~Luke 15:14-19 After [the wasteful son] had spent everything, there was a severe famine, and he began to be in need. So he hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will go back to my father and say: Father, I have sinned . . ..’
What we learn about food here is that in our world, sometimes it doesn't grow, and sometimes people are desperately hungry. Jesus is well aware there are famines when the situation is so bad that a Jewish kid considers eating the lowest thing imaginable: pig slop. The Lord does not answer our "why?" here, but does show a positive result. Falling into hunger and failure brings this young man to the knowledge of his folly and the realization that his best course of action is to humbly return to his father and repent.
~Luke 15.22-24 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! . . .Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again....’
The New Testament doesn't have a lot of references to eating beef. I don't think it was a daily food like the oft-mentioned bread. But clearly here, beef is the "let's celebrate" menu item of choice. Good eating for special times--more desirable than eating goat, for example, which is part of the complaint below.
~Luke 15.28-29 “The older brother became angry and . . . answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you . . . . Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ’
