420. The Kiss of Welcome

The Kiss of Welcome

Luk_15:20 : ’93When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him.’94

One of the deepest wells that inspiration ever opened is this well of a parable which we can never exhaust. The parable, I suppose, was founded on facts. You remember the going away of this prodigal son from his father’92s house, and what a hard time he had down in the wilderness, and what a very great mistake it was for him to leave so beautiful a home for such a miserable desert. But he did not always stay in the wilderness; he came back after a while. We do not read that his mother came to greet him. I suppose she was dead. She would have been the first to come out. The father would have given the second kiss to the returning prodigal; the mother the first. It may have been for the lack of her example and prayers that he became a prodigal. Sometimes the father does not know how to manage the children of the household. The chief work comes upon the mother. Indeed, no one ever gets over the calamity of losing a mother in early life. Still, this young man was not ungreeted when he came back.

However well appareled we may be in the morning when we start out on a journey, before night, what with the dust and the jostling, we have lost all cleanliness of appearance. But this prodigal, when he started from the swine-trough, was ragged and wretched, and his appearance, after he had gone through days of journeying and exposure, you can more easily imagine than describe. As the people see this prodigal coming on homeward, they wonder who he is. They say: ’93I wonder what prison he has broken out of. I wonder what lazaretto he has escaped from. I wonder with what plague he will smite the air.’94 Although these people may have been well acquainted with the family, yet they do not imagine that this is the very young man who went off only a little while ago with quick step, and ruddy cheek, and beautiful apparel. The young man, I think, walks very fast. He looks as though he were intent upon something very important. The people stop. They look at him. They wonder where he came from. They wonder where he is going to.

You have heard of a son who went off to sea and never returned. All the people in the neighborhood thought the son would never return, but the parents came to no such conclusion. They would go by the hour, and day, and sit upon the beach, looking off upon the water, expecting to see the sail that would bring home the long-absent boy. And so I think this father of my text sat under the vine looking out toward the road on which his son had departed; but the father has changed very much since we saw him last. His hair has become white, his cheeks are furrowed. His heart is broken. What is all his full table to him when his son may be lacking bread? What is all the splendor of the wardrobe of that homestead when the son may not have a decent coat? What are all the sheep on that hillside to that father when his pet lamb is gone? Still he sits and watches, looking out on the road, and one day he beholds a foot-traveler. He sees him rise above the hill; first the head and after a while the entire body; and as soon as he gets a fair glance of him he knows it is his recreant son. He forgets the crutch, and the cane, and the stiffness of the joints and bounds away. I think the people all around were amazed. They said: ’93It is only a footpad. It is only some old tramp. Don’92t go out to meet him.’94 The father knew better. The change in the son’92s appearance could not hide the marks by which the father knew the boy. You know that persons of a great deal of independence of character are apt to indicate it in their walk. For that reason the sailor almost always has a peculiar step, not only because he stands much on shipboard amid the rocking of the sea, and he has to balance himself, but he has for the most part an independent character, which would show in his gait, even if he never went on the sea; and we know from what transpired afterward, and from what transpired before, that this prodigal son was of an independent and frank nature; and I suppose that the characteristics of his mind and heart were the characteristics of his walk. And so the father knew him. He puts out his withered arms toward him; he brings his wrinkled face against the pale cheek of his son; he kisses the wan lips; he thanks God that the long agony is over. ’93When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him.’94

Oh, do you not recognize that father? Who was it? It is God! I have no sympathy with that cast-iron theology which represents God as hard, severe, and vindictive. God is a father’97kind, loving, lenient, gentle, long-suffering, patient, and he flies to our immortal rescue. Oh, that we might realize it. A wealthy lady in one of the Eastern countries was going from home for some time, and she asked her daughters for some memento to carry with her. One of the daughters brought a marble tablet, beautifully inscribed; and another daughter brought a beautiful wreath of flowers. The third daughter came, and said: ’93Mother, I brought neither flowers nor tablet, but here is my heart. I have inscribed it all over with your name, and wherever you go it will go with you.’94 The mother recognized it as the best of all the mementoes. Oh, that our souls might go out toward our Father’97that our hearts might be written all over with the evidences of his loving kindness, and that we might never again forsake him.

In the first place, I notice in this text, the father’92s eyesight; in the second place, I notice the father’92s haste; and, in the third place, I notice the father’92s kiss.

