us back to the Father who waits to receive us home. God is a saving Father who is not just near us but seeks us out, rescuing us from ourselves and from all that oppresses us.
Are We Related?
N. T. Wright makes an astonishing observation about God’s fatherhood. We don’t just know the Father by seeing what Jesus, his Son, is doing, but by seeing what we, his people, are doing. This is why the mission of the church is contained in the one word “Father.” The world learns to see God as a Father from seeing Jesus his Son, but it learns to see his Son through us, his people. By us the world knows that the Father sent his Son and loves them (John 17:23). That is quite a challenge!
In the Book of Acts, we read how the apostles Peter and John were interrogated before the religious high council. The council was upset because they had been preaching about Jesus’ resurrection and had just healed a crippled beggar. Crowds of people started believing their message. So the council demanded to know by what name and authority they had been doing all this. Peter exclaims: “Know this, you and everyone else in Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you completely healed.” The council’s response?
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. (Acts 4:8-14)
What caught the religious authorities off guard? What caught their attention? Peter and John had been with Jesus; they were doing the kinds of works he did. They were doing the Father’s work.
What about us? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, the saying goes. Which tree do we belong to? What kind of fruit are we producing? Is anyone taking note? Do people see any family resemblance between us and the Father and the Son? It’s not a matter of being extraordinary. It’s a matter of being more like Jesus.
Your Turn
What do you find most difficult when it comes to surrendering to God’s will? Just reply to this email to leave a comment.