https://marbenbland.com/the-prodigal-god
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Janice Rhodes Casey is a wife, mother, grandmother, and retired educator with over 30 years of experience as a classroom teacher and media specialist. As an ordained minister and co pastor with a Master of Divinity degree in Biblical Studies, Janice loves teaching and preaching the Word of God, connecting the dots between reading the Word and living it out in our lives. She has a podcast, God’s Toolbox, and a blog. Janice is the author of the book, Holy Spirit Unlock the Path Forward: The Steps to Living a Life of Purpose and Fulfillment. She and her husband, Pastor Darrell Casey, are the parents of five children and eleven grandchildren.
Multimedia Storyteller, Entrepreneur, and Advocate, Marben Bland is the pastor of the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Athens, Georgia. Marben is also a founding leader of Sweetwater, a virtual worship community. Find his sermons, podcasts, blogs and more at www.marbenbland.com
Unexpected Glory
How The Prodigal God Found Me in An Airport Shuttle Van
Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord is the counsel of 2nd Peter 3:18. Jesus in Luke 15 grows the knowledge of our faith by defining clearly for us what it means to follow the Lord and live a life of faith.
In his book The Prodigal God, Tim Keller the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, presents a fresh take on perhaps Jesus’ best-known parable, The Parable of The Prodigal Son.
Keller’s teaching of the parable has had a profound effect on me. Reinforcing who God is. While showing me that God provides unexpected glory.
My discovery of this book was the result of an unexpected conversation with a van driver on the way to the Atlanta airport from Athens.
When the van driver discovered that I was a pastor he asked if I had preached the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Proudly I said yes. Then he asked of the two sons’ which one sinned? With every bit of my seminary training and Bible learning I proudly said “of course, it was the son who went away.” The son who stayed was outraged and deserved to be so; however, he was no sinner, he kept the faith.
The van driver a man about my age who had lived by his own admission a lifetime on the edge said, “Have you ever considered that they were both sinners?” For the next hour, we discussed the matter and by the time I reached the airport, I had experienced the first of three unexpected glories which birthed this Bible Study.
The magic of eBooks placed the book on my tablet with the first chapter read before takeoff. The book was finished as I touched down in Chicago and with it, I experienced the second unexpected glory. A fresh and I believe a more accurate view of the parable. A view that I had to share with the church I pastor and the virtual worship community that I lead.
How to teach the valuable content of The Prodigal God led to my third unexpected glory. Luke 15 is the powerhouse chapter that is the springboard to the life-changing message of Jesus Prayer led to the
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creation of a sermon series covering each of the parables in Luke 15 and the Bible study you are embarking on. It is my prayer that these combined teachings based on the book and the Gospel will give you the same unexpected glories that I have experienced.
A bonus unexpected glory was the partnership formed with the co writer of this Bible study the Reverend Janice Rhodes Casey. A wife, mother, grandmother and retired educator, Janice provided critical insight and a keen Biblical knowledge to this project.
Janice and I pray for God’s glories to shine on you in unexpected ways as you interact with the sermons, the book, the questions , along with the supporting audio and video content.
Summary Chapter 1
The People Around Jesus
Often the Parable of the Prodigal Son is interpreted to be about the experience of the younger brother. The context of the parable, however, shows that Jesus is speaking to two different groups of people and about two different ways of entering the kingdom. When Jesus shares this parable, he is surrounded by some people who are living like the younger brother and other people who are living like the older brother. The parable is usually interpreted as a story of forgiveness and unconditional love, but it is really targeted toward the older brother — the person who is selfrighteous and blind. This story was not heartwarming; it was offensive.
When the church began in the first century, it was not a religious institution. In fact, Christians were seen as being anti religious. Jesus attracted marginalized people who were debauched and non -religious sinners, while those who were religious, read the Scriptures, and observed the traditions of their teachers rejected Jesus. Jesus did not come to preach and teach moralism, and as a result, many moralists and religionists wanted nothing to do with him. Today our churches seem to attract the kind of people that once reject Jesus, while the kind of people who were attracted to him stay away from us. Perhaps this is because we are not preaching the message of Jesus.