To begin: The father’92s eyesight. ’93When he was a great way off his father saw him.’94 You have noticed how old people sometimes put a book off on the other side of the light. They can see at a distance a great deal easier than they can close by. I do not know whether this father could see well that which was near by, but I do know he could see a great way off. ’93His father saw him.’94 Perhaps he had been looking for the return of that boy especially that day. I do not know but that he had been in prayer, and that God had told him that that day the recreant boy would come home. ’93The father saw him a great way off.’94 I wonder if God’92s eyesight can descry us when we are coming back to him. The text pictures our condition’97we are a great way off. That young man was not farther off from his father’92s house, sin is not farther off from holiness, hell is not farther off from heaven, than we have been by our sins away off from our God; aye, so far off that we could not hear his voice, though vehemently he has called us year after year. I do not know what bad habits you may have formed, or in what evil places you have been, or what false notions you may have entertained; but you are ready to acknowledge, if your heart has not been changed by the grace of God, that you are a great way off’97aye, so far that you cannot get back of yourselves. You would like to come back. Aye, this moment you would start, if it were not for this sin, and that habit, and this disadvantage. But I am to tell you of the Father’92s eyesight. ’93He saw him a great way off.’94 He has seen all your frailties, all your struggles, all your disadvantages. He has been longing for your coming. He has not been looking at you with a critic’92s eye or a bailiff’92s eye, but with a Father’92s eye; and if a parent ever pitied a child, God pities you. You say: ’93Oh, I had so many evil surroundings when I started life.’94 Your Father sees it. You say: ’93I have so many bad surroundings now, and it is very difficult for me to break away from evil associations.’94 Your Father sees it, and if you should start heavenward’97as I pray you may’97your Father would not sit idly down and allow you to struggle on up toward him. Oh, no! Seeing you a great way off, he would fly to the rescue. How long does it take a father to leap into the middle of the highway if his child be there, and a swift vehicle is coming, and may destroy him? Five hundred times longer than it takes our heavenly Father to spring to the deliverance of a lost child. ’93When he was a great way off his father saw him.’94

And this brings me to notice the father’92s haste. The parable says he ran. No wonder! He did not know but that the young man would change his mind and go back. He did not know but that he would drop down from exhaustion. He did not know but that something fatal might overtake him before he got up to the doorsill; and so the father ran. The Bible, for the most part, speaks of God as walking. ’93In the fourth watch of the night,’94 it says, ’93Jesus came unto them walking on the sea.’94 ’93He walketh upon the wings of the wind.’94 Our first parents heard the voice of the Lord, walking in the garden in the cool of the day; but when a sinner starts for God, the Father runs to meet him. If a man ever wants help, it is when he tries to become a Christian. The world says to him: ’93Back with you. Have more spirit. Don’92t be hampered with religion. Time enough yet. Wait until you get sick. Wait until you get old.’94 Satan says: ’93Back with you; you are so bad that God will have nothing to do with you;’94 or, ’93You are good enough, and need no Redeemer. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’94 Ten thousand voices says: ’93Back with you. God is a hard master. The Church is a collection of hypocrites. Back into your sins; back to your evil indulgences; back to your prayerless pillow. The silliest thing that a young man ever does is to come home after he has been wandering.’94 Oh, how much help a man does want when he tries to become a Christian! Indeed, the prodigal cannot find his way home to his father’92s house unassisted. Unless some one comes to meet him he had better have stayed by the swine-troughs.

When the tide comes in, you might more easily with your broom sweep back the surges than you could drive back the ocean of your unforgiven transgressions. What are we to do? Are we to fight the battle alone, and trudge on with no one to aid us, and no rock to shelter us, and no word of encouragement to cheer us? Glory be to God, we have in the text the announcement: ’93When he was yet a great way off, his father ran.’94 When the sinner starts for God, God starts for the sinner. God does not come out with a slow and hesitating pace. The infinite spaces slip beneath his feet, and he takes worlds at a bound. ’93The father ran.’94 Oh, wonderful meeting, when God and the soul come together. ’93The father ran.’94 You start for God and God starts for you, and you meet; and, while the angels rejoice over the meeting, your long-injured father falls upon your neck with attestations of compassion and pardon. Your poor, wandering, sinful, polluted soul, and the loving, the eternal Father, have met.

I remark upon the father’92s kiss. ’93He fell on his neck,’94 my text says, ’93and kissed him.’94 It is not every father that would have done that way. Some would have scolded the wayward son, and said: ’93Here, you went off with beautiful clothes, but now you are all in tatters. You went off healthy, and come back sick and wasted with your dissipations.’94 He did not say that. The son, all haggard, and ragged, and filthy, and wretched, stood before his father. The father charged him with none of his wanderings. He just received him. He just kissed him. His wretchedness was a recommendation to that father’92s love. Oh, that father’92s kiss! How shall I describe the love of God?’97the ardor with which he receives a sinner back again? Give me a plummet with which I may fathom this sea. Give me a ladder with which I can scale this height. Give me words with which I can describe this love. The apostle says in one place, ’93unsearchable’94; in another, ’93past finding out.’94 Height overtopping all height; depth plunging beneath all depth; breadth compassing all immensity.

