and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry
The father has already interrupted his son's confession with a robe, a ring and sandals. Now he gives one more order — kill the calf, set the table, and sit down to eat with him.
The calf in the story was not picked at random. Only a well-off household kept one.
Rich people kept a calf ready for any special meal. Abraham presented such a calf, tender and good, to the angels, Genesis 18:7. It is also described as "the fatted calf" in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Luke 15:23.
The best thing in the house had been waiting for this day.
The fatted calf — the thing reserved. The greater the depth to which God goes down in mercy, the greater the height to which His grace will rise. If God has cleared the ground, He occupies it.
Commentators differ here. Most read the killing of the calf as a picture of the death of Christ, on whom the restored son is now fed.
They killed the fatted calf to satisfy his hunger, and so that others too might eat in fellowship with him. The calf pictures Christ, the perfect sacrifice on whom we are privileged to feed, the solid food that gives sustenance and strength. The whole house rejoiced that the son was restored. But the food of that rejoicing is a picture of Christ and Him crucified, for this is the basis of all blessing to mankind.
Turpin, in the passage quoted above, takes it differently — for him the son had already been received and clothed before the calf was mentioned, so the calf is "the sphere of delight in which God places the saved one," not the sacrifice itself. Others tie the calf specifically to the peace offering, the sacrifice that God and the worshipper shared.
The fatted calf would perhaps suggest a peace offering, which, as we know, is the fellowship offering. For the remarkable thing is that we can actually enjoy fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and so enter this circle of holy joy that the words "Let us eat, and be merry" would suggest.
The father does not send a plate out to his son. He joins the meal. That small word "us" decides who is at the table.
Who are the "us" here invited to "eat and celebrate"? It is the Father and the returned prodigal son. God says, "I have found My delight in Him, and now you come and find your delight in Him too." So at His own invitation I feed on what the Father feeds on.
Every word in this verse is the father's. He orders the feast and calls the house to share his gladness.
No doubt it is joy to the sinner to be received, but it is the joy of God to receive him. "It was fitting to celebrate and be glad" — and not merely fitting that the child should be glad to be back in the house. The father is the happy one. The return of the prodigal is joy to heaven, whatever men, whatever Pharisees may think about it.
The meal is not a preview of heaven kept on hold. It is the son's present share in his father's gladness.
It sets out the joy of God reproducing itself in all who are there. It is not a sketch of what we shall taste when we go to heaven. It is the spirit of heaven made real now on earth, in the worship of those who are brought to God. It is not at all a question of what we were, except to heighten what grace gives and makes us. Everything turns on the excellent efficacy of Christ and the Father's own joy.
The story tells us when the rejoicing started. It never tells us when it stopped.
Feasting had to take place, so the fatted calf was to be killed; and throughout the house gladness was to reign. "They began to be merry." But there was no end to it. We learn what caused it, and when it began, but never when it ceased.
- Reserved — the household fattened one calf and kept it back for a great day; God's best was ready before the son turned home.
- Killed — most read the slain calf as Christ, the sacrifice the restored sinner now feeds on. Others read it as the sphere of delight God brings him into.
- Shared — "let us eat" puts the father at the same table, feeding on what the son feeds on.
- His joy first — the son's gladness is real, but the father is the happy one; the reasons for the feast are all spoken by him.
- Never ended — the rejoicing starts here on earth, in worship, and Scripture never tells us when it stops.
for this my son was dead and has come to life, was lost and has been found. And they began to make merry.
The father has just called for the best robe, the ring and the feast, and now he gives his reason. Two questions follow: in what sense was a living young man "dead," and whose joy does this house celebrate?
The father is not describing a burial. Commentators tie the word to the son's whole time away from home.
It may help to see what "dead" really means. The father was not saying that his son had been physically dead and buried, but had been dead to him all the time he was in the far country. So it was with us. We were very much alive in this world — Scripture says we "walked" in it — but quite dead in relation to God, without one movement in our souls towards Him.
That description is not reserved for the worst people. It is the verdict on the whole race, and it names the very people God offers His favour to.
But who, and what are such? The lost and dead (Luke 15:24). That is the description given us by Him who came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). How many answer to this? All of Adam's race. By nature, none of his children are morally in any other class. God offers a share in His favour to such people. On the lost and dead He can freely bestow it.
Some read the returning son as a believer who has wandered and come back. The wording of this verse rules that out.
Verse 24 proves that this case is one of a lost and ruined soul being brought to God and saved. He was dead, having no spiritual life, but now alive. He was lost, totally away from God, but now found. You could not say these things of a believer who simply needed restoration. "And they began to celebrate." Such joy begins with conversion and goes on for eternity. Eight points describe the conversion of the young man: revived, remembering, resolved, repentant, returning, received, restored, and feasted.
The son comes home confessing, with nothing to offer. What he receives is the full outfit of a son.
Grace brings us into the nearer and better relationship of "sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:26). The prodigal only enters this state when he finally comes back to his father, confessing his sins and casting himself upon divine grace. The best robe, the ring on his hand, the shoes on his feet, the fatted calf — all these belong to the relationship of grace, and to nothing else. They belong to the person who is born of God by believing in the name of Jesus. It is God magnifying Himself to the lost.
One small word in the invitation shows who this meal is for.
Christ is the fatted calf of Luke 15. God says, "Bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate." Who are the "us" here invited to "eat and celebrate"? It is the Father and the returned prodigal son. God says, I have found my delight in Him, and now do you come and find your delight in Him too. So at His own invitation I feed on what the Father feeds on.
Once the son is home, the story stops talking about him and starts talking about the father.
When the son comes to the father, you never hear a word about the son — plenty about him while he is coming, but now you hear about the father and his joy in having him. The poor prodigal was happy enough. Yet it is not said to be "fitting to make him happy" — he already had the best robe. What is fitting is to celebrate and be glad, for this son of mine was lost and is found. He tells it to us so that we should know it.
The chapter sets two "beginnings" against each other.
The wayward and repentant son pictures both in one — he was lost and found, dead and alive again! In the third part we see fullness of joy reached. The once repentant sinner, now clothed in the best robe, stands in his Father's presence and calls Him "Father" in a new way. We are then told, "They began to celebrate!" Earlier it says, "He began to be in need!" That beginning ended when he came to his father, but the other knows no ending.
- Dead — not buried, but with no life towards God at all; alive in the world, without a single movement of the soul toward Him.
- Found — this is a soul saved, not a believer tidied up. You cannot say "dead, now alive" of someone who only needed restoring.
- Given — robe, ring, shoes and calf belong to grace alone, and are God making Himself great in the eyes of the lost.
- Shared — the calf is Christ, and the invitation is "let us eat." The Father invites you to delight in what already delights Him.
- Endless — the son's "began to be in need" ended at the father's door; the "began to celebrate" has no ending.