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Questions
1. What are the two kinds of people?
2. What is the reaction of the two kinds of people to Jesus?
3. Which group is Jesus speaking to in the parable?
4. How Is Keller’s interpretation different from what you were taught about the parable, and do you agree with his assessment?
5. Why do some people like Jesus but not the Church?
Summary Chapter 2
The Two Lost Sons
Instead of being called “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” this parable is better understood as “The Parable of the Two Lost Sons.” The parable begins with a shocking request: the younger son wants his inheritance now before his father’s death. Which is the equivalent of saying that he wished his father was dead, because he prefers his father’s things to his father himself. Since most of his wealth would have been tied to his land, the father would have sold part of his property. In the ancient world, land was far more significant than just an asset it was a part of yourself. Such a request in a patriarchal society would have been met with physical blows and rebuke, but in the parable, the father does what his son has requested. The younger son takes the money and goes far away where he squanders it in wild living. He literally ends up in a pigsty and decides to go home and plead to be accepted as a worker so that he can start paying back his debt. But his father runs to him, embraces him, restores him to the family, and throws a feast for him. The younger son is immediately restored to the full privilege of the family: something he could never have earned and could never repay is provided for him because of his father’s heart. Yet the parable is not finished. The elder brother refuses to join the party, publicly disgracing his father. His father goes out to him, and the elder brother lectures the father with great disrespect. Again, in a patriarchal culture a father could have disowned his son on the spot for talking to him this way.
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But he does nothing of the kind. He invites the older brother to come into the feast in other words, he extends the older brother forgiveness and grace. Jesus’ hearers listened to find out what happened, but Jesus stopped the story. He had nothing else to say because he was inviting the Pharisees and religious people to join in the feast, and he waited to see their response.
Act One: Scene One: The Shocking Request
Act 1 begins with a short but shocking request. The younger son comes to the father and says, “Give me my share of the estate.”
1. Why is this request so shocking?
2. How did the father respond to the request?
3. What did the father have to do to give his younger son his inheritance?
4. The definition of prodigal is reckless, extravagant, having spent everything. What is the result of the father being “prodigal” to his younger son?
5. Reflect on the ways God is “prodigal” to you?
Act One: Scene Two: The Younger Brother’s Plan
The younger son receives his money, moves away, and loses all his inheritance. Reduced to working on a pig farm he devises a plan to return to his father.
1. Describe the younger son’s plan
2. The son’s plan is to become a hired man for his father. Describe what is a hired man and how this will change the younger son’s relationship with his father.
Act One: Scene Three: The Younger Brother Comes Home
1. Why is the act of the father’s running when he sees the younger son considered “prodigal”?
2. Keller indicates that many commentators say that the father accepting the son back contradicts traditional “Christian doctrine about the atonement of sin.” If grace is freely “prodigally” given, who pays for the grace?
3. As a disciple of Christ think of a time when you have been “prodigal” with your grace. Consider, is being prodigal with our grace the right thing to do?
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Act Two: Scene One: The Older Brother Becomes the Lost Brother
1. What is the reaction of the older brother when he learns that the younger brother has returned home and that the father has planned a feast?
2. Describe the significance of killing the “fatty calf” and holding a feast for the younger son.
Act Two Scene Two: The Older Brother Confronts His Father
1. Why does the Older Brother refuse to attend the feast?
2. What is the significance of the father leaving the feast to speak to the older brother?
3. How does the older brother speak to his father?
4. What do we find that the older brother and younger brother have in common?
5. In this parable how does Jesus redefine sin, and what it means to be “lost?”
6. What new things have you learned about Jesus and your faith in this chapter?
Summary Chapter 3 Redefining Sin
The older brother represents those who choose the path of moral conformity (where the individual’s desires are placed under community and moral norms) and the younger brother represents those who take the path of self-discovery (where the individual’s desires must be expressed regardless of community approval). Western society is divided deeply between these two groups. Jesus’ parable shows that there is an alternative. Jesus shows that both types of people are alienated from the Father. Yet the younger brother has acknowledged his acceptance, while the older brother still stands outside when the parable ends. The elder brother stands outside because he is satisfied with his rights, duty, and obedience. He refuses to go inside because of his high view of his own goodness.
