The Plague of the Elder Brothers -- A Book Review of "The Prodigal God" (Part 1)

I wasn’t sure what I felt about “The "Prodigal God" until the very end of the book. Until then, I alternated between being in vehement denial of the author Tim Keller's assertions (thinking he made arguments which were a "stretch") to feeling completely enlightened & "fully sold" on the very next page.

And back around again.

I wrestled with Keller's ambitious take on one of the Bible's most well-known & puzzling parables "The Prodigal Son". It was a cognitive roller-coaster, one that was much appreciated in these emotionally-stifled, isolated days in quarantine!


What's It About?

"Prodigal God" ?? With this seemingly heretical book title, you may think the author, Timothy Keller, is buying himself a one-way ticket to the "lake of fire". (Turns out he has a good reason to call God ‘prodigal’, meaning wasteful or reckless)

"The Prodigal Son" from the New Testament is so well known that even non-Christians seem to be familiar with the title of the story. About 2,000 years ago, Jesus told this parable directly to the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders of the time.

As a refresher: it involved a father and two sons. The younger son (the prodigal one) demanded his inheritance, skipped town, and squandered all his money on prostitutes. Not exactly a Godly life. Broke and forced to work menial labor, he returns to his father's home defeated. Given his selfish behavior, it may surprise the reader that his father, upon seeing him, jubilantly welcomes him back, before the son can muster a word of apology, and orders his servants to throw a feast on his behalf.

The older son though.....is not having it. Loyal and his obedient to his father the whole time, he is outraged. Here's how he vents:

‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ (Luke 15:29)

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The father consoles the elder brother while justifying his decision. And that's how the parable ends.

For reference, here is the entire parable text if it's helpful for context. Feel free to skip past it to continue reading this blog post.

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’

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When I first read the Bible years ago, I puzzled over this story. Maybe you did too. Was it about how, separated from God’s law and guidance (assuming the father represents God), we make a mess of our lives? Or was this about the Church accepting people no matter how badly they've strayed? (something I ought to appreciate given I spent the first 40 years of my life in unbelief).


But for Tim Keller, it’s all About the Elder Brother




While most of us dwell on the younger brother (his tragic folly followed by his unqualified acceptance), Keller believes that our focus should be where Jesus' was -- on the Elder Brother (who represented the Pharisees). Through that character, Jesus condemns the arrogance and judgmentalism of the Pharisees (and according to Keller, this has relevance in the modern world even with no Pharisees left). In Keller’s world, the elder brother is not merely a jealous whiner but actually a true villain - and an archetype for what’s wrong with Christianity today! Strong stuff, but let me explain.

Context matters. Jesus was telling the parable to the Pharisees, who might be called the villains of the New Testament. The Pharisees were prominent Jewish leaders who kept strict observance of God’s laws, with emphasis on the ceremonial laws (to the exclusion of the moral ones- hence Jesus calling them “hypocrites” and a “brood of vipers”). Despite their Godliness (or maybe because of it), the Pharisees looked down on others.

In another biblical parable, “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector”, both the Pharisee and tax collector go to the temple to pray. Despite the tax collector possibly being in earshot, the Bible tell us this is how the Pharisee prayed:

‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.' (Luke 18:11)

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The Pharisees used their obedience to God as reason to scold & exclude others (poor tax collectors- in Jesus’s day they were held in far greater disregard than we hold IRS employees today ;) . Back then, they were seen as traitors for siding with Rome and sinners for extracting bribes).

Keller explains "[Jesus] wants to show [the Pharisees] their blindness, narrowness, and self-righteousness, and how these things are destroying both their own souls, and the lives of people around them." And that through the parable, "Jesus is saying that both the irreligious and the religious are spiritually lost, both life paths are dead-ends." In other words, the Pharisees are no better than the ungodly Younger Brother. Perhaps they are worse because the Younger Brother only harmed himself.

Just as the Pharisees looked down upon sinners and excluded them from God’s kingdom, so too does the Elder Brother cite his loyalty to the father in the story as a reason why it’s unfair for the the sinning Younger Brother to be accepted by the father (who represents God).


That’s Sensible, So What’s your Problem with the Book?

Which Elder Brother?

Throughout the book, Keller identifies three different kinds of “Elder Brother”:

1. The Elder Brother in the “Prodigal Son” parable
   
   
2. The Pharisees (who the Elder Brother in the parable represents)
   
   
3. Modern-day Elder Brothers in the church today (those who like the Pharisees consider themselves “more religious"; they are arrogant, unwelcoming, and look down on others - such as on their “race, religion, and lifestyle”)

However, in the book, Keller does not distinguish much of the time which elder brother he’s referring to. At times, it seems to the reader that he’s referring to the Elder Brother in the parable, but then makes the kind of deduction which would be impossible to know given the limited facts offered by the terribly brief parable (less than 500 words). I found myself writing “Impossible to tell” or “unproven” in the margins because it felt that Keller was making too strong an inference about the Elder Brother without enough in the story to justify it....


(Click here for Part 2)