Together we Sup

He also said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.”’ So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

“Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant. ‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

“Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’

“‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” Luke 15:11-32 (CSB)

Perhaps one of Jesus’ most well known parables, the Prodigal Son speaks for itself and is of course about God’s overwhelming mercy for the lost, with a side warning for the merciless rigidity of the older brother. 

On the road to Jerusalem, Jesus made a point to spend time with, eat, drink, and stay at the type of houses that most people wouldn’t dare stay at, and it caused a stir. People were arguing and people were talking. The type of people that are socially acceptable to spend time with, to eat and drink with, are always those who represent the values that we aspire to.They have what we want. They’re the ones that people want to eat with. In the highly religious and rigid Ancient near east, that was people who displayed exterior characteristics of religiosity, while shunning those who fell short. Divorced? Tax Collector? Forget about it, shun them. 

Is it that different today? 

We might be far more lenient towards sexual purity and the love of money in our culture, but that’s not what Jesus was addressing with the parable. It wasn’t to accept people as they are, in some kind of live-and-let-live approach to life. Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors because he wanted to draw them to health and wholeness. To repudiate their choices like Zacchaeus will when we meet him in upcoming days. Jesus ate with the lost because he saw them as his prodigal children who he hopes would find their way home. He wasn’t affirming their lostness, he was saving them from it.

Is that why we go to dinner parties and cocktail parties? Because we hope for the spiritual renewal of the hosts and we dream of talking to them about the depth of their despair, offering them a clearer vision of God’s purpose for their lives?

And who is it that we won’t eat with? Who is beyond the pale for redemption in our own society? 

Those with different political party affiliations? (I”m sure God is very glad and he really needed you to vote the way you voted. Really. He has no other way to save creation but your ballot and opinions). 

What about criminals? The poor, and hopeless? Desperate asylum seekers? Have any of these tasted from your pantry or sipped your fine vintages? 

The dinner table continues to be representative of our political, moral, and spiritual life, and who we eat with represents what we truly value. Perhaps, this Lent, consider eating with someone you wouldn’t dream of eating with, and try remembering why Jesus did so as well. 

And, in the meantime, we might all revel in the fact that our Lord, the true King of the Earth, would debase himself so much to be able to do so for us. Because he sees us as his lost children.