The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller explores the themes of righteousness, home, exile, salvation, and freedom through the parable of the prodigal son. We see how we might read the Bible differently through the parable and how we can understand Jesus as the true older brother who brings us home.

Both brothers in the parable needed reconciliation with the father, but which of the two brothers are you?

Many think that they know a great deal about Christianity simply because they are Christians. Yet the basics of the Christian faith prove elusive for many. If we are sure that we know a lot about the basics of the faith, then we probably don’t know them well at all. In pursuit of learning more about Christ’s core message, we turn to the famous parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15.

First, we’ll talk about the meaning of the parable, and then we’ll bring together the way that the parable helps us understand the whole Bible and the world itself. The basic idea of the parable is the amazing, reckless love that God has for us, whether we are the younger brother or the older one.

In this summary, you will learn:

  • the meaning of the parable of the prodigal son;
  • how we often behave like the younger brother; and
  • how we tend to think as the older brother and how that hinders us.

The parable of the prodigal son is really about the whole family.

There have been many readings of Luke 15 over the years, and most have focused on the narrative of the son who leaves and returns. To learn how we can read the parable properly, we need to pull away from the single narrative of the younger brother and see the interactions between all three characters: younger brother, older brother, and father. Each of these people, the younger and older brother, shows how different people relate to the kingdom of God in their own ways. Note especially that the father in the story is Jesus’ representation of God – whom He knew well.

We need, first, to understand a little about the way that people in the time of Jesus thought about the world. Some context for the parable that Jesus tells goes a long way in helping us read it properly. We see in the opening of Luke 15 that different types of people had come to Jesus. We see the tax collectors and sinners on the one hand and the Pharisees and teachers of the Law on the other.

The tax collectors and sinners are like the younger brother, and they aren’t that concerned with any of the moral or religious laws in society. They engage in wild living, which in a sense is like “leaving home” and the respectable society of those around them.

The other group is the Pharisees, the religious leaders, and the teachers of the Law. These people are like the older brother in the story: They have a traditional view of morality and religion, show up for religious services, pray, and hold to the traditions of their ancestors. They are the respectable members of society that the sinners had left behind.

Luke shows us how each group responds to Christ. The younger brother and older brother find representatives in each of the groups named above. We see that the younger brothers of that day followed Jesus throughout His ministry. This continually confused the other type of group, the older brothers, who were the religious leaders and Pharisees. They didn’t understand why the sinners and tax collectors wanted to spend time with Jesus, and they didn’t understand why Jesus wanted to spend time with them.

The parable is for older brothers.

In those days and in that culture, sitting down to eat with someone was like a personal seal of approval. Essentially, they were wondering why the people would want to show up to the religious teaching of Jesus. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law couldn’t understand what Jesus could possibly be telling them so that they would continue to show up.

Jesus actually aimed the parable of the prodigal son, as we learn, at this second group, the religious types. While the parable is about the younger son, He told it for the benefit of the older son. The older brother is asked at the end of the parable to have a change of heart. Thus, Jesus was directing the parable at the scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the Law and asking the same of them.

Many times when this parable is told, churches like to dwell on the level of love that Jesus shows for the younger son. We are told that it is absolutely amazing that God receives back the younger son who ran away. We also may have heard this parable before and been amazed at how much God loves all of us. But that makes the parable overly emotional, and the parable isn’t being told to get sinners to run back to Jesus. We see that the parable is intended for the religious people in Jesus’ audience.

The parable is, thus, for the insiders. Jesus is making a plea to those who are self-righteous, who make it difficult for themselves and others around them. Jesus is, therefore, not telling the story primarily for younger brothers but the older brothers. It is not primarily intended to let the hearers know that there is unconditional love but to remind those who were complaining about unconditional love that there actually is such a thing. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law knew that the parable was for them. As such, they would have been incensed that Jesus told it…

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