I’m just about finished reading Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God based on the parable we often call “The Prodigal Son” found in Luke 15:1-32.  I have wanted to do a message series on this for several years and I’m planning on doing this after Easter 2010.

Keller’s view of the parable helped me put several pieces of a puzzle together.  For a long time I’ve been speaking against “religion.”  I deeply believe that Jesus did not come to found a new religion but to give us the Gospel and I believe the two are antithetical.  I’ve seen religion hurt people over and over.  Keller suggests (and I agree) that the older brother who dutifully stayed home has sinned and is just as “lost” as the younger brother who ran off and wasted his inheritance in sinful living.  The older brother represents the religious world (reading the book to capture this idea).

Here’s why I’m so against religion and why the “older brothers” of the world really scare me.  The younger brother comes to his senses, realizes he’s lost and comes home in deep humility.  The Father (representing God) runs to him, embraces him and restores him to the family.  They are reconciled – grace and forgiveness freely given and received!  That’s the Gospel!

But the older brother who stayed home, never got in trouble, was very right and moral and worked hard is upset at the party for his brother.   The text says “The elder brother became angry and refused to go in” (vs. 28).  After the Father pleads for the older brother to come into the house and join the party, the elder brother says:  “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders” (vs. 29).  There you have it.  He is angry.  He’s been so good and “religious” that he’s superior to the younger brother.  Anger and superiority is always present in religious people.  Step out of line and you’ll feel their anger and pride!

I’ve been more hurt by religious people than irreligious ones.  Why have so many people left the church?  They’ve encountered the older brother religious types who are trying to save themselves through their good works.  They are angry at the “sinners” and irreligious of the world.  They communicate they are superior to those who live “riotous” lives.  They are religious, but have not really understood the unconditional and abundant outrageous love of God.

Religion is “slaving” to earn God’s blessing.  Religious people don’t have or want a Savior – they are earning their own place in heaven.  The Gospel, in contrast, is when we humbly receive grace and a relationship with the Father, something we can’t earn.

May we all, younger brothers who go out and sin like crazy and older brothers who stay home and try to be good, realize that we are all sinners, alienated from the love of the Father.  May we all come to the deep realization that we are all a mess and need a Savior.  It’s not about what we’ve done or haven’t done – it’s all about a loving Father.

Together may we all live in and by grace,

Glen