Today's podcast for 'Reading Luke in Lent' looks at Luke, Chapter 5: 27-39.
This is the first of the meals or banquets in Luke’s Gospel. Each meal is a foretaste of the Last Supper. In this passage this is apparent in the second half with the reference to bridegroom being taken away and then the new wine which echoes the new covenant Jesus will make (this is also the first parable in Luke’s Gospel).
Jesus is the bridegroom, who has come to redeem, and so now is the time for feasting. Jesus chooses to eat with sinners because his mission is an invitation to repentance. Levi (or Matthew)responds to that call by ‘leaving everything’.
'Reading Luke in Lent' is a series of simple podcasts for the Lenten season offering a daily reading from St Luke - covering the Gospel from start to finish - from Ash Wednesday to the first week of Easter.
