I love Tim Keller. I love him for alot of reasons, but here’s some: He’s a thinker and he leads people to think. When Christianity is being newly attacked from the ranks of atheism, Keller took up the mantle of C.S. Lewis and wrote The Reason for God in response to guys like Richard Dawkins. He’s was doing and preaching the “missional” thing way before it was cool. He unashamedly rocks baldness.

And also this: The Prodigal God is fantastic.

Keller said that he might be most widely recognized for The Reason for God, but in his estimation, The Prodigal God is a better summation of his life message and ministry. He also said that this short book, and more specifically the parable it’s based on, is the best summation of the gospel.

The parable in question, as you probaby guess, comes from Luke 15 and is popularly called “The Prodigal Son.” But Keller points out quickly why that’s an inaccurate title. He takes us back to the setting of all the “lost” parables of Luke 15, reminding us that verse 1 of that chapter tells us that there were 2 distinct groups of people listening to Jesus teach that day. There were the tax collectors and “sinners,” and there were the Pharisees.

With that as the background, you start to see who Jesus was really targeting that parable to. Most of us grew up thinking the prodigal son was meant to encourage all of the “younger sons” of the world who have sought their happiness in things outside of their father’s love. And that their father, God, is waiting not to chastise them for their choices but to celebrate in their homecoming.

No doubt this is one point of Jesus’ story. But, as Keller states, there are actually 2 prodigal children in the story. There is the one who tried to find happiness far away from the father, but there is also an older son. He’s the prodigal who sought to find satisfaction, joy, and acceptance through his own acts of righteousness.

Or to put it in terms of Luke 15, there were a bunch of younger sons listening to Jesus teach who had lived life outside the boundaries. But there were also a bunch of older sons there that day – the Pharisees – who had sought to find their happiness in keeping the rules.

Both are prodigal. Both need to come home. And Jesus’ aim in the parable is to invite the older children into the celebration as well.

Things haven’t changed too much. Keller points out that people are basically seeking happiness in the same ways – some through breaking the rules, some through keeping them. And life with the Father is about neither. The father is waiting for both, ready for both, welcoming to both. And the father’s grace and love are scandalous. In this way, the father too is prodigal. Keller lets us know that the true definition of prodigal is “wastefully or excessively extravagant.”

The younger son was prodigal in his expenditures. The older son was prodigal in his righteousness. The father is prodigal in his grace.

Maybe the most striking thing about this book is when Keller talks about “the other brother.” He argued that if the older brother in the story were truly a “good” son, one that loved his father, then when the younger son left, the brother would have gone to the father and said: “I see how heartbroken you are over the loss of your son. I will go and get him back. I’ll spend my inheritance to do so. And no matter what it cost me, I’ll bring him home. Because I love you, and I love him.”

Jesus is the real older brother, and that’s what He did.

Pick it up. It’s worth it for all of us recoving younger and older sons.