This shows that the hearts of both brothers were actually the same. They both preferred their father’s possessions to their father himself, and they both chafed under his authority. The younger brother rebelled by running away and indulging his desires, while the older brother rebelled by staying close and obeying the letter of the law. The more you seem to obey the law, the less you will seem to need a savior. In fact, the older brother saw
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his service as something which gave him the right to tell his father what to do with his possessions. He felt the father owed him there was no place for grace. Many people are not sacrificing for God they are really trying to live their lives so that they can leverage him. They then become the judge of others and of God himself. Both sons are equally lost, but the lost state of the younger brother is more obvio us. The older brother would have been offended if someone had suggested that his heart was not right towards the father. Moralism and works righteousness are more subtle than open rebellion.
Questions:
1. How are the two sons alike?
2. What was Jesus’ teaching: To the Pharisees and Scribes? To the tax collectors and sinners?
3. Why is the older brother so angry with the father?
4. What is Jesus’s radical redefinition of what is sin?
Summary Chapter 4 Redefining Lostness
Both brothers begin in a state of being lost. The elder brother shows his lostness by getting angry when things do not go the way he wants. People like this tend to blame God if they think they have been good enough, and they tend to blame themselves if they think they have fallen short. They either hate God or hate themselves when their life doesn’t turn out the way they want. Since life never works out perfectly, elder brothers are eaten up with anger. They also use their works-righteousness to feel superior to others. They compare themselves with others and are especially hostile to those who do not have the exact religious views that they hold. This sense of merited superiority makes the heart hard and produces an unforgiving and harsh spirit. Since the elder brother’s worth is based on rule keeping, he is joyless and fearful. Everyone is called to obedience and duty, but for the elder brother it is only duty — in fact, he tells his father that he has “slaved away” for him. This “slavery” was not in the service of love.
At the heart of the matter, elder brothers are serving themselves. They are trying to earn blessings and rewards (if they are religious) or they are trying to earn a good reputation (with others or just in their own eyes). Even
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charitable acts can be generated by self-centeredness: we can give money to the poor because we are trying to buy moral capital for ourselves. An elder brother is never sure that the father loves them: they never know if they have done enough to measure up. Many elder brothers do not pray at all unless things are going badly in their lives. Their prayers are goal oriented: they want God to accomplish their goals more than they want a healthy, joyful relationship with him. Many people in our society have rejected the church because it is full of elder brothers. It is important that they see that Jesus speaks against the elder brother and condemns moralistic self righteousness. The attitude of elder brothers in the church can drive some people into the open rebellion of a younger brother. Even after conversion we can have relapses and gravitate towards the peculiar vices of the elder or younger brother.
Questions:
1. Jesus uses the metaphors “lost and found” in describing salvation. How does Jesus use the lost and found metaphors in the three parables contained in Luke 15?
2. What does it mean to be spiritually lost? How is the younger brother spiritually lost? How is the older brother spiritually lost?
3. Read the story of Peter and the stone on page s 58-59. What conclusions can you draw from the story about being a spiritually lost older brother?
4. What are the dangers of elder brother’s self-righteousness? (For clues look at pages 62-65)
5. Describe the reasons why older brothers follow the rules? (For clues look at pages 65-74, focus on the story of the King and the carrot on pages 6970)
6. Keller on pages 72 74 talks about the dry prayer life of the older brother. Reflect for a moment on the state of your prayer life.
7. Why does Jesus expose the older brother as being just as lost as the younger brother? Who is listening while Jesus is telling the parable? (For a clue look at Luke 15:1-3)
8. What are the reasons many good people are moving away from churches? (For clues look at pages 75 78)
9. What are the differences between being an elder brother and a Gospel believing Christian?
10. Keller on page 81, claims Jesus creates a crisis in the parable. Neither the way of the older or younger brother is right. Please take a moment to reflect what is the third way that Jesus is advancing.
