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0:20 So last weekend this week, we're focusing on the Odyssey by Homer and some of the biblical lessons that are tucked in that epic poem. 0:27 So yesterday we talked about a fatherless house that was under siege, and today we're talking about that same father returning home. 0:34 And we're going to walk through one of really the rawest reunion scenes in all of literature. 0:39 So to set the scene, Odysseus has finally made it back to Ithaca, but he is still disguised as a beggar. 0:45 He is currently hiding in Eumaeus' house. 0:47 His son Telemachus is an adult now, and he has just returned from a trip where he was actually searching for news of Odysseus. 0:54 Telemachus actually walks into Eumaeus' hut where his father was standing, but he doesn't know that that's his father. 1:01 Then Athena decides that now is the time. 1:05 She touches Odysseus with a golden wand and restores his real face and body, and she does this right in front of Telemachus. 1:14 But before Telemachus can even think about joy, he tries to deal with his disbelief. 1:19 This is what he says, quote, You are not my father, but some God is flattering me with vain hopes that I may grieve the more hereafter, unquote. 1:28 So he's currently experiencing the thing that he has wanted more than anything for the last two decades, and his first instinct is to assume that this is just a cruel trick. 1:38 Like he's actually protecting himself from believing in something only to be crushed all the more when he finds out that it's not true. 1:45 And Odysseus just calmly responds by saying, Quote, I am your father, on whose account you grieve and suffer so much at the hands of lawless men. 1:56 Unquote. 1:57 And then Homer gives us one of the most impactful and powerful lines in the entire poem, and it's this they were both so much moved that they cried aloud like eagles or vultures with crooked talons that have been robbed of their half-fledged young. 2:12 So, guys, this is about as raw as it gets. 2:15 So this is a collision of the undying love of a father with the undying love of a son. 2:20 So this is twenty years of grief breaking open into the open, and both of these men are just basically covered in happy tears and snot. 2:28 And I want you to hold that thought in mind as we look at one of Jesus' most famous parables that we see recorded in Luke 15, and that's the parable of the prodigal son. 2:36 So the father sees his son, the text says, while he was still a long way off, and it says that the father felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 2:46 And it bears repeating that men in this culture would never even think about lowering themselves to go and run. 2:53 So it was considered undignified. 2:55 But this father was so overcome with love that he couldn't give a care less about how he would be perceived by the witnesses. 3:01 And obviously, with these two stories, the direction has flipped. 3:04 So with the Odyssey, the father is coming home, and with Jesus' parable, the son is coming home. 3:08 But the shape in both stories is identical. 3:11 It's identical. 3:12 The fathers and sons embrace. 3:15 So they don't concern themselves with decorum or stoicism. 3:19 It's just bodies colliding and grief finally being let out. 3:24 And the fact that Telemachus initially refused to believe that his father was standing in front of him has its own biblical echo. 3:30 So we see later on in the book of Luke, chapter 24, we see this in verse 36. 3:34 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you. 3:40 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 3:44 So this is post-resurrection Jesus, right? 3:46 He's freaking people out. 3:47 But I mean it's pretty much the same reaction. 3:49 The thing that they wanted most, the thing Telemachus wanted most, it's the thing they want, the absolute most in the whole universe, it's standing right in front of them. 3:58 And you know, their brains just can't catch up to the reality of their circumstances. 4:02 So if you're a father today listening to this, and if you're being honest, you might have to admit that you've been gone like Odysseus has. 4:09 Like perhaps you were or are physically gone from your family. 4:13 Perhaps you were sacrificing the headship of your household in order to, you know, close another deal or make another sale this quarter. 4:20 Or maybe you're just mentally checked out. 4:23 Maybe you're more present with your phone than you are with your own children. 4:26 And here's the truth I have for you a reunion like what we've been talking about today is available to you. 4:35 Odysseus didn't give Telemachus a well-written and well-rehearsed speech. 4:40 Like he just needed a father to show up and say clearly, I am your father. 4:47 And then he had to be part of the Grease, you know, the grief release process, right? 4:51 You know, he had to be there for that. 4:53 Again, there's probably going to be some extra work, you know, for you to do, men, you know, if you get into one of these situations and you're part of this process, but it just starts with you walking through the door and staying long enough for the tears to be real. 5:06 And let's say you're on the son's side of the equation and you've you know got a father that has been absent or that hurt you. 5:12 Notice that Telemachus's grief didn't keep him from receiving his father back. 5:18 Like he didn't allow the door to be locked, you know, by his anger and disbelief. 5:22 He allowed the reunion to take place before the wound was even fully addressed. 5:27 And some of you are waiting for the hurt and the anguish and the pain to go away before you will let your father back in the room. 5:35 Like some of you can't even see that you're doing the exact same thing with your heavenly father. 5:40 There's definitely a correlation there. 5:42 The reality is that you don't have to wait. 5:45 You can bring the ache with you into the reunion. 5:48 So whether you're trying to repair the relationship with your dad or your son, or whether you're finally deciding to believe that God the Father truly wants you to come home to him, I want to encourage you to stop trying to manage your emotions around this situation. 6:02 Again, thousands of years ago, Homer was not afraid to write about two grown men sobbing and embracing one another in their arms. 6:10 Like, don't be more composed than Homer was willing to let his heroes be. 6:15 Again, we have to remember that Odysseus is the most cunning and self-controlled man in this epic poem. 6:22 And even he couldn't hold it together in the presence of his long-lost son. 6:26 And look, nobody thinks less of him for how he acted. 6:29 You know, a lot of us have been taught, you know, the stiff upper lip masculinity thing that if I'm honest, I personally find a lot of value in. 6:36 But if a stoic pagan warrior culture could make room for a father sobbing over his son and a son sobbing over his father, then I think we can too.