Keller continues his Christocentric analysis of the prodigal son parable by reframing it as a metanarrative of the human condition, centered on the theme of exile and homecoming. To bolster Keller’s claim that the experience of exile is indeed universal, the text cites a number of both secular and Christian examples, including the German term Sehnsucht, works by John Knowles and John Steinbeck, and C. S. Lewis’s sermon “The Weight of Glory.” However, it is the latter, as a work of Christian apologetics, that Keller engages with most extensively. Lewis’s argument—that earthly beauty points to a transcendent reality and becomes idolatrous if mistaken for it—explains why worldly attempts at finding a permanent home end in disappointment and provides a framework that echoes Keller’s explication of Sin as Self-Salvation. Ultimately, Keller presents the biblical narrative of exile, from Adam to Israel, as illustrative of a race of “exiles trying to come home” (109). Keller thus suggests that it is not merely the story of the prodigal son that must be understood in light of Jesus’s life and works; it is the Bible as a whole, even if the parable presents a useful archetype.

“The Difficulty of Returning” pivots from the problem of exile to the difficulty of return, touching on the theme of Costly Grace and the True Elder Brother. In arguing that Jesus’s life and death are the ultimate embodiment of humanity’s exiled condition, Keller expands on his earlier claims about the need for a figure who will pay the “price” of humanity’s sin. His basic theological claims about the Fall and its impact on both human character and the natural world are conventional Christian doctrine, but examining them through the lens of “homelessness” leads him to stress certain symbolically suggestive features of Jesus’s story: his nomadic life, ministry outside established power structures, and death outside the city gates. Jesus thus becomes the true elder brother who, unlike his counterpart in the parable, enters human alienation, taking “upon himself the full curse of […] cosmic homelessness, so that we could be welcomed into our true home” (114). To reinforce the point, Keller emphasizes Jesus’s weakness and marginalization by way of contrast, noting the expectation that the prophesied Messiah would be a political liberator who ended Israel’s physical exile. 

The chapter concludes by venturing into eschatology: the theology of the world and humanity’s ultimate fate. This resolves the tension of exile with the promise of a final feast, once again creating symmetry with the parable and the broader biblical narrative: The father’s meal for the prodigal son is a microcosm of the “marriage supper of the Lamb” at the end of history (115). Laying the groundwork for the final chapter, Keller emphasizes the physicality of this future hope: a renewed world with embodied experiences. In part, Keller seeks to counteract the popular conception of Christianity as promising an ethereal afterlife. However, the argumentation also echoes Keller’s earlier claims that Christianity is distinct in important ways from other religions: “Jesus, unlike the founder of any other major faith, holds out hope for ordinary human life” (116). The emphasis on the kingdom of God’s materiality thus contributes subtly to the text’s critique of organized religion by suggesting that Christianity is in some sense not a religion at all.