When you’re looking for ESV Study Bibles, you’ll also want to check out Tim Keller’s forthcoming book The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. I read a pre-release copy over the last few weeks and it exceeded my already high expectations. The book is convicting and encouraging at the same time–a rare combination. It is also very easy to read and fairly short (can be read in a few sittings). Here’s an excerpt of an interview I conducted with Pastor Keller about the book:
CHEDIAK: Why do you think Luke 15:11-32 has come down to us as “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”, and might you walk us through a little bit on how you came to see it as something more?
KELLER: I don’t know why over the years our interpretation of the Luke 15:11ff parable has focused so much on the younger brother. Even if you just count the verses it is clear that his part is only about half the story. If you read the parable in its context–Luke 15:1-3–it is clear that Jesus was directing the parable at Pharisees, ‘elder brothers’, who hated Jesus warm reception of tax collectors and sinners, ‘younger brothers.’ So the fate and decision of the elder brother is the real climax of the story. (And it is a cliff-hanger–we never find out how the Pharisee/elder brother responds.) Dick Lucas once preached a sermon on this parable entitled ‘Jesus Pleads with His Critics’! In this parable Jesus is speaking to the people who will eventually kill him, yet he, through the father in the story, comes out and beg the Pharisee/elder brothers to relent and come in to the feast of salvation. I find that so moving. Dick Lucas, Ed Clowney and others showed me that the parable is about both brothers and especially the elder.
Read the whole thing.