Sir Alex - A Modern Day Parable

Earlier this week there was a programme on TV on Sir Alex Ferguson. Don’t know if you saw it, if you missed it it’s on BBC i-player: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06j7qw8/sir-alex-ferguson-secrets-of-success

It’s an up close and fascinating look at Sir Alex the man and Sir Alex the leader. You learn all kinds of things – for example I never knew that his dad lived in Belfast for a time, working in Harland and Wolff, and playing for Glentoran.

The big theme of the documentary is leadership and through the hour long programme all kinds of people including Jose Mourinho, Tony Blair, and Rio Ferdanand give their take on what it was that made Ferguson so good at what he did.

There’s an interesting section that looks back at the incident of Eric Cantona’s famous king fu kick at Selhurst Park in 1995. Cantona had been sent off and moments later in the full glare of the world’s media he launched himself feet first into the crowd at a Crystal Palace supporter.

Looking back at this incident Ferguson talks about how ‘the mob’ were all calling for Cantona to go. How could someone who had messed up so badly be held on to? How could he not be given what he now surely deserved?

In explaining his decision to hold on to Cantona and to ultimately welcome him back to play once more for the team Ferguson says he felt he needed to treat Cantona as the ‘prodigal son’. It’s a very interesting line and it has its roots in the Bible in a story that Jesus told in Luke chapter 15. You can look the story up on-line at: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15&version=NIVUK

 A father had two sons and one of those sons messed up – and messed carelessly, deliberately and badly. Towards the end of the story the son heads for home. He has brought shame on his father, shame on his family, he’s had more than a few moments of madness and everyone knows what he deserves. Here is someone who deserves the hair dryer treatment big time. But that’s not what happens. Instead he finds a father waiting to welcome him back, a father who will stick with him, a father who has dreams of a future for him.

Why did Ferguson treat Cantona as a prodigal son, and not give him what he deserved? He did it because he believed that Cantona was valuable – valuable ultimately to the biggest football club in the world.

So let’s rewind to the source of that story. Luke chapter 15. Why does God (who is represented by the father in the story) welcome back the prodigal? Why does he not give him what he deserves? He acts the way he does because he sees value in the son. Value not in terms of what the son could do for him, or achieve for him, but value because he truly loved this son, who once was lost and now was found.

Sometimes I think we have a picture of God as a stern and fearful gaffer, harshly scowling at those who step out of line. Some try to please this kind of God out of anxious fear but many simply keep their distance and stay out of his way. The story of the Prodigal Son points to a different kind of God.  It points to a Father who loves you and who longs to welcome you back.  It’s not that our sins don’t matter to him, indeed at the cross he carries the can for our sins himself. He takes the shame, he pays so that we can be welcomed back. Here is an extraordinary Father – a Father who has a future for you, a Father to whom you are immensely valuable, not because of anything you can do but simply because of who you are. A Father who waits for you. A Father whose love endures for ever, a Father who truly is the greatest Father you could ever have.