Dear Rose Park,
This is the third Lenten-letter that will focus on a central story and book. The story is the Parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15. The book is The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Tim Keller. As we continue to journey step-in-step with Jesus towards the cross of Calvary, it’s my hope for each and every one of us to recover the heart of our faith in the Risen King.
To do that, we align ourselves with a longstanding theological tradition in the Reformed Church: Guilt, Grace, & Gratitude. The three G’s remind us that we are guilty of sin and need a Savior, Jesus offers us grace by dying on the cross to pay the debt that we owed, and in response we are called to live a life of gratitude back to God. As it relates to the sinfulness found in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Keller writes:
The hearts of the two brothers were the same. Both sons resented the father’s authority and sought ways of getting out from under it. They each wanted to get into a position in which they could tell the father what to do. Each one, in other words, rebelled - but one did so by being very bad and the other be being extremely good. Both were alienated from the father’s heart; both were lost sons. (pg. 42)
For some of us, this might come as a surprise. How can you be lost when you’re just trying to be good? The answer isn’t that trying to be good is wrong, it’s that the elder brother was trying to manipulate the father through his goodness. The elder brother felt he was owed something because he was good and was essentially saying: I have never disobeyed you! Now you have to do things in my life the way I want them to be done.
We might have never said these things aloud to God, but I wonder if we’ve thought them or mumbled them under our breath. I go to church every week God, why are you letting this happen? I tithe as often as I can, why isn’t my life the way I want it? I serve and volunteer in our community, you owe me God! If this is our attitude towards God, then perhaps we aren’t actually loving God for who He is but perhaps treating me instead like a genie in a lamp. Keller continues:
Neither son loved the father for himself. They both were using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake. This means that you can rebel against God and be alienated from Him either by breaking His rules or by keeping all of them diligently.
And yet, even though both sons are wrong they are both loved. This is what makes the Gospel so unique and so powerful. It doesn’t oversimplify the world into “moral good guys” and “immoral bad guys.” The Gospel says everyone is wrong, everyone is loved, and everyone is called to recognize this and change. This process of change begins with repentance which is at the heart of the Lenten season.
So, as we continue to be shaped and formed by the Gospel might our hearts be softened to the process of repentance in order to recognize our guilt, embrace our gracious Savior, and live a life of gratitude back to Him.
Grace & Peace,
