The Father Calls for a Celebration
1. New Life in Abundance
Jesus Christ is alive. God the Father raised him from the dead to give us new life, life in abundance, and eternal life. In Christ and through his death and resurrection, God revealed the riches of his mercy, goodness, and glory. Because of his immense love for us, God suffers when his children leave home and become lost. He does not want anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9). He wants us to come home. And so his extraordinary love had made a way to bring us home. God so loved the world that He sent his Son to find us and bring us home. Whoever believes in the Son, Jesus Christ, shall not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). He gives us the new kingdom life in abundance already here and now. In Christ, God the Father restores and honors us as his children, just like the father in the parable restored and honored the younger son as his beloved son and heir. He dressed him with the signs of freedom — the robe of honor, the ring of inheritance restoring him as his son, and sandals, the footwear of prestige. Bare feet indicate poverty and slavery. He is not a slave or servant. He is the father’s son who has come home, who was dead but is now alive again.
In the same way, the Father restores us and dresses us in new clothes. Zechariah 3:3-10 — Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.” Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by. … “Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.” This has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection. God the Father dresses us in fine clothes, bright and clean, washed white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14; 19:8). He restores us as his children and gives us new life.
He also restores us as heirs of his kingdom. Through the resurrection, God has inaugurated the kingdom, our inheritance, that He has prepared from the beginning of time. The empty grave declares loud and clear that God’s Kingdom has arrived. The risen Jesus rules as Lord of the universe. The new life is available and possible already here and now in this life and this world. The resurrection of Jesus invites us to come home. Because of Him, God’s lost children are being found, made alive again, and coming home. This calls for joy and rejoicing, for a celebration and a feast.
2. The Father Invites Us into His Joy
The Father invites us into his joy. He invites us to rejoice with Him. The shepherd of the lost sheep says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” The woman says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” The father says, “Let us eat and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” Then Jesus explains, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. … there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Lk 15:7,10). These voices represent God’s voice as He invites us into his joy.
The father in the parable gives a celebration. This is a foreshadowing of the final feast of the kingdom of heaven when the kingdom will be fulfilled and complete in the new creation. Jesus compares God’s kingdom with a joyful feast. “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 8:11). “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son” (Mt 22:2). God’s ultimate victory is described as a wedding feast in Revelation 19:6-7: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”
God’s kingdom is a celebration of forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, and new life. From God’s perspective, one act of repentance, one little gesture of selfless love, and one moment of true forgiveness is all that is needed to bring God running from his throne to his returning children, embrace them in his loving arms, and fill the heavens with sounds of divine joy. There, in that one act of repentance, one gesture of selfless love, one moment of true forgiveness, there God’s kingdom has come, and it is a source of joy for all who witness these kingdom events. God’s kingdom has come and is coming.
The Father’s invitation into his joy is also an invitation to intimacy with God. We are called to come home, and there in Christ, we enjoy intimacy with God as God the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit make their home in and with us. When we abide in Christ, He abides in us, and we are home. We are now part of God’s family, members of his household. We are home, and there the Father invites us to rejoice with him. He invites us into his joy and celebration.
3. Choose Joy!
The question is, Will we join the Father’s joy? Will we step out of ourselves, get over ourselves, and step into the Father’s joy and rejoice with Him? As God’s children, we are called to choose joy. We have become accustomed to living with sadness and sorrow. Every day the media overwhelm us with bad news, pain, and suffering. We become so fixated on our problems, struggles, and situations that we lose focus, and instead of setting our minds on Christ and his kingdom, we set our minds on earthly things and ourselves.
We must change our perspective and our focus. We need eyes to see the joy and ears to hear the gladness that belongs to God and which is to be found in the world where his kingdom is coming. Jesus is alive and his resurrection tells us that God remains in control. Every single day history is moving closer to its forgone and final conclusion. It’s moving to “the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:24-26). Every day we are moving closer to that final kingdom feast in the new creation. Miracles are happening every day. The wonders of God, big and small, are all around us. To choose joy is to look for, talk about, and rejoice about the small joys of what God is doing every day. To choose joy is to look for something small and beautiful, something God has placed in our lives to give us joy. It is there. Look for it. Choose joy, rejoice, and give thanks.
Because of Jesus and his resurrection, every day, somewhere in this world, God’s children are being found, are made alive again, and are coming home to the Father. Yes, I know that not everybody has come home yet, and many of God’s children are lost because they have not heard the gospel or they do not believe in Jesus. And that should break our hearts as it breaks the Father’s heart. Yes, there is not yet peace everywhere, and all the pain and suffering have not yet been taken away. But still, every day, people are turning and returning home. Voices are praying and worshipping God across the globe. There are moments of forgiveness and reconciliation. Acts of love are being practiced often unnoticed. There are many signs of hope. We don’t have to wait until Jesus comes again and all is well in the new creation to choose joy. Already now, we can and we must rejoice and celebrate every little hint, every small sign of the coming of God’s kingdom.
Choose joy! This is the discipline we are called to practice every day. We choose light even when there is much darkness to frighten us. We choose life even when the forces of death are so visible. We choose the truth even when we are surrounded by lies. Once we choose to claim God’s joy hidden in the midst of all suffering, life becomes a celebration.
To choose joy does not mean that we deny sin, suffering, and sadness. That would be naive, unrealistic, and sentimental. Jesus is very realistic. He says that there will be wars and revolutions, earthquakes, plagues and famines, persecution and imprisonment, betrayal, hatred, and killing. Why do we expect it to be different? We live in a broken and sinful world.
But, God’s joy can be ours in the midst of it all. Because of the resurrection, we are children of God. We belong to the kingdom of joy. Because we have come home in Jesus Christ, we can claim God’s joy. We can accept his invitation and choose joy. We don’t have to give in to darkness, sadness, and cynicism. We, who have come home and come to know the joy of God, don’t deny the darkness, but we choose not to live in it.
We have come home in Jesus Christ. We are living in the Father’s home, and His joy is ours. Our Father has already dressed us in the best robes, rings, and sandals. Therefore, we can remove the sadness from our hearts. We can reject the lies that Satan, the world, and self are telling us. We claim the truth that we are children of God. We are free. We are children of the light. Therefore, choose joy. Let go of the voices of doom and gloom. Let go of the voices of damnation and self-rejection. Let go of fear and anxieties.
Yes, it is very difficult to choose joy when your heart is broken and filled with sorrow. But it is possible when we abide in Christ, pause, pray, and reflect on the following. First, look for the small joys and small miracles, as I already said. There is always something to be thankful for and rejoice about because God is at work, and He has made his dwelling with us and in us. Then, it is possible to choose joy when we remind ourselves that God is in control and his kingdom is coming. In this world, hearts and bones will still break but the light of the kingdom will overcome the darkness. The resurrection is evidence of that. Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, is alive. He is ruling. He is overcoming and will overcome the darkness. The Father’s love is stronger than death and He empowers us to be in this world while we already belong to his kingdom of joy.
Therefore, every moment of each day, we choose joy. Every thought I have can be joyful. Every word I speak can be joyful. Every action I take can be joyful. Every choice for joy in turn, reveals more joy and offers more reason to make life a true celebration in the house of the Father.
The joy of Jesus and his Father is offered to us. Jesus wants us to have the same joy he enjoys with the Father: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:9-11). Choose joy and rejoice in the Lord always.