Recognizing the Elder Brother Within

As Keller has been saying in The Prodigal God, both the younger brother and the elder brother are lost and alienated from the father in the parable. The younger brother's lostness is obvious, but not the elder brother's lostness. One way an elder brother spirit can be identified is to note the statement of the elder brohter in response to the grace expressed by the father to the younger brother. The elder says, "All these years I've been slaving for you." Keller says, "His obedience to his father is nothing but duty all the way down. There is no joy or love, no reward in just seeing his father pleased.... Elder brothers live good lives out of fear, not out of joy and love.... There is no wonder, awe, intimacy, or delight in their conversations with God." 

As I reflect on this, I am deeply convicted of my own elder brotherness. So what can change me? According the Keller, it is "the initiating love of God." In the parable, the father runs out to meet the younger brother, embrace him, and throw a party. As the festivities gear up, the father also goes out to invite the elder brother to join the celebratory feast—even though he refuses. It is the amazing, undeserved, unilateral love of God expressed in the gospel that takes my conviction and turns it into repentance and faith... and cultivates the joy, love, intimacy and wonder of a slave who has become a son.