Dear Rose Park,
This is the second Lenten-letter that will focus around a central story and book. The story is the Parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15. The book is The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Tim Keller. Ultimately, as we journey step-in-step with Jesus towards the cross of Calvary, it’s my hope for each and every one of us to recover the heart of our faith in the Risen King.
When Jesus tells the parable of the Prodigal Son there are two groups of people in the audience. These two groups are mirror reflections of the two sons found in the story. These two sons and groups represent a different way to be alienated from God and a different way to seek acceptance into the kingdom of heaven. Keller writes:
First there were the “tax collectors and sinners.” These men and women correspond to the younger brother. They observed neither the moral laws of the Bible nor the rules for ceremonial purity followed by religious Jews. They engaged in “wild living.” Like the younger brother, they “left home” by leaving the traditional morality of their families and of respectable society. The second group of listeners was the “Pharisees and the teachers of the law,” who were represented by the older brother. They held to the traditional morality of their upbringing. They studied and obeyed Scripture. They worshipped faithfully and prayed constantly.” (pg. 10)
I imagine many of us were taught to be like the older brother. Follow the rules. Avoid wild living. Hold a moral code. Study and obey. Worship faithfully and pray constantly. As your pastor, there’s some aspect of the older brother that we should strive for. We cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. However, it is the older brother’s belief that it is his efforts, his study, his obedience, his morality, and his moral code that will lead to righteousness and salvation. This doesn’t let the younger brother off the hook. The younger brother is selfish and self-centered. He disrespects his father and brother by treating his relationship with them as merely transactional.
The difference lies in how the two brothers/groups respond. The younger brother knows his mistake. The older brother is convinced he is in the right. The sinners and tax collectors know they have fallen short and hurt other people. The Pharisees can’t see beyond their own noses. By telling this story, Jesus isn’t trying to warm our hearts and have us melt into tears. Instead, He’s trying to shatter our categories. Keller writes:
Through this parable Jesus challenges what nearly everyone has ever thought about God, sin, and salvation. His story reveals the destructive self-centeredness of the younger brother, but it also condemns the elder brother’s moralistic life in the strongest terms. Jesus is saying that both the irreligious and the religious are spiritually lost, both life-paths are dead ends, and that every thought the human race has had about how to connect to God has been wrong. (pg. 13)
Dear God, as we continue in the season of Lent, let us not be blind to our sin. Let us not assume that it is everyone else who falls short of the glory of God. Instead, may our eyes be open to those places where we have wandered away from You and Your Kingdom. Let our hearts be softened to confess our sins with honesty and humility. And comfort our souls that we might always find rest in You. Amen.
Grace & Peace,
