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One of the complaints brought against the Lord Jesus was, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). This criticism of His eating with sinners drew forth the three parables in Luke 15. The publicans and sinners were the lowest class in Jewish society. The publicans were Jews who collected taxes from their countrymen for the Roman Empire. They were much despised for their disloyalty and dishonesty. Yet Jesus chose to feast with them and with those who were commonly called sinners. This eating declared that the Savior would not only save them but also spread a feast for them. Such behavior offended the Pharisees and scribes, who were part of high society in Jewish culture.
Who is eligible for God’s salvation? What standing do you take when you come for salvation? God does not offer salvation to Pharisees, kings, presidents, or even gentlemen. Salvation is only for those who come down and take the position of sinners.
These three parables give us a threefold picture of God’s seeking of man, with the last one as the consummate one. The parable of the lost sheep tells how the shepherd leaves his ninety-nine sheep and goes in search of the one missing. This is a picture of the Son as the good Shepherd, accomplishing redemption for us. In the second parable the woman lights a lamp and sweeps her house in order to find her lost coin. We sinners, chosen by God, are the coin. We were God’s possession, but we got lost. The woman is the Holy Spirit, sent to enlighten the house, our inner chamber, in order to find us. The last parable, that of the prodigal son, brings in the Father, who received the returned sinner.
The Spirit’s enlightening work is based on the foundation of the Son’s redemption, just as the Father’s receiving of the repentant sinner is the fruit of the Spirit’s seeking.
As we pointed out in the previous chapter, it was not until the third stage of eating that the promised goal of God came into view. The two earlier stages were not complete without it. With these three parables, the same principle applies. Not until we come to the third parable do we see a complete salvation.
A son left his father, squandered his estate, and eventually found himself in the fields feeding hogs while he himself was starving. He returned to his father in repentance, saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (v. 21).
The father’s reception of his son illustrates the full salvation that is ours in Christ.
The prodigal son came home as a beggar, with bare feet and pathetic in every respect. Yet “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately” (v. 20). Interrupting the son’s confession that he had sinned and was no more worthy to be called a son, “the father said to his slaves, Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet” (v. 22).
The way the father referred to this robe makes it seem likely that he had especially prepared it beforehand for the son to wear whenever he might return. By being covered with this robe, he was qualified to enter the father’s splendid home, no more a beggar but a justified son, matching his father in an outward way.
The best robe signifies Christ as our righteousness, covering us and justifying us in the eyes of God. But notice that the robe only takes care of the outward cover. It represents an objective righteousness; Christ is not within us at this point.
The slaves were also told to put a ring on the son’s hand. This is a picture of our being sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13; 4:30). The ring is like the Holy Spirit, given to us as a guarantee that we are the Father’s possession.
The sandals put on the returning son’s feet are not the same as the shoes referred to in Ephesians 6:15. In Ephesians the shoes are for standing and withstanding in battle, but in Luke 15 the sandals are for walking, for protecting the feet from the dust, dirt, and mud that come from contact with this earth.
Do you think the son was satisfied with the best robe, the ring, and the sandals? Surely he appreciated looking so fine, but he had not returned home to replace his shabby clothes. Rather, it was because of his desperate hunger that his thoughts had turned homeward, and he had said, “How many of my father’s hired servants abound in bread, but I am perishing here in famine! I will rise up and go to my father” (vv. 17-18). No outward apparel could fill his empty stomach. How glad he must have been to hear his father add, “Bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry” (v. 23)! The father was not content either, until they could eat together and rejoice.
God’s salvation is not only a matter of wearing but also of eating. Whatever kind of raiment we put on and however many times we wash ourselves, our inner being is not changed.
The fattened calf was not for wearing but for eating. Eating is the taking of something that is outside of you into you and then digesting it so that it becomes organically part of you. If you swallow a pearl, you cannot claim to have eaten it, because it cannot be digested by your body. The fattened calf, in contrast, can be eaten. It can be taken into your being and then assimilated by the body. The result is a metabolic change in you. What you eat changes you organically and metabolically. The terms transformation, renewing, and sanctification refer to this change, which comes about not by improving your outward appearance but by taking in the food the Father has provided.
Too many Christians do not realize how important their spiritual food is. Some seek the Lord for salvation or help in trouble. Their concept is to pray day and night until suddenly a miraculous experience befalls them. Then they expect a marvelous change. To hold such a thought is to be ignorant of God’s economy, which is pictured for us so vividly in this parable.
Christ’s death on the cross accomplished a threefold objective: the forgiveness of sins, the termination of the old man, and the release of the divine life. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. When we heard the gospel, repented, and believed in Him, He, based upon His redemption and through the cleansing of His blood, entered into us as the life-giving Spirit. His righteousness covered us, qualifying us to be justified by God. The Spirit sealed us as God’s possession. The gospel separated us from the world. But besides the robe, the ring, and the sandals, there is a fattened calf for us to enjoy!
Romans 10:6-10 reminds us that we can find Christ not in heaven or in the abyss but nearby, in our mouth and in our heart. By confessing with our mouth, “Lord Jesus,” we are saved. To open our mouth and pray in this way is to eat and be saved.
