redefining lostness

my small group bible study is reading Timothy Keller's The Prodigal God right now, and let me tell you, it has some great stuff in it! the book goes through the biblical story of the prodigal son (as you may have guessed), but definitely looks the story in a way most pastors and bible studies don't!

as a preface, the parable can be read in Luke 15:1-3, 11-32, but i will summarize it a bit for you. there is a man who has two sons. one day, the younger of the two decides wants to do his own thing. he asks his father for his inheritance (this basically translates into him wishing his father was dead, as his father has to sell half his land which is not only his own livelihood but also his status and rank in society), travels far away, and wastes all of the money recklessly. then famine hits the land, and the younger son is forced to find work as a hired hand, but is treated poorly, eating not even as well as this man's pigs. the younger son has a change of heart and decides he will go back to his father and ask to be hired as one of his father's hired hands. at least he knows he will eat better. when the younger son returns home, his father runs to him with open arms, welcomes him home, gives him the finest robe to wear and orders his servant to kill the fattened calf for a celebration. (this welcoming is also outrageous! this man's son did the worst thinkable thing to his father, publicly disgracing him, so we must realize the father's response would be jaw dropping back then, much as is God our Father's response to our sins when he forgives us and redeems us.) the older brother, who has been working hard for his father this entire time, being 100% obedient, is outraged. he is angry and refuses to celebrate his younger brother's return.

the chapter we just read this week called "redefining lostness" focuses on the older brother's response. most pastors and tellers of this story focus on the younger brother, warning us not to wander from God, or using the father in the story as an example of how God forgives and welcomes us home when we repent. however, Keller takes a different approach. he largely focuses on how the older brother is actually the more lost brother. the older brother is the pharisee in the story, obeying all the rules, but only for the sake of getting what he wants, which is his own inheritance. he actually couldn't care less about his father or his brother. he feels he deserves his money (which in our parallel translates to salvation from the Father). when Jesus tells this story, he is speaking to a large group of people, and in specific, to the Pharisees. they think they are owed salvation from God because they go to temple and follow the rules, but Jesus is saying "no, that's not how it works, you're missing the point."

we are a little over half-way through it and this past week there were SO many good things said in this last chapter that i just wanted to quote some (okay, a lot) of them here:

"the first sign you have an elder-brother spirit is that when your life doesn't go as you want, you aren't just sorrowful but deeply angry and bitter...what happens, however, if things have gone wrong in your life when you know that you have been falling short of your standards? then you will be furious with yourself...elder brothers' inability to handle suffering arises from the fact that their moral observance is results-oriented. the good life is lived not for delight in good deeds themselves, but as calculated ways to control their environment."

"competitive comparison is the main way elder brothers achieve a sense of their own significance."

"elder brothers are being moral only for their own benefit. they may be kind to others and helpful to the poor, but at a deeper level they are doing it either so God will bless them, in the religious version of elder brotherness, or so they can think of themselves as virtuous, charitable persons...underneath the seemingly unselfishness is great self-centeredness."

"the last sign of the elder-brother spirit is a lack of assurance of the Father's love. the older son says, "you never threw me a party." there is no dancing or festiveness about the elder brother's relationship with his father. as long as you are trying to earn your salvation by controlling God through goodness, you will never be sure you have been good enough for him. you simply aren't sure God loves and delights in you."


in summary, read this book. it's fabulous.