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Summary Chapter 5
The True Elder Brother
With both the elder and younger brothers, the father takes the initiative and extends to them his love. God is not a Pharisee to the younger brother, but he is also not a Pharisee to the Pharisees. He loves the wild sinner and the religious sinner. Pharisees may repent (with great remorse, guilt, and anguish) but they remain elder brothers because their repentance is just part of their attempt to save themselves through religious works. They may be upset by their sins, but they are still proud of their good works. It is not just our sins we need to confess — we also need to repent of the good things we have done as part of our plan to save ourselves.
“The Parable of the Two Brothers” is the last of three parables that Jesus told on that occasion which showed something being lost and then found. In the first two, someone goes and finds the lost objects (a sheep and a coin). In the third, nobody goes to look for the younger brother. But, like Cain and Abel, the elder brother was his brother’s keeper. He should have been willing to sacrifice to save his younger brother. In fact, when his younger brother is restored to the fami ly, it means that he again is put in place to receive an inheritance when his father dies. This means that there is a cost for the younger brother’s forgiveness, but the cost falls on the older brother. In the parable the older brother hated this thought — his response makes us long for a better older brother. The gospel tells us that we have a perfect elder brother who was willing to pay the ultimate cost in order for us to be forgiven and restored. The only thing that can change our hearts is seeing what Jesus has done for us.
1. What do we need to escape the shackles of our lostness whether it be younger brother or older brother?
2. How can our hearts be changed from fear and anger, as that of the older brother, to joy, love, and gratitude?
3. According to Keller how can you tell if God is working on your younger brother or older brother lostness? (For clues go to page 84)
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4. Reflect on what is repentance and then look at Keller’s thoughts on pages 85 88. Then think about what you must do to be born again.
5. In Luke 15 Jesus tells three parables (The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, The Parable of the two lost sons) What is the striking difference betw een the first two parables and the third one? Why is the difference important? (For clues read pages 89-96)
Summary Chapter 6 Redefining Hope
In its biblical context, this story is more than about individual redemption it is about the hope of the world. We all have a deep longing for home, for a place where we truly belong. This longing is for something transcendent and nothing in the world satisfies it. Trying to find fulfillment in the world generates disappointment. The Bible tells us that we are all exiles: we were created to live in Eden but have fallen into sin and been cast out into a cursed world. We are spiritual exiles who are trying to recreate our home, but this is impossible apart from coming to the Father. Our problem is not just a loss of place, it is the brokenness of our own hearts. Both our own nature and the world around us is diseased. Jesus came into the world to live our exile and to experience the full depths of our brokenness and sin, so that we could be brought back home to the Father. The Bible ends with the picture of a glorified Eden and a wedding feast where the people of God are redeemed and restored. It is because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins that we can experience this glorious reconciliation with the Father.
Questions:
1. According to Keller Jesus in the three parables of Luke 15 retells the story of humanity. How is humanity redefined? (Read pages 101 -105) Do you agree with Keller’s assessment?
2. Why are we like exiles always searching for home? Is there a Biblical reason for this? Do you agree that this is true? (For clues read pages 107109)
3. What is the reason Jesus came to earth? (Read pages 112-114)
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4. Discuss how Jesus makes the world our “home” again. (Get Keller’s thoughts by reading pages 114 -117)
Summary
Chapter 7
The Feast of the Father
The Bible sometimes likens our salvation to being brought to a great feast. We are told to taste and see that the Lord is good salvation brings us into a rich experience of joy and delight in the Lord. We are to move beyond knowing things about God theoretically (e.g. God is merciful) to tasting the sweetness of his character (i.e. delighting in his mercy by experience). A feast is a material event. Jesus left the Lord’s Supper as a material reminder of his sacrifice. The new heavens and new earth are not a realm of pure spirit they are decidedly material. Jesus was resurrected physically, and this physical world is being redeemed and set right by God. Christianity is highly material in its focus on the poor, hungry, and marginalized.
