Prodigal

“We have to repent not only of our sin, but also of our [self]righteousness.”

Wow.  For someone who grew up in a Christian family, never really getting in trouble in school and living a “good” life, that really struck a chord.  We watched Tim Keller’s video on Prodigal God at Upper Room tonight, and it was thought-provoking, to say the least.  It was wordy and he repeated a lot of stuff in different ways, but when he finally got to the point, it hit hard.  The story of the prodigal son is not just about the prodigal son.  That’s who we always focus on because that’s what we want to focus on: the son who wishes his father dead, takes his inheritance and wastes it, and then comes home to a loving father who eagerly welcomes him back without even giving him a chance to offer a repayment.

But the story doesn’t end there.  The older brother comes to the father complaining that he had obeyed everything the father had said, yet when his wasteful brother returns, the prodigal is the one who gets the feast, not the obedient son.  Now, when the prodigal son ran off, he did it because he was primarily after his father’s stuff.  He wanted his father’s inheritance, which he could only obtain if his died.  So he basically said, “You’re already dead to me.  Give me my inheritance.”  He wanted nothing to do with his father.  He gave up his relationship with him in order to gain momentary pleasure in his belongings.  As Keller said in the video, “Home is not a place, but a relationship.”  The prodigal son didn’t leave home when he took the inheritance and left, but when he demanded the inheritance from his father.  But when he returned, he came back home to a renewed relationship with his father.  He returned to a home he had never known before, a real relationship with his father.

But his older brother…  Well, even though he never left his father’s side, he was never really home either.  When the prodigal son left, he took his part of the inheritance and left the rest with his father.  Because the inheritance was meant to be passed on at death, what remained of the inheritance belonged to the older brother.  So when the father said to the older brother, “‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31), he meant it.  Everything he owned would be passed on to the older brother.  So he had a reason to be upset when his father killed the fattened calf and had a feast for his brother because the feast was held at his expense.  But the fact that he was upset reveals something: he was after his father’s stuff, just like his younger brother was.  But the older brother went about obtaining his inheritance in a very different way: he obeyed his father, serving him so that his father would be pleased to give him everything he owned.  Just like the prodigal son, the older brother cared nothing for his relationship with his father.  He was working legalistically, obeying because it would benefit his wealth, not because he genuinely loved his father.

Keller made a big point about the way Jesus went about telling this parable.  Jesus told the prodigal son’s part of the story completely, giving conflict and resolution (the son’s wastefulness, his return, and his father’s joyful welcome), but He only gave the conflict and a hint at a resolution in the older brother’s part of the story (the brother’s anger and the father’s pleading for him to come in to the feast).  We never find out if the older brother calms down and returns “home,” coming into a real relationship with his father.  Keller seemed to hint at the reason for this, but he never got to the point that I was expecting.  Keller went back to the two parables Jesus told before the parable of the prodigal son: the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin.  In the first two parables, someone went looking for what was lost, but in the parable of the prodigal son, nobody went looking.  It should have been the older brother’s responsibility to go find his younger brother, but he was more concerned with building up his inheritance by kissing up to his father.  Keller’s reasoning for why Jesus cut off the story abruptly is that He wanted to show what probably would have happened if the story had played out the way it did up until the point where the older brother made his first appearance; and by showing the uncaring brother, He compared Himself to him, implying, “I am the good older Brother.  I have not left you to die in the poverty of your sins.  I have come searching for my lost brothers, my lost sheep, my lost coins, and I have come to bring you home.  Come, our Father has forgiven you, and He awaits your return.”  Very sentimental, and while I agree with that interpretation, I think there was another reason for the abrupt ending.

While Jesus was telling these parables, there were two groups around Him: the sinners and the tax collectors—the prodigal sons—and the Pharisees and teachers of the law—the older brothers.  All throughout His ministry, Jesus made two things very clear: 1) anyone, even the hated tax collectors, can be saved if they repent of their sinful ways and come to the Savior for redemption, and 2) the Pharisees, in all their self-righteousness, were not on the path to heaven.  By completing the prodigal son’s part of the story, Jesus assured the sinners and tax collectors that He had come for them, and that their Father would welcome them home celebrating.  But by showing that the older brother was just as lost, just as separated from the father as the prodigal son, Jesus revealed that the Pharisees were not any closer to God than the sinners and tax collectors were; and by leaving the older brother’s part of the story unfinished, He issued a challenge to the Pharisees: Continue in your legalistic ways, obeying the law to build up your reputation, and alienate the God who made you, or repent of your self-righteousness and come to My Father, admitting that you don’t deserve the rights of His sons, and be welcomed home joyfully.  The righteousness given by the blood I will shed is more than enough to save you, but your own righteousness doesn’t even make you worthy to be My Father’s hired hand.  It’s your choice.  Your brothers over here, these “sinners” and tax collectors, will be there with Me.  Will you?”

Often I’m like the Pharisees, subconsciously thinking that my good works make me better off than Christians who drink alcohol and even get drunk sometimes.  But I’m no better than the biggest alcoholic in the world.  We are all prodigal sons (and daughters), and we all have to repent and return to our Father.  But when we do, we often become legalistic and judgmental like the older brother.  The difference between me and the alcoholic isn’t in what I have and haven’t done (well, technically speaking, yes, it is, but you know what I mean).  The difference is that I have returned to God, my Father.  My good older Brother Jesus found me and brought me home to a real relationship with our Father.  And now, like a good older brother, it’s my duty to go out into the world to take this message to all my prodigal brothers and sisters: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2); and to all you older brothers (and sisters) out there, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Don't waste your efforts trying to earn God's blessings when He has already given them to you freely.  Besides, His stuff is worthless without Him.  We should be seeking Him, serving Him out of thanks, not out of obligation.  We can't earn our way to God, and we don't have to.  Jesus has already bridged the gap; there's no reason to build another bridge.  Just walk across.

Jesus left the parable of the prodigal son open-ended so that the Pharisees had the opportunity to give it a happy ending.  We have the same opportunity.  Our prodigal brothers will return home to our Father.  Will we?