Who’s Your Daddy?

by Richard W. Webb

Back Home Again

Back in the day, there was a time I was "between bands." My last band had gone the way of all bands, and was no more. That meant serving hard time with my Dad in his pest control business, biding my time until opportunity once again knocked.

One day I got a phone call from my buddy Mick. "Hey, Spider, we got this band together and we need another guitar player. You interested?" Mick always got to the point right away.

"Sure. What’s it called?"

"Hoosier Daddy," was the reply.

"OK." And we went on to arrange the details of the next practice.

Now, I was familiar with that old time singer, comedian, and harmonica player, Herb Shriner. I knew he was from Indiana, and I knew that Indiana was called the "Hoosier State." I even knew the song, Back Home Again In Indiana. So at that first practice, there came that moment when there was time for chit-chat. I knew everyone was local except for two guys I’d never met before, one of them a guitar player and the other one a harmonica player, and both very good. I looked at the two strangers and said, "So which one of you guys is from Indiana?" Silence. Blank stares.

Oops

Within a few minutes I’d demonstrated my idiocy by babbling about Herb Shriner, and also learned that the two new fellas were from Tennessee. And the band’s name was not "Hoosier Daddy," but "Who’s Your Daddy?"

It seems that, when the police pull you over in rural Tennessee, the first thing they want to do is figure out who you’re related to. So they always ask, somewhere soon after the obligatory "license and registration" line, "OK, who’s your daddy, boy?"

And So?

"And just what does this little story have to do with my relationship with Jesus?" you ask. Well, I’m mighty glad you asked me that!

It seems that some Pharisees had a similar sense of wonder the time Jesus talked with them about their spiritual parentage.

It all started when they and some scribes brought a woman caught in the act of adultery before Jesus, hoping to pull a fast one on him and get him to break the law. After shaming those who would have had the woman stoned to death, Jesus then began to address the crowd. The Pharisees accused him of bearing false record of himself. Jesus reminded them that the law also states that the testimony of two men is true, and then said, "I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me."

Who’s Your Daddy, Jesus?

This statement baffled them. They were thinking in fleshly terms and didn’t yet have a clue that Jesus intended to take this conversation into a spiritual realm.

Jesus began to tell them that he was going to go his way, and that they would seek him, and die in their sins, because they couldn’t go where he was going. They continued to think in earthly terms, wondering if he was going to kill himself, and so because of that they wouldn’t be able to follow him.

The discussion continued, but they still didn’t get it. He kept on talking about his heavenly Father, and they kept on saying, "Yeah, sure, Jesus. But who’s your daddy? We don’t think we know him."

Exactly My Point

"That’s right, you don’t," Jesus told them. "But if you would become my disciples, you’d know the truth. And that knowledge would set you free."

"But Jesus, you still don’t understand. We are children of Abraham and have never been in bondage to anyone, so where do you get the idea you can set us free? We’re free now, and even if we weren’t, what could you do about it?"

So Jesus tried once more to explain it to them. "If you guys were really children of Abraham, you would do the same works that he did. But what are you doing? You want to kill me, and all I’m doing is telling you the truth, exactly as God told me. I don’t remember anywhere in the law or the prophets where Abraham wanted to kill anyone who was bringing God’s truth to him."

I Know Who Your Daddy Is, Mr. Pharisee

"So I know you’re not of Abraham. But I can plainly see that you certainly spend a lot of time doing the works you’ve learned from your father."

Let me tell you, the Pharisees were pretty angry by now. They were shouting. "We were not born into sin. We have one father, and that is God himself!"

"Well," said Jesus, "I know this: if God was your Father, you’d love me rather than hate me. Listen, how can I make this any plainer? God sent me here! Can’t you understand me? Am I speaking a foreign language? I’ll tell you right now who your father is, and you can’t deny it! The devil is your father; the evidence points to it. You do his work. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always been a liar. He invented the lie, and is a master at it, and you are his disciples!"

What About Me?

Suppose I had been there that day, what would I have said to Jesus. Could I have told him I loved him? Would it be the truth? Would my actions bear witness to my words? Knowing what I know now, I still find myself in the shoes of the Pharisee every now and then.

But there’s an answer for that. I can still get down on my knees and cry out to my brother Jesus and my Father in heaven, and ask for forgiveness. I can echo Paul’s words from Romans 8:15-16 (personalized): "For I have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but I have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby I cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with my spirit, that I am a child of God."

Did you catch that word "Abba"? It’s an Aramaic word that refers to a father, but in a very close, personal sense. Like Daddy.

Who’s my Daddy? I know the answer to that question.

What About You? Who’s Your Daddy?

There’s someone who’s waiting to be your daddy. He can be a better daddy to you than any earthly father could ever be. All you need to do is simply accept his son: Jesus.


Copyright © 2003 by Richard W. Webb
Published by SoaringSpiderSongs
All Rights Reserved


 

scripture

John 8:18-19 — [18] I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. [19] Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.

John 8:29 — And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

John 8:33 — They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?.

John 8:44 — Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.