In religion, salvation follows obedience, but in the gospel, obedience follows salvation. Christians obey because they have already been accepted by God. We still fall back into our old modes of looking for security in other things, but we must continue to learn to apply the gospel to our lives. The New Testament does not call us to try harder to obey moral rules — it calls us to think about the nature and example of Christ and his love for us, and then to live in that light. We do not advance beyond the gospel, even in Christian living and ethics; the gospel is what we need to apply in our daily lives. Love — not fear — is our motivation. Free grace shows us God’s love. It also shows us that what is free to us came at infinite cost to the Son of God.
A feast is a communal event. Christians are not called to live in isolation. On the contrary, Christian fellowship is essential for growth. We can never experience everything that Jesus is, but in a community other people experience different aspects of him and can help us understand him better. Jesus shows that neither one of the brothers in the parable takes a path that works or satisfies — but then he offers a different way: himself. It is only through Jesus that we can be brought to the great feast of the Father.
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Questions:
1. How will our lives change as we live them based on Jesus’s message about sin, grace, and hope? (Read pages 118 -139)
2. Jesus in Matthew 8: 11 depicts the salvation that he brings as a feast. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Keller outlines four ways to experience a feast that correspond to the ways that our lives will be shaped by Jesus’ message of hope. Take a moment to consider each of these ways for our discussion:
1. Salvation is Experiential
Because Jesus is the Master of the Banquet and the Lord of the Feast, we can experience all of life with him. We can taste and see that the Lord is good. Additionally, knowing that we are forgiven, and shame and guilt are no longer a part of our lives, bec ause we know that we are accepted, makes his love all the more real—more real than anyone else’s. His love is sweet like honey or enjoyable like fine wine. We can truly live the John 10:10 abundant life.
But Keller notes that most of us are either too eager or not eager enough for what Jesus offers. He offers us access to the Father and over time the excitement of that relationship waxes and wanes but note that it is always available to us.
Question: How can we keep our relationship with Jesus fresh?
2. Salvation is Material
The ultimate plan of Jesus is comprehensive. It is the individual salvation and pardon for sins, the renewal of the world, and the end of disease, poverty, injustice, violence, suffering, and death.
Because God’s beautiful world that he created has been marred, Jesus’s deeds and miracles show a precursor, a world of restoration of the correct order of things.
Christians can talk about saving souls and correcting societal injustice in the same sentence, with integrity. It is all a part of the restoration plan of Jesus.
Christianity is not an opiate (numbing agent) of the people, but rather a smelling salt (reviving agent).
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Question: What ways can we keep the reviving agent of Jesus in us so we can avoid becoming a big or little brother?
3. Salvation is Individual
Religion and the Gospel work in opposition to each other.
Religion says, “I obey therefore I am accepted by God.”
The Gospel of Jesus says, “I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ—therefore I obey.” The work of Christians is not to obtain salvation, but because they have attained it already.
Keller makes the point however, that the human heart works like the default on your computer. The computer will automatically go back to the default mode unless you specifically tell it to do something else. The human heart will automatically go back to operating under religious principles unless you deliberately an d repeatedly set it to gospel principles.
The gospel tells us to repeatedly take in the elements of The Last Supper. In other words, remember the life and teachings of Jesus constantly. As we eat and drink of this, we grow in God’s grace, making the principles of the life of Jesus more and more central to everything we see, think, and feel.
Question: How can we keep our mind stayed on Jesus?
4. Salvation is Communal
In Keller’s explanation of the communal nature of salvation, he gives three very striking commentaries. He says:
“There is no way you will be able to grow spiritually apart from a deep involvement in a community of other believers. You can’t live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place.”
“For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest.” C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (Harcourt, 1960), pp. 61-62
“You must be deeply involved in the church, in a Christian community, with strong relationships of love and accountability. Only if you are a part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve, and love Jesus will you ever get to know him and grow into his likeness.”
Question: During the height of COVID was a sense of Christian community maintained? If yes, how? As we pivot into a world where we
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have learned to live with COVID, how do we blend what we learned during the height of the lockdown with the opportunities presented to us in our current environment?
4. In The Prodigal God, three ways of living have been presented, little brother, big brother, and the way of the Prodigal Father. The way of loving recklessly, extravagantly,and spending everything. Is this a realistic way of living our lives in today’s world? If so, how?
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