Oh, this love! God so loved the world. He loves you. Don’92t you believe he loves you? Has he not done everything to make you think so? He has given you life, health, friends, home’97the use of your hand, the sight of your eye, the hearing of your ear. He has strewn your path with mercies. He has fed you, clothed you, sheltered you, defended you, loved you, importuned you all your life long. Don’92t you believe he loves you? Why, if now you should start up from the wilderness of your sin, he would throw both arms around you. To make you believe that he loves you, he stooped to manger, and cross and sepulchre. With all the passions of his holy nature roused, he stands before you today, and would coax you to happiness and heaven. Oh, this father’92s kiss! There is so much meaning, and love, and compassion in it; so much pardon in it; so much heaven in it. I proclaim him the Lord God, merciful, gracious, and long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth. Lest you would not believe him, he goes up Golgotha, and while the rocks are rending, and the graves are opening, and the mobs are howling, and the sun is hiding, he dies for you. See him! See him on the Mount of Crucifixion, the sweat on his brow tinged with the blood exuding from his lacerated temples! See his eyes swimming in death! Hear the loud breathing of the Sufferer as he pants with a world on his heart! Hark to the fall of the blood from brow, and hand, and foot, on the rocks beneath’97drop! drop! drop! Look at the nails! How wide the wounds are. Wider do they gape as his body comes down upon them. Oh! this crucifixion agony! Tears melting into tears. Blood flowing into blood. Darkness dropping on darkness. Hands of men joined with hands of devils to tear apart the quivering heart of the Son of God! Oh! Will he never speak again? Will that crimson face never light up again? He will speak again; while the blood is suffusing his brow, and reddening his cheek, and gathering on nostril and lip, and you think he is exhausted and cannot speak, he cries out until all the ages hear him: ’93Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!’94 Is there no emphasis in such a scene as that to make your dry eyes weep, and your hard heart break? Will you turn your back upon it, and say by your actions what the Jews said by their words: ’93His blood be on us, and on our children’94?

What does it all mean to us, my brother, my sister? Why, it means that for our lost race there was a father’92s kiss. Love brought him down. Love opened the gate. Love led to the sacrifice. Love shattered the grave. Love lifted him up in resurrection. Sovereign love! Omnipotent love! Infinite love! Bleeding love! Everlasting love!

Oh, for this love let rocks and hills

Their lasting silence break;

And all harmonious human tongues

The Saviour’92s praises speak.

Now, will you accept that Father’92s kiss? The Holy Spirit comes to you with his arousing, melting, alarming, inviting, vivifying influence. Hearer, what creates in thee that unrest? It is the Holy Ghost. What influence now tells thee that it is time to fly, that to-morrow may be too late; that there is one door, one road, one cross, one sacrifice, one Jesus? It is the Holy Ghost.

My most urgent word is to those who, like the young man of my text, are a great way off, and they will start for home, and they will get home. They will yet preach the Gospel and on communion days carry around the consecrated bread, they acceptable to everybody, because of their holy life, and their consecrated behavior. The Lord is going to save you. Your home has to be rebuilt. Your physical health has got to be restored. Your worldly business has to be reconstructed. The Church of God is going to rejoice over your discipleship. You are not Gospel hardened. You have not heard or read many sermons during the last few years. You do not weep, but the shower is not far off. You sigh, and you have noticed that there is always a sigh in the wind before the rain falls. There are those who would give anything if they could find relief in tears. They say: ’93Oh, my wasted life! Oh, the bitter past! Oh, the graves over which I have stumbled! Whither shall I fly? Alas for the future! Everything is dark’97so dark’97so dark, so dark. God help me! God pity me!’94 Thank the Lord for that last utterance. You have begun to pray, and when a man begins to petition, that sets all heaven flying this way, and God steps in, and beats back the hounds of temptation to their kennel, and around about the poor wounded soul puts the covert of his pardoning mercy. Hark! I hear something fall. What was that? It is the bars of the fence around the sheep-fold. The shepherd lets them down and the hunted sheep of the mountain bound in; some of them, their fleece torn with the brambles, some of them their feet lame with the dogs; but bounding in. Thank God! Saved for time, and saved for eternity.

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage