the word that changed everything
We’re often so familiar with Jesus’ words that we miss the moments that made His life such a turning point in the world. Most people, even those who never go to church, are so familiar with the Lord’s Prayer that we fly by one of Jesus’ most profound teachings: When you pray to God, Jesus told His followers, start by addressing Him as Father!
When we hear that we shrug our shoulders and say ok. But to Jesus’ audience, this would have been a radical statement. They would have looked at each other with shock:
Father? He wants us to call God our Father? We aren’t even supposed to mention His name out of fear of taking it in vain, and now we’re supposed to approach God by calling Him dad?
Keep in mind, that one of the main reasons the Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus was because He referred to God as His Father, and now He was teaching His followers to do the same thing!
Jesus’ ground-breaking claim
While the idea of God being a Father has become cliche through centuries of repetition, to Jesus’ audience it would have been unheard of. One theologian puts it this way:
Referring to God as Father is the bravest, most dazzling word Jesus could have put upon human lips. We have become so accustomed to it that we are not aware of the tremendous impact it must have had upon Jesus’ original hearers.
Jesus could have told us to address God as creator or king or even Lord. But instead, He chose father. And through this one word Jesus completely redefined the relationship between humanity and God. But how?
what was Jesus trying to do?
Throughout every era of history, human beings have always seen the universe and any god as impersonal. Whether it’s:
A Muslim trying to please a distant Allah
A secular person trusting in materialism (only matter exists) and Rationalism (science can explain everything).
Or, an Instagram influencer talking about the universe,
Every god or god-like system that humans create is always cold, distant, and indifferent towards us. People might try to force personality onto an impersonal thing (saying like “the universe always has a plan” etc.), but that’s just wishful thinking.
So when Jesus tells you to address God as your Father, He’s challenging every religion, philosophy, and worldview in human history with three unheard of claims:
That you can know God: When Jesus tells you to call God Father, He’s proclaiming that you can have a personal relationship with God! You can personally know the God of the universe! Take a moment and reflect on that!
That God cares about you: Having God as your father means that He doesn’t just put up with you, He loves you and cares for you! Your relationship with Him is one of love, warmth, and tenderness. God doesn’t use you like a servant or boss you around like an employee, but rather is always working in your life out of love.
That you have divine value: Because you can be God’s child, it shows your incredible worth as a human being; you’re worthy of being invited into the intimacy of the family of God! You aren’t some cosmic accident or a random collection of cells, you’re created in God’s image and of infinite value to Him.
Every human being wants these claims to be true, but only Christianity has the theological foundation to say these things are possible. While to our modern ears they seem unimpressive, in the scope of human thought they are each radical ideas.
so who gets to call God Father?
Some people don’t like the idea of God being a father, but that’s because they project their definition of a father onto God, rather than letting Him define Himself. In the parable of the prodigal son, we see Jesus show what God’s like as a father. He:
Sees us in our rebellion and has compassion on us.
Runs to us and lavishes His love on us.
Celebrates our return and welcomes us back into His family.
When Jesus tells us to call God our Father, these are the characteristics He’s trying to get across to us. It’s when we start to grasp that this is how the God of the universe feels towards us that we can understand what made John so wowed by this truth: Behold, what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
Is this how you see God? As a warm, caring, and personal Father? Kind, compassionate, and forgiving towards you, even at your worst?
I hope you take a few minutes to think about what this incredible word means for your life: that the God of the universe has adopted you into His family and is lavishing His love on you!
