Father’s Day: Lessons for Earthly Dads and the Rest of Us

While Hebrew scripture draws upon many images to convey the relationship of God to humanity, language depicting God as divine King or holy Lawgiver often predominates. As some prophets before him, Jesus preferred to use more intimate, familial language when speaking about (or to) God. Jesus often referred to God as his Father and encouraged his followers to do likewise. Indeed, our Lord starts his model prayer with the words “Our Father.” What was Jesus trying to convey about God when he used this “father” language? How does this inform our understanding of human fatherhood?

gpd the father

To be sure, children are to obey the fifth commandment to honor their fathers and mothers. Yet healthy father-child relationships are based more on love than obedience. The ideal father – and it is the ideal which Jesus lifts up as an image of God – loves his children unconditionally. As father he provides for his children and looks to their ultimate well-being by giving them rules for living in harmony with creation and each other. Given the presence of free-will and self-determination in this world, fathers may not be able to shield their children from all suffering, conflict, and misfortune but they certainly do not willingly afflict them. (See Luke 11:11-12)

For Jesus, the father is more than just chief provider and protector of the family. The father is also as emotionally engaged in the lives of his children as their mother – rejoicing when they experience joy, and weeping when they are hurt or suffer loss. Like the mother, the father is also a nurturer. He provides wise rules to keep his children from getting into trouble and exercises his responsibility to discipline them when they go astray. Yet he also takes them into his arms and comforts them when they have been hurt. “As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:13) God as Father is thus empathetic and caring as well as strong.

In contrast to image of God as a king who maintains a certain distance from his subjects, God as a Father is actively present on a daily basis in the lives of his children.

As we celebrate Fathers’ Day, we give thanks to the Creator for men in our lives who have, in
whatever small ways, resembled the ideal of our heavenly Father. Earthly dads are not perfect. All have flaws and some so damage their children’s concept of “father” that the latter have difficulty using this language in reference to God. Perhaps anticipating the stumbling block such earthly fathers could become to believers Jesus advises us: “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9)

Pastor Derek French