“Let us eat and be merry” (Luke 15:23). The joy came in the feasting on the fattened calf. Our salvation is one of eating. Christ is our fattened calf, our bread of life, to supply us and to bring us joy. In contrast to the robe, the ring, and the sandals, which are visible, the calf is eaten and disappears from sight. It is digested and assimilated to become part of the fibers of our being. Its effect on us is to strengthen, empower, sustain, support, comfort, and satisfy. Such is our subjective Savior to us. That is why eating brings joy.
You are not changed by power or magic. Your present height is probably over five feet, and your weight more than a hundred pounds. Were you born that size? Did you become that big by fasting for three days and then instantly change from infant to adult? By no means. Your growth came about gradually by regular eating. You could not have grown by eating pearls or diamonds, because they are not food, and your body could not have digested them. The fattened calf is not an empty term. It is a picture that Christ satisfies us by being taken into us as food.
Day by day we cooperate with Him by opening to take Him in as we pray-read His Word. This is the way Christ is formed in us, makes His home in our hearts, and transforms us into His image from glory to glory. As you read the Word for nourishment, take only a small portion at a time. Do not try to swallow the fattened calf in one gulp! Four or five small meals a day is best for your gradual and steady spiritual growth.
Though the eating of Jesus is the focal point of the New Testament, it has been neglected by Christians. In 1958 the Lord began to recover this. In 1965 we had a series of messages in Los Angeles on the matter of eating. Right after that, the Lord gave us pray-reading. How rich the pray-reading of the Word was in 1968 and 1969! I hope the saints will come back to this nourishing way of taking in the Word and will thus eat of Jesus as the fattened calf.
The story of the prodigal son ends with the conversation between the father and the older son. What made the older son angry in the father’s treatment of the returned prodigal? Notice that the complaint was not about the robe, the ring, or the sandals, but “You slaughtered for him the fattened calf” (v. 30). The outward gifts of the father did not cause the older son’s resentment. It was the killing of the fattened calf that enraged him.
Just as the Pharisees and scribes murmured that the Lord was eating with sinners, so in our day religious people are offended when they hear of eating Jesus. The objective teachings they do not oppose, but the subjective experience of Christ as our food they reject.
There are other parables in the Gospels that also refer to eating. In Luke 14:16-24 there is the parable of the great dinner, where those who were invited made excuses. Eventually, the house was filled, not with them but with the poor, the crippled, and even some who were compelled to attend. What a picture this is of how the chosen ones spurned the Lord’s offer of Himself as a feast!
Matthew 22:1-14 recounts that a king prepared a wedding feast for his son. When everything was ready — the oxen and the fatted cattle killed — the invited ones again would not attend, and others were found in the crossroads and invited instead. One of the guests at the table was found not to have on a wedding garment and was cast into the outer darkness. The oxen and the fatted cattle refer to Christ, who was killed so that God’s chosen people might enjoy Him as a feast. The Gentiles were sought in the crossroads after the Jews’ rejection of Him. To enjoy the wedding feast requires not only the “best robe” but the wedding garment as well, a picture of Christ experienced as our subjective righteousness.
Notice how Christ portrays His coming, in both its first and second aspects, as a king’s wedding feast for his son. Christ came so that His people might have their hunger satisfied by taking Him as their feast. That feast was opened to all when “those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). This feast in fullness will be enjoyed by the overcoming believers in the next age.
When the Lord was about to leave His disciples and return to the Father, He gave them a way to remember Him: “He took a loaf and gave thanks, and He broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. And similarly the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant established in My blood, which is being poured out for you” (Luke 22:19-20). To remember the Lord, as we do from week to week at His table, is not a ritual but a partaking of Him. The proper remembrance of Him is not to recall what He is and what He has done but rather to take Him in. The Lord’s table is a testimony of our daily living. We come together on the first day of the week to break bread and thus declare to the universe that we live by eating and drinking Christ.
Day by day we eat the heavenly food, the fatted calf, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. It was He who said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:57). We live by what we eat, and eventually we become what we eat.
How regrettable it is that in Christianity the meaning of the Lord’s table has been lost. It is referred to as the holy communion, and there is no understanding of the meaning of the bread and the cup. The table signifies that the worship of God is by eating and drinking Him, not by bowing before Him. When we eat and drink Him, He will have the worship.
God’s economy is that His people should be an eating people. This was first symbolized by the tree of life, set in the garden for man to partake of. When man disobeyed and fell under Satan’s tyranny, God stepped in to redeem him by providing the passover for him to eat of and thus be strengthened to make his exodus from Satan’s domain. In the good land God’s people labored to bring forth the rich produce, one-tenth of which they reserved, along with the top portion, to eat before the Lord in their feasts. They were thus kept in oneness and sustained to build the temple for the expression of God’s authority.
In the Gospels eating again plays a prominent role. There is a fattened calf for the returning prodigal. There is a feast spread for God’s chosen people, who reject it and thus open the door for the Gentiles to partake of it. By these parables and also in His explicit word (John 6:35, 48-58), the Lord presented Himself as the true food given for the life of the world. This eating of Him is the true worship, symbolized by the remembrance of Him at His table.
I hope we are all persuaded that God’s primary concern for us is that we enjoy His Son as our food. This is the message of the Gospels.
