From the Pastor's Study
From the Pastor’s Study
Emancipation Reversed
April 19, 2023
Minors (children under 18) can become emancipated from their parents. Emancipation, a word normally applied to slavery when a slave is freed from his/her master, occurs when a teenager legally separates themselves from their parents, declaring themselves to be free from all obligations to parents and competent to handle their own affairs. Parents, conversely, have no obligation to their child once they are emancipated. As noted by one website, emancipation rarely occurs, but when it does, it is usually as a result of a long history of discord and brokenness in the relationship. Rarely, if ever, does a minor seek emancipation if their relationship with their parents is healthy. Why would they? Once emancipation is declared, the minor can no longer depend on their parents and may not expect any kind of support from them. No right-minded child would turn their back on their loving parents.
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the son seeks emancipation from his father. It’s not emancipation exactly because he first demands that his father give him one third of the estate (his share as the second son) so that he can support himself, but once he has received his portion, he quickly disappears, cutting all ties with his father. It wasn’t exactly emancipation because as Paul Scalia, a Roman Catholic scholar says, “He wanted the father’s gifts without the father.” True emancipation would not have included a demand for his inheritance.
Paul Scalia draws a parallel between the prodigal son and the human race. God created this world and gave us a place in it, a place where he also made himself present to us. He promised to continue to uphold and sustain this world, ensuring that we had everything we needed. He is not only God, but he is a good Father, a loving Father, a providing Father. In spite of this, we, the human race, decided that we did not want to have any part of God, and, demanding our inheritance (which in this case is this world which God had created), we removed ourselves from his care. We emancipated ourselves, but not in the truest sense. We wanted the Father’s gifts, but we did not want to Father. We declared ourselves competent to handle our own affairs, and we released ourselves from all obligation to our Father in heaven. If we wished to emancipate ourselves in the truest sense of the word, we would not have demanded the right to remain in God’s creation, but, of course, that is impossible. We need God’s gifts to live, and, in fact, we need the gift of creation even if we desire to continue to exist, for we are also part of that creation. We pretend to be emancipated, and we boast that we are, saying we can take care of ourselves, but we are not realistic about our situation. We want and need the Father’s gifts, but we do not want the Father.
Yet, there remains in us a feeling or understanding that we do need God, even though we have stated that we can live without him. But instead of wanting a God who is our loving Father, we have made God into firefighting equipment. We have seen those boxes in the wall with a firehose and an axe, and in front of the box is a pane of glass with the words, “In case of emergency, break glass.” When things get really difficult, when circumstances get out of control, we rush to our knees and we pray to God for his help. We do want and even need God, but we do not want him to be our Father. We want him to be an emergency responder who puts the fire out and then leaves. While Christians do not believe this and many of us are not like the prodigal son, we are very affected by our culture, and we tend to adapt ourselves to common beliefs rather than to the teachings of Scripture.
What needs to change? It is our attitude toward God and, in particular, his ongoing work in the creation. What we need to understand is that we need our Father’s gifts, but we cannot have his gifts without having our Father. We can’t partially emancipate ourselves from God by demanding what we need to live from him without also admitting that we need God to be our Father. As in the parable of the Prodigal Son, when living in the household of our Father, every aspect of our lives is shaped by the presence of our Father. It is impossible to live in any household with others without being shaped by them. We cannot claim the Father’s gifts without recognizing that we must accept the giver as our Father as well. We cannot enjoy his gifts without also responding appropriately to him, namely by loving him and living in a way that respects the values of his household.
The prodigal son emancipated himself from his father, believing that he could take his father’s gifts and still live without the father. He wasted what he had been given, and thus showed himself to be truly a prodigal person. (Prodigal means wasteful, not wandering.) When he had wasted all his father’s gifts, it seems he had little option but to declare an emergency and turn back to his father for help by breaking the glass as a last resort. He returned to his father, expecting that his father might treat him as a slave, reversing the emancipation, but not restoring him to full relationship. It is then that the father does an amazing thing: he fully reverses the emancipation, not only providing for the wasteful boy but also welcoming him back as a full member of the family.
We live among people who believe they have successfully emancipated themselves from God. Still, they depend on God, even if they do not know or recognize their dependence. Through it all, God shows himself to be a Father, welcoming those back to him who recognize that he is the source of their life. He welcomes us back not to become slaves but beloved children. Our emancipation results in our misery. God restores us to his family and exalts us to his table. At that table we find God’s only begotten Son, who was emancipated by his Father so that we could be restored to the family. Through faith in the Son, we become God’s children once more.
Pastor Gary
