"Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think." Tim Keller, The Prodigal God, 15-16.
Tim Keller is truly one of the best pastors and practical scholars of our day. His work in Manhattan at Redeemer Presbyterian as well as his efforts in promoting church planting have been exceptional. In this brief book, Keller writes about one of Jesus' most famous parables: what is commonly called the parable of the prodigal son, but I think rightly Keller renames the parable of the prodigal God.
Keller begins by pointing out the parable is really about three scandalous people: the younger son, the eldest son, and the Father. We only focus on the younger son because so many of us are eldest brother types whose lives are marked by doing the right thing and by working hard. Unfortunately, the elder brother also is marked not by his love for the Father (God in this case), but his desire to work for the Father so he can get something back in return. As Keller argues, true or authentic faith is marked by repentance from both our outright sin and our religious self-effort. In other words, we must repent of the evil we do and the good we do. What a scandalous message!
Overall, I was struck and affirmed by the above quote. I know as a young pastor, I was very good at attracting the "conservative, buttoned-down, type." I preached the Bible, thought I was building people up in their faith, and felt pretty good about myself. Unfortunately, I saw no one come to faith outside the mold of conservative, buttoned-down types or those repenting of a brief foray into sin from their conservative, button-down type upbringing. In other words, I had a great ministry to Pharisees!
The problem is that Jesus did not have a good ministry to Pharisees even as he had a great ministry to everyone else. Personally my outreach to non-Pharisee types changed when I encountered the grace of God through a series of bad decisions and failures. I was a strong man who had not failed. As I experienced failures and setbacks, I was hurt and then broken. It was so painful! Through it all, I learned that success in ministry does not depend upon me. I also learned personally that I was, and probably still am, a Pharisee. As I repented of my sin, I tied into the grace of the Lord Jesus. I found unmerited love. This is the same Love that the Father gives freely to both the younger and eldest son in the parable of the two sons. As I did, I found that my ministry changed as did my message.
How? Well, first of all I was attractive to the broken-hearted, downtrodden, and out-right sinners. They liked me. We talked about Jesus. They felt comfortable. Many came to faith or at least began a faith journey that I pray and trust will lead to faith. I also became much more comfortable in my own skin, and I believe I became more authentic as a person. I have even seen a few eldest brother types come to faith through my preaching and ministry. Yes, the opening quote encourages me that I was doing something right!
Yet, I my ministry also changed with the eldest brother types. While I was once their darling, now I am an outcast. I have found that the religious types just do not understand me. They might like me personally, but they do not trust me professionally. I have found that religious types judge me and find me wanting. I have seen their sideways glances at their friends, and I know I have been judged not good enough. Often these folks come to my church or a class I teach and then walk away unchanged by the grace of God.
At first this reaction of the eldest brother types was very dismaying. It even made me angry (a true mark of my own eldest brother sin tendencies!). Could they not see the grace of God? Did they not want it? I judged them.
Notice the Father in the parable. He offered grace and restoration for the eldest brother. He did not judge him, but he freely offered extravagant grace and mercy to his undeserving elder son. We do not know if the elder son took the offer since as an excellent story-teller, Jesus left his response untold. In fact, Keller is most like right that the way the story ends means Jesus primarily told the story to convict the Pharisaical elder brothers of their need for repentance and faith.
The key to the entire parable is the open hearted love of the Father. I think in the past few years I have learned to a greater degree to leave my heart open to the eldest brother types, and to leave the grace of God wide-open for them. I do not find myself judging them as much, and I repent when I do. Still, the eldest brother types are the hardest to win to the gospel of grace. Why? They are so right that they do not need Jesus.
May all of us this day be amazed at the awesome grace of God. May this grace shatter our younger brother and eldest brother sin tendencies to bring us to repentance and rest.
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