Reflection: The Long-(Dis)Obedient Son … so we might be ‘sons’

Every parent delights in an obedient child. But presume on that, of course we can’t, because obedience is voluntary — and it sure doesn’t come naturally.

The chorus of this out-of-vogue kids’ song simply captures the crux of the matter:

Trust and obey,

For there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus,

But to trust and obey.

God’s parental love demands obedience.

But, for all the blessing that promises, trust and obedience are voluntary, and they don’t come naturally. It’s a story told a million times:

Think, Adam, ‘son’ in God’s image, who quintessentially doesn’t trust and obey.

Remember Israel, ‘firstborn son’, chosen in covenant love, who, on the whole, for generations, doesn’t trust and obey.

Then there’s David, ‘firstborn and highest of the kings of the earth’ (Psalm 89:20,27), who’s heroic but only human. He doesn’t always trust and obey.

And of course, you and I … and our own kids, adopted sons and daughters, … who too often don’t trust and obey.

But God’s Son does.*

And boy, does that delight the Father.

And think not just of Jesus’ obedient choice to ‘lay my life down and take it up again.’ It’s a lifetime of obedience that qualified him — ‘firstborn of many brothers’ (Romans 8:29) ** — as the perfect human, the perfect sin-offering, and therefore the perfector of our feeble faith.

Prayer:

I’m celebrating being welcomed into your family, Father-God, through the obedience of your Son. Pinching myself! Marvelling at your mercy that has placed me at this time and place where I’m a beneficiary of Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Graced with my adoption papers, sealed by the Holy Spirit, inspire, and enable me today to live as a child of God: to trust you, to obey you, and to bring you pleasure.

*Don’t take that for granted. He was human and the choice was as much his as it is ours.

**The ultimate, true Son of David, Messianic king